In the beginning, there was a lawn. In 2014, that lawn became a garden.
The lawn was measured into a garden. Inside its perimeter, beds and walkways took shape. The first gardeners here were burning souls who trusted that their hands would transform this lawn into food, flowers, and medicinal herbs. They ripped out sod, dug rows, planted seeds, and tended what grew.
Then came the fence, and later, raised wooden beds. Fontaine Sawmill provided all the new boards. They’re hemlock, which is sturdy and weathers well over many seasons.
But nothing lasts forever. Untreated lumber breaks down, and beds must be rebuilt.
The rotten wood in the foreground are the “before” boards, from the old beds. Behind them are freshly rebuilt beds.
This essential garden rejuvenation begins, as always, with a call to Fontaine Sawmill. What happens next really needs to be seen and heard:
Once the wood arrived, it was covered in heavy plastic to keep it dry. Depending on size, these boards weigh from 50 to nearly 90 pounds each. They’re absorbent, and rain can double their weight. Gardeners waited for weather conducive to the work.
After cutting the boards to size for each bed to be rebuilt, gardeners carry the boards into the garden, one by one.
The work commences in a big way. Out with the old wood, in with the new.
Everything has been measured to ensure solid structures and a precise fit.
There was so much to do that the team anticipated finishing the rebuild in the spring. But so many gardeners showed up and did expert-level work that it all got done.
There was even time to build brand-new beds along the inside of the north fence. Four long raised beds offer more growing space for crops and less lawn to mow. The earth to fill them comes from boxes now too shaded for growing crops. Those boxes were dismantled, leaving space for in-garden storage for bagged leaves and other garden materials.
A gardener fills new beds with earth from dismantled boxes. The bagged leaves dropped off here by the wonderful City of Montpelier’s Public Works Department glow bright, giving us peak fall color all over again.
