Save Money build your own sandpit

Sounds good in theory doesn't it? saving money by building your own sandpit rather than buying a generic prefabricated one from the shops. I talked the talk with my partner Tim and convinced him that this was the best idea, with the small disaster that was the onsen... I will leave the tale of that little interlude in my life for another day. Convincing him could have been considered Divine intervention. The area that really should have been done first was an eyesore to anyone arriving at the property. This picture is it after I had already done battle with the lantana that had sprung up and the deadly nightshades that needed a garden saw to get through the trunks. As you can see there is now bananas, right next to them you can only just sorta see what first greets visitors, a lovely compost heap, twin bed corrugated iron one. All the gardeners that visited were suitably impressed, others, hmm. Time to tidy up what will forever more be know as the bank area.

I went with an idea that I think holds merit. Why plant a just a tree when you can plant a tree for being a tree and for offering produce. The bank plantings were wide and mostly food trees, well known ones and more obscure ones too. The ones that don't produce a harvest that are on the bank are either; self seeded rain forest trees, we have a nice little cork tree. Or tree's like the port wine that were planted for their scent and lush foliage. Most are trees that will give a yield. Like all my gardens its a work in progress.

Once I had battled the woody weeds the black/green ants we so adore here, NOT! I planted with the vain hope the shade that would soon ensue would kill all the giant seteria. Still waiting for that. Tim and I discussed where the sandpit should go and we both decided that a good clear view to the front veranda was essential.

I didn't want any old sand pit, hence my avoidance of the prefab ones. I wanted a sand pit that years on would sit be in use, 'collapsed sand tunnels the grave for many a matchbox car'. That kind of sand pit you use to hang to get around to your friends house to play in. So with that in mind I worked with the general lay of the land. I needed to dig a perimeter trench to place the old fence posts I had decided I wanted as the walls for two reasons.

1. They are hardwood and will last at least as long as my son wants a sand pit.

2. It matches in with the rest of the garden walls, I use a mixture of natural bush rock and these fence posts.

3. They would certainly be strong enough once concreted in to hold the weight of the sand.

4. As my son was very young at the time use of higher fence posts at the rear discouraged him from wandering off in the macadamia orchard.

Like most areas around the house the digging was horrendous. The weight of a D9 compacting the soil in the workable areas of the house garden are iron bar jobs. As the sandpits front boundary was on the area where the trucks turn it was even more compacted if that is possible. Once I had the walls up then it was simply a matter of lining the inside as high as I wanted the sand with weed matting. This stops the sand leaking out the gaps in the fence. I used a large rhombus of old carpet under the bulk of the sand too. We have red soil here, I wanted to stop it mixing with the white sand. My son is very fair too, we insist on a hat etc outside but the shade sails provide even more coverage. Poor Mandarin isn't appreciating it however. I went with thicker stay posts to hold the sails as we can get really strong winds here too. The hardware was very helpful with what I needed there. As for saying money;

The posts were free basically, we recycled all the fence posts we had from dismantling the cattle paddocks.

The carpet at the bottom of the pit was free too, our local carpet place would have had to dispose of it.

The concrete to set the fence posts cost 4 20kg rapid set bags

The weed matting I bought I think that was four metres I bought all up

The Sand was 2m square, bought again

The Sail logs were all bought they weren't expensive

The stainless steel fittings to hold the shade sails were all bought

The two shade sails were bought

Cheaper than buying your own. NOT ON YOUR LIFE.

but it was fun, looks better in my garden than a prefab one would have and ITS HUGE!!!

My son loves it and that's the important part