Shed - part 1

Jessica, Matt, Paloma,
Patrick and Nate: digging it.

Today's volunteer day was, as usual, amazing. Although I'm pulled left and right with questions, and as a result feel like my contribution is minimal, I look around at the end of the day and see the results and I'm always deeply impressed by what everyone accomplished.

Today, we set out to get the new shed's foundation area set up. This involved a lot of digging - out came the digging bar, and Jessica, Matt, Patrick, Nate and Paloma set to work next to the composter levelling out an area for the new shed.

Patrick, Emily and
John: pruning it.

The footprint of the shed is 8' x 4' so there was a good amount of rock hard dirt to move away from the site to get it to fit on the sloped area. Several large rocks came out, and several cupcakes were consumed as energy boosters. The dirt was spread along the pathway, and Jessica and John added a plank there to prevent it all rolling downhill.

Emily, Jason, Eddy, Maile and Carlin showed up, and Matt and Eddy went to buy lumber for the foundation of the shed. This left everyone else at a loose end so I got them going on extra tasks.

How to prune a Euphorbia, by Jessica.

The Salvia gesnerifolia "Tequila" lost half it's height, as did the unknown Salvia next to it, thanks to Carlin.  The aster Symphyotrichum novi-belgii "Bill's Big Blue" was cut down to the ground and a Euphorbia "Excalibur"was cut back to just the right level by Jessica.

Neatly bordered by John.

The Verbena bonariensis was cut to the ground and the border rebuilt by John,  One clump of the Crocosmia "Lucifer" was cut back, and many weeds were eradicated by Paloma, Emily and Maile. And the white Watsonia bulbs that had been hanging around forever finally got planted by Patrick, thank goodness. Lastly, Jason, Emily and Jessica trimmed up and planted a whole lot of Calandrinia spectabilis cuttings given to us by Anna.

Matt and Eddy came back from their little lumber odyssey with the right stuff for the job, and quickly set about installing a 10' long, 12" tall terrace parallel to the composters, held in place with rebar.

Don't they look pleased?

They flattened the area and you can see from the pics that the 4' x 8' piece of plywood for the foundation fits perfectly. Great job team - if Matt and I get a "wild hare" to finish putting up the shed I'll send out an email so anyone interested can join in. Wild hares welcome ;)