Potting Shed Arrives!

 

My Forest Garden 2.4m x 1.8m (8ft x 6ft) Potting Shed came today. My four hour delivery slot that I got yesterday in a text message, was narrowed to a two hour delivery slot for today via email and a tracker provided so I could follow progress of my shed as it was on its journey coming to me.

Our allotment is tucked away such that back gardens from domestic housing are around it on 3 sides and a four story block of flats is on the remaining side. Until they put in a drive to our timber gates, you would not have realise they were gates, you would think it's just a timber fence. I did send a "how to find Mill Green Allotment" document that I created that has plans and photos of the entrance to Forest Garden to give to their driver Brad. I was given Brads name in the email sent to me this morning from Forest Garden.

When I arrived at the Allotment I found an empty squad car parked on the drive in front of the allotment entrance and drop off and pick up area (we are not allowed to call it a car park as other Allotments in the borough would also want one if we did)

So as you can see in the photograph above, even trained observers missed the point that it's actually an access point. I honked my cars horn a few times hoping to draw PC Plods attention that they were blocking the drive.

With the modified four story tower block and the new development on two sides there were loads of empty parking spaces, that PC Plod could have parked his car in. It could be that even they will get a ticket for parking without a residence badge displayed or registered, and they just didn't want the paperwork, or they were just plain stupid!

Despite keep beeping the horn, no bugger comes to see why I was honking. In the end you have to ring the police and ask them to track down the officers on their talking broaches and ask them to come and move it!

After about ten minutes two very young looking coppers came strolling up the road from Mill Green and smiled at me and said " We know we could have parked in one of the parking bays!" I just smiled and nodded as he had admitted his stupidity!

With the panic of the entrance being blocked over I parked my car, opened the inner gate and set about trimming the Hawthorne bush back so if the driver Brad wanted to back down to my plot, he could do so without damage to his lorry.

Wally had just arrived before Brad did in his 3.5 tonne open flatbed that I had requested rather than the 7.5 tonne lorry which about the size of a refuse collection truck.

Brad decided to unload the lorry in the car park as there were three of us and the distance to the plot which thankfully is the first one from the gate on the main path, So we just walked in the shed parts to my plot. The shed comes in easy to handle small sections so getting them around the base I have created was very quick and easy.

Once we had dealt with the shed, Brad asked if I was expecting anything else as he had two more items for me? I informed him that the potting shed comes with two sets of two-tier modular plant staging that can be positioned in a row in front of the window. 

The Potting Shed is a new item that he had not delivered before, and he was not aware that it is included in the purchase price of the shed, but thankfully they were marked up and listed to be dropped off with me.  

The floor comes in two parts and we laid that on the prepared base and it fitted like a glove. We then stacked the walls and windows & two staging's up against the wall and the gables and front windows against the hoops on square foot gardening bed 2.

As advised in the text message yesterday from Forest Garden I put the roofing felt away under cover. I put the polycarbonate windows and the opening windows and their frames in my greenhouse so they would not get damaged or taken/ blown away. I also put the bag of steel plate connections, nuts, bolts and screws and assemble instruction in my shed for safe keeping and to keep them dry.

Later in the day Forest Garden telephoned me to make sure that I had the elements that were not on display in the photograph their driver took, which I thought was a really nice touch, and customer service.

Brad backed out of the drop off and pick up area, and I shut and locked the gates.

Up to now we had been very lucky with the weather as the probability of rain was very high, but it had held off. We stacked all the parts up against the wall. Again advice was given in the text message in the form of a Top Tip:

If the weather is extremely cold or wet, please cover your OSB roof boards and put your felt indoors until you use.

Wally offered to lend me a tarp, so we stacked everything up against the wall and covered it with a tarp, until I can get my son-in-law and daughters down to give me a hand erecting it. Gnome

Gerald the potting shed Gnome is finally happy that the potting shed is now here and so am I. You can't see the smile on his little face in this photo, but it's there

I really can't wait to get the potting shed assembled and get growing in it.

As we finished covering it up, the rain started so we retreated to Wally's shed, I brought some snacks from my shed as it is too small for us both to sit in and Wally made some coffee and we sat and chatted until there was a break in the rain, and we could both get on with some work on our plots.