Gardener’s Guild of Loudonville visits member Linda Bush’s home in rural Lakeville

Linda Bush’s husband is a contractor, so she is used to him leaving all kinds of leftover building materials on their rural Lakeville property.

Last summer, she decided to do something with some of those materials. The end product was a garden shed she fashioned out of a stack of windows he had stored in their barn.

Monday evening, April 25, Bush hosted the April meeting of Gardener’s Guild of Loudonville, and explained to the 20 at the meeting how she made her working garden shed, entirely with scrap materials and almost entirely by herself.

In fact, other than observing the project with interest, her husband didn’t work on it at all. All help she received came from her two sisters while they were visiting the Bush’s home located on the south side of O’Dell’s Lake in northwestern Holmes County.

“I used scrap frame pieces, four by fours, to build a base and the corner posts for the shed, and then matched up windows and a leftover screen door for the sides, screwing the windows into the post frame and liberally caulking the spaces between the windows and frame pieces,” she explained to the admiring group of gardeners, some of whom were taking notes on ways to emulate her product at home.

“Once the doors and windows were mounted solidly, I added ridge pieces and acquired a piece of corrugated metal, but to fit, as a roof,” she continued, “and finally, I paved the floor with limestone.”

Bush is starting greens, including lettuce, spinach and kale

Now using the shed for the first time, she is starting greens, including lettuce, spinach and kale, in the greenhouse.

“One surprise I have is how warm it gets in the shed when the doors and vents are closed,” Bush said. “I managed to fry my first batch of seedlings, so now I am careful to open the screen door or vents so it doesn’t get too hot.”

She said the building project, especially when her sisters were involved, was rewarding. ‘While we didn’t see many others, we enjoyed being with each other during COVID,” Bush said.

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After Bush spoke, member Wendy Forbes shared her experiences in building a greenhouse at her home farm market west of Loudonville.

“We’ve been thinking about it for 15 years, and this year finally did it,” she said.

She has about 500 plants growing in her greenhouse now, and she said she used heat mats to keep them warm as they started.

Bush gave her presentation in her yard around her shed, but the meeting was moved indoors when rain started to fall.

Club members to plant flowers around Central Park Veterans Memorial

In the business meeting a date was set for club members to plant the flower beds around the Veterans Memorial in Central Park for Saturday, May 20 starting at 8 a.m. Members will do the three beds by the memorial in a patriotic red, white and blue display, as well as mulching and cleaning the perennial bed next to the log cabin.

President Joy Strine announced the Loudonville Club, along with garden clubs in Mohicanville and in Richland County, will host a regional meeting in October. Appointed to a committee to plan the regional meeting were Alice Sanz, Jan Coltaire, Jan Seabold and Steve Stokes.

After a presentation by Wendy Forbes, the club voted to contribute $100 as a sponsorship for the Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District, particularly its rain barrel project, which will be displayed in Loudonville’s Central Park from June 16-22.

The SWCD is also holding farmers’ markets in Central Park on Fridays, May 6 and 20, June 3 and 17, July 8 and 22, Aug. 5 and 19, and Sept. 9 and 23.

Sharon Brewer announced that Gardener’s Guild members were invited to attend a program on daylilies hosted by the Art of Gardening Garden Club in Ashland on Wednesday, June 1 at 10 a.m. at the Peace Lutheran Church in Ashland.

Strine said she has purchased door prizes from the club that will be awarded at upcoming regional and state meetings.

New members Guinn Bandy and Cindy Maxwell were welcomed into the club.

The next Gardener’s Guild meeting is Monday, May 23 at 6 p.m. at the home of member Carol Reinthal, 22365 Wooster Road, Danville (Jelloway). This is the club’s annual plant sale, and members are to bring plants to sell to each other.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Gardener’s Guild members marvel at shed made from windows