In message , David Hill
writes
On 01/02/2015 15:59, Spider wrote:
On 01/02/2015 05:24, Beachhutdays wrote:
I would really appreciate some advice. We have a long sloping garden in
North London that slopes down (about 4ft difference in height from top
to bottom of 100ft garden).
The area ends under a huge oak tree just past our back fence. The
ground is very squelchy, being clay soil, and we have an area of approx
20ft by 30ft that we would like some kind of 'floor covering' to make it
easier to walk over and put a trampoline on. It gets tonnes of oak
leaves and twiggy bits falling there too. We also have two dogs.
We can't pave as not allowed to affect tree roots.
Does anyone have any ideas please? Gravel?? Sub base??




To be honest, I'm very uneasy about putting a trampline on such a slope.
I have a similar sloping garden in South London with trees at the
bottom (so very like yours) and I would never put a trampoline on the
sloping bank. It would just 'walk'down hill with every jump. I have
trouble just standing still on parts of my slope. Another issue is that
the platform (jumping) area of the trampolene would fill up with leaf
litter, twigs and acorns. Plus it would just get very grubby.

You could avoid harming the tree by using that end of the garden for
long-term composting and making leaf mould, plus some light storage. It
could easily be screened off and disguised by planting.

It would be much safer and more practical to level part of the garden,
making the trampoline much more stable. You could then set it on lawn,
which would be less painful in the event of a fall. I can understand
you wouldn't want the trampoline right in front of your windows but,
with a 100ft garden, you could 'lose' it behind a screen of roses,
clematis, honeysuckle, jasmine ... and so on.

A1 in 25 slope isn't that steep. Not hard to level out the base for a
trampoline which ill would pave as it wont sink in on one side and be
dangerous.
I wouldn't have the slabs outside the frame, but as there are so many
different types of trampolines, from those sunk into the ground so the
top is at ground level, some with safety netting to the full size open
sided type.

I don't think I'd put a trampoline onto slabs, I can see problems if
the slab settle and then the trampoline frame might rock. Our is just
resting ion the ground, it settles down fine.

If the garden it too slopey and require a bit of levelling (I'm
struggling to imagine what it would mean in reality having a trampoline
on such a slope), then I would make a shallow retaining wall as is
suggested in another post of sleepers, level it a bit with some MOT type
1 aggregate, plonk on the trampoline and cover with a a goodly layer of
bark chips. I might use some timbers to make an edging to restrain the
bark chips from wandering about the garden.

I second the suggestion of not putting it under a tree, as leaves etc.
are a pain, and it's shady so it gets more algae on it. It also takes
longer to dry out after rain (the mesh hold water for quite a while) I
would hide it though. !. I like seeing the kids playing (one day they
will be gone, and then it will feel empty), and also it means we can
keep an eye on it to make sure they aren't doing anything to stupid
--
Chris French