The weekend progress

So it definately has been a busy week on the site of Ellerslie. A lot of the exhibition gardens are taking shape nicely and look superb. Ours on the other hand is still looking rather empty as it has been a week of finishing off of the half finished bits and bobs at the flat. Here is our Jenga planter box which managed to eat up a bit of time but is now complete along with... the dominoes, the donkey kong garden, the paving and the lighting. We have locked the pavers into place with pavesand.
Our find of the weekend is the coffee table that we found at a 2nd hand store that is perfect for our light and sand table.
We look forward to bringing everything onto site over next two days, the weather appears to be looking very good for the week which will help in the build up. Starting to feel the pressure with only 8 sleeps until judging.

Connect 4 pics

The Connect Four in construction.

The almost completed board.

Well above you will see our main structure for the site is ready to go which is great, and the cushions even fit perfectly into the holes! Today we managed to begin the assembly of the planter box which is coming along, Almost finished. Have set out a timeline for completion of all the bits and pieces so that we stay on track. With the inclusion of Uni work into the equation time management is becoming more crucial.

Plants are needing water 2-3 times a day in this heat in particular the sunflowers, summer has finally decided to arrive of course. The heat is making the lettuces grow far too fast, at this rate they're all going to be eaten before the show even begins.

Well there is only 14 sleeps until judging now, it just gets a little more daunting every day!! (Where has the last month gone?)

Finally the last team member introduction

Name: Megan Inder

Age: 33

Hometown: Balclutha

Background: I grew up on a dairy farm before heading off to Lincoln to study horticulture, afterwards working in Japan, Christchurch, and South Otago in varying jobs. Went to England for a couple of years to work, and in my spare time travelled around Europe, returning to study Landscape Architecture back at Lincoln.

Why Landscape Architecture: I have always been interested in horticulture and design, having had the opportunity to design some friend’s gardens, and enjoying the process, I decided to go back to school to study.

What Ellerslie means for me: This is a great opportunity for students to get a name out there, there are sure to be potential employers at Ellerslie. For me this is an opportunity to meet these people.

After Lincoln: I would love to work with rural or ecological landscapes, hopefully being able to work (and travel) overseas.

Inspiration drive for Ellerslie: Many people have lost the art of face to face communication, this garden will hopefully inspire people to converse with others the memories they hold within themselves.

Crippled team member

Bad news on the Ellerslie front today, Josh managed to tear 3 ligaments and is on crutches!!! Rolled ankle while playing twilight league hockey for the club team. Not a very exciting injury but the swelling is very impressive. Slightly inconvenient, he is very frustrated and has been demoted to painting duty for the week. Fingers crossed he heels fast.

Also on the jobs front, we have haunched the pavers so they are set in place, the connect four board is COMPLETE!! Our next big endeavour is the planter boxes which has caused many headaches over the weekend, a few minor domestics within the group but we have come to a meutral agreement to create jenga raised beds.
Over the weekend we also picked up lighting, more paint and a ladder (poor elderly guy was quite attached to it, didn't have the heart to cut in half in front of him so took it a bit down the street before halving it...eeek)
Plant update: Sunflowers starting to look like flowering so they might be a little early, heres hoping at least a couple out of the 26 will last long enough.
Looking forward to big day tomorrow. Will upload more photos soon.

Long day at the office (Day 5)

Well just got back to flat from site at 9.30pm (the first of many late nights on site), have taken a shot its a bit dark so its a bit hard to see the progress. We managed to get most of the paving down today which looks pretty good from an amateurs point of view, here is a few shots anyway...

Painting the walls was quite a mission, who picked textured paint ?? It has got a nice affect however very time consuming as a roller does not work at all. Half way though, will get that done tomorrow.

The other highlight of the day was collecting plants from Trents Nurseries to start to look after ourselves. They are all very bright and look good at the moment, hopefully we've got the right touch to maintain that look for 3 more weeks. Amongst the perennials were 60 herbs so the back courtyard has a very nice fragrance at the moment. Well best be off to sleep, the task list for the weekend is written and growing slowly.

3rd day on site

Today was one of those slow days really which was topped off by rain, spent lots of time running around and little time building. We have however applied finishing touches to the walls to make them look slightly more classy. The site is now defined by boxing around the exterior all ready for the AP20 and basecourse tomorrow. Heres hoping the weather holds out for the next few days to dry the walls to paint.
We have picked up the ply cut outs for the main feature connect four board which looks great so very excited to see it come together.
Will upload photo when we have got more progress visible on site.

Day 2 on site (22days to go)

Today started at 7am when we arrived at Placemakers with our list of materials needed for 'The Wall'!!! Within 24hrs we have designed, built and put up 2 6m walls, not bad for us who have no idea about building at all. Our limited budget is becoming a bit of a challenge after building a fence. Here goes an image of Myles and the wall...much happier look than yesterday.

That was all we had time for today but we are excited to pick up our connect four board tomorrow and also paint to cover the ugly ply walls.

Intentions for tomorrow are huge so will be another early start. Myles quote for today:" no one should have to get up before the street lights turn off.." Hmm will have to sort that theory out for the next couple of weeks.