This week, Team TCV headed off to a nursery school err…somewhere. Unfortunately, small children terrify me and made me completely forget where it was we went. Someplace in Gilmerton, maybe? And, as a result of my misadventures with the camera a couple of weeks ago, there are no photos this week either.
On my visit to the site on Wednesday, one of the first things that became apparent were two large circular holes in the turf. Initial fears that this was the start of some fearful alien invasion where soon alleviated, as it was revealed that this was the work of the Tuesday group. These circles were going to have piles of soil mounded on top of them to create what I believe is going to be a sensory garden. Today’s first job was to start creating these mounds, with Tommy, David and Willy cheerfully shovelling and barrowing top soil from where it had been delivered but wasn’t needed, to where it hadn’t been delivered, but was needed.
In the meantime, me, Victoria and Dave started work on building raised beds to go along one edge of the site. With Dave using his magic sawing arm to cut the wood to size, myself and Victoria started to assemble the beds. This went brilliantly well, with absolutely no problems or hitches whatsoever (and if you believe that…) Once the basic shape of the bed had been created, Dave used his special yellow spray-paint (to match his special yellow T-Shirt) to mark its position out on the ground. The barrow brigade then took a break from hefting the humus around to come and cut and turn the turf where the bed was going so that grass doesn’t grow up through it.
After lunch, with the first bed finished and lined, the barrowers shifted the attention of their mud moving, to come and fill up the first of the beds, while we got on with building the second one. On the whole, construction of this bed went considerably better that the first, apart from one minor mishap where we screwed the corner battens in the wrong places. Chivalrously, I tried to pass the blame for this onto Victoria, despite it actually being all my fault. With the turf turned and the bed lined, it was ready to be filled, a job we very thoughtfully left for the Thursday group.