THE GARDEN STORY

Retail Construction Services, Inc. is dedicated to giving back.

We give back not only to those in need within our community, but also the future generations of this wonderful community. What started out as a great idea has grown exponentially and became an amazing reality. Here at the RCS Giving Garden, school groups, master gardeners, corporate volunteers, and our own employees work together for the common good of teaching children the art of gardening and the importance of healthy eating. Click Here for Full Story.

LOCATION:
Retail Construction Services, Inc.
11343 39th Street N.
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

From HWY 36 - go south on Lake Elmo Ave, turn left onto 39th Street, garden is at corner of 39th and Laverne.
From HWY 5- going west from Stillwater take right onto Laverne (near Fury dealership) garden is on the right at corner of Laverne and 39th street.

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The RCS Giving Garden

The RCS Giving Garden

2/12/10

ALC Students in Design Mode!


On Thursday, February 4th, Gim Middleton and Dan Braun from our corporate office visited the Stillwater ALC students at their school to have a brainstorming sessions on the RCS Giving Garden shed they will be building.

The objectives discussed were:
  1. All the material used will be reclaimed. They will be creating a solicitation letter to reach out to the community to collect unused & reclaimed doors, windows, lumber, etc to build the shed. RCS will be funding the entire cost to build the shed.
  2. The shed will either have a green or solar roof.
  3. There will be ample lighting to allow natural light into the shed and avoid the necessity for electricity.
  4. That adequate storage will be available for storing all the gardening tools and structures.
The ALC students are a very creative group and there was a productive exchange of great ideas. One idea was to build a smaller 2nd story with 1/2 size windows on the top of the shed that would act as a greenhouse for seedlings. Another idea placed abstract windows in interesting angles, while other ideas included making use of the back of doors for storage and incorporating a waterfall from our rain barrel irrigation system to hydrate a portion of the green roof!

The shed size needed was determined to be approximately 96 sq. ft. or 8' x 12', and Gim took the general design layout back to our offices and converted the general layout into an AutoCAD design for the students. Once the students start receiving reclaimed doors, windows and lumber from their community solicitation, they will begin the final design phase of deciding how they will be placing each piece into the design. The photo above gives an idea of the creativity that will be applied to the design.

Their instructor, Tom Wendt, will be taking the students on a field trip to a Reclaim Center in order to supplement extra materials they may need. It will be a wonderful opportunity for the students to see that when buildings cannot be saved, those pieces that can, like doors, windows, fixtures, fireplace mantels, etc, become treasures that find new homes and have new life breathed into them.

We will follow ALC's progress as the design is completed and the construction begins. We are so lucky to have this creative group of students putting their ideas together to provide the garden with this new shed. Once moved to location, it will be placed by the garden for the public to view and see what can be done with reclaimed treasures and how a green or solar roof can function in the smallest of places!