In addition to the general richness of our recent visit to the Kultivator farm, we had the great experience of collaborating with Kultivator on building a bicycle shed with a green roof. We offered our labor in exchange for being fed and housed for the weekend. It was wonderful to be able to add to the eclectic environs of the place.
The bike shed was designated as the, “Bloomshed”, after we had gone by Trish Roan, a visiting Australian artist who was helping out at the farm. The Bloomshed was built entirely out of re-used, scavenged, and recycled materials. The wood for the frame came from salvage Kultivator had purchased prior to our visit.
The picture above shows Mathieu Vrijman, of Kultivator, preparing the foundation of the shed using a very old Swedish system for building on ground that is extremely hard to dig in because of all the stones in it.
The system is as follows:
You place stones, in this case cement and rock blocks, on the ground and then lay heavy beams across it. The structure gets built up from this. The weight of the overall structure holds it in place.
Mathieu and Malin Vrijman framing the bicycle shed.
The Kultivator farm is next door to an organic dairy farm. The dairy farmer, Henrik, has to clean his equipment using a non-toxic, highly concentrated soap. It comes in these big plastic containers our daughter is carrying in the image above. Henrik had a large number of these empty containers in a loft space just above where the milking room is. We cleaned out the containers, cut them in half, and used them as containers for plants on the shed’s roof.
We used a jigsaw to cut the containers in half and then drilled holes in the containers for water to drain out.
After the shed was framed, we put waterproof tiling on the top. We wanted it to wisk away any water or moisture so the bikes and lawnmowers stored underneath would stay dry. The cut-in-half containers were added after this step was done. Here they are laid out so we know how many will fit on the roof.
Below are images of the completed Bloomshed complete with stairs. Their are plans to make walls on three sides to protect from the fall and winter weather. But, for the summer, this is adequate shelter.
Completed Bloomshed photos courtesy of Kultivator.
