Things have been moving right along in the garden this week. Tomorrow or Monday I will try to update about the paver laying process, which started this morning and is moving quickly. If the rain holds off, we might be in good shape by tomorrow afternoon!

The concrete top of the demonstration table is still curing. The signs say “do not touch” but I’m not sure how many people that is actually deterring at this point!

Except for the concrete that is still curing, the table is done! Doesn’t it look great? Obviously we’ve still got some work to do on the floor of the classroom space.

The drainage crew was back and added another drain line along the south edge of the garden. This line is technically at the same grade as the others, but because of the minimal grade between the line and the sidewalk, it isn’t going to be buried nearly as deep. This is going to change some of our planting plans along the lattice wall, but getting rid of excess water is more important. I will say that there was almost no water standing in the garden this morning after all the rain last night. I hope that is a sign of success!

The drainage crew also put down additional filter fabric around the drain lines which was then topped with a couple of inches of gravel to cover the whole area. The fabric and gravel cover the entire walkway areas between where the beds will be and also extend a couple of inches into the raised bed areas to provide a nice solid base to put the raised beds on.

Meanwhile the crew doing the pavers was marking their territory and putting down the first layer of base material to prepare for laying pavers.

The next step was compacting that base material down to get ready for the sand layer. This morning they are putting down sand, leveling it, and laying pavers. I’ll have those pictures and more either tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning!