JOB DONE!
After getting a chance to attach the iron angle legs this morning, I went to work stripping out the area where these stands will call home.
Of course, I was so intent on getting this started that I forgot to take a photo of the area before all the plants were removed. The pics make the area look smaller than it actually is.
Gravel raked and leveled, pre-emergent herbicide applied to limit weed growth for the next month or two.
After a lunch break, spent on the phone arguing with a useless online pet chemist supplier, it was time to bring these stands into the nursery. With every staff member, including me, having back issues at the moment, this posed a bit of a problem. In the end, it was decided to strap, raise and cart them in on the forklift to make things a bit easier on the wounded workers.
Now it's time to redisplay all the plants that call this area home. This is the plant/nursery equivalent of car detailing for me, where I tinker and tinker until I like what I see. This is the best bit about projects like this; when the ideas in your head come to life and the reason why you have worked so hard up to this point.
It's all a balance at this point. Maintaining easy access for staff and customers around each display, grouping plants together for ease of shopping, grading plants in height so that they look pleasing to the eye, positioning taller plants where they can be tied or supported on windy days, fitting everything into the space allocated. If it doesn't look right or fit, you do it again until it does.
As you can see, the sun had begun to fall by this stage of the day, giving you an idea of how long this sort of thing takes. And I still have some tweaking to do before I can be 100% happy.
Of course, it never stays looking like that for long; sales, a windy day, incoming stock ect are all variables that mean things can change on a daily basis.
Now, I just need to have my back crunched back into shape and it's onto the next project........................it never ends!