Home DIY

I've done 2 - one on my bike shed, one on my garden office.

The layers are pretty much the same on both:

1. waterproof layer
   
2. geotextile blanket
   
3. reservoir sheet
   
4. substrate
   
5. gritty soil mix
   
6. plants
   
   

With the bikeshed (4m^2 ish), I did it all from scratch, including planting out the seedum. It loos really good - photos in Summer, when it's in bloom.

It's very low maintenance, but there are some things that I could have done better (had I known about them!) - such as the need to stick down the waterproof layer, as it stretches and contracts a lot, which pulls it away from the upstand. I also need to re-soil some bits, and re-plant, to account for plants that don't thrive so well, but also because cats and squirrels, and at least one owl.

The garden office (25m^2), I bought pre-grown mats, as planting out that much would have been completely impractical. It's not had a summer yet, so I don't know how good it will look. However, it has survived a winter, and looks fine for it.

It uses much chunkier / deeper reservoir sheet, and there is less variety in the plants, but otherwise is pretty much the same.

Come spring, I will go up and plant out some more variants (transplanting from the bike shed, which I will replace with spare sedum mat that's just lying on the lawn at the moment).

Carrying a few hundred kilos of substrate (bagged myself from a builders bag) was "fun", as was carrying up the rolls of matting.

Rough costs:

The bike shed must have been £150 - £200 maybe?

The garden office, £750 from Sky Garden (who I would buy from again). I paid more overall for pebbles, just to pretty things up a bit more.