Birth of a show garden: 10 days to go : BUILD DAY 2

It was a beautiful sight this morning as I arrived laden with long bolts for the posts; the boys had the whole floor ply finished, the holes and sand bases finished ready for placing the bar, and the back wall frames were up. The first front post was going up and the scaffolds had arrived. Wow! It's an enormous amount of detailed work, framing up the boxes to hold up the posts. Remember, we haven't dug a hole, there's no concrete and these posts are 3.5 metres tall. It required some engineering to make sure nothing would fall down, but now it needs time to make every box to sit under floor level, solid enough to hold these posts firmly. The work on the shed will slow down now as all the prefabricated elements are in, and now we build everything from scratch.

The wall frames are up, ply is down and the first post is going in.

As the tree trunks I call our posts start slotting into their housings, we keep an eye on Phil's crane across the road and think it might be a safer bet than using the Manitou to place the bar. It's the next thing into the shed, but its location is too far in from the side of the floor for the load to be extended out safely. The manitou will tip over if it reaches that far with 2 Tonne on the end. I go and have a friendly chat to Phil, up to his eyeballs in boulders but still gracious enough to help us out. He comes over and helps us get organised to roll the crane onto the site over heavy plastic boards that protect the tree roots from compaction. Finally, we're ready to lift the slab of timber that is our bar.

The bar is lifted with Phil's crane, starting its journey into the shed.

Once the crane has it in the air, the boys fly into action to roll the legs, a couple of beefy tree trunks, onto the floor in the sand boxes that have been prepared. They aren't light and require some quick ramps to be arranged while everyone gets behind and pushes them up. Finally, they're in place in roughly the same position as they were in Benalla. The crane lowers the slab onto the legs and with a little adjustment, Stewart's spirit level announces no beer will be spilt. We've got it right...

The slab is picked up and teeters into the garden

The 'legs' are rolled into the sand boxes in the floor

Finally, the slab of red gum is lowered onto the legs.

The day is warming up with searing sun now making a spot in the shade difficult to find. We're all keen to get a roof on the shed so we can work in shade. The team keep going on the posts, and by the time I leave, most are in position and it's looking good. Stewart spent time finding just the right trunks with branching at the top to form natural bracing. It really is a masterpiece, this shed.

INTRODUCING THE TEAM: