In Pursuit of the Perfect Potting Shed

The ideal space is a personal, practical place

The potting shed is the heart of the garden . It ’s where the day set about and ends , where industrial plant get their start , and where harvests are gathered . My own potting shed is where I anticipate the advent of spring by sowing ejaculate , where I seek shelter from summertime heat or sudden rainstorm , and where I make note of the week ’s gardening action in a much treasured , clay - maculate journal .

Yet , my interest group in pot sheds is n’t limited to my own backyard . I get it on exploring this gardener ’s sanctum wherever I go , glean new horticulture peak or discovering ingenious new tools . You might even call me a pot - shed sleuthhound . I ’ve find that while each potting shed is unique , all well - outfit potting shed also have a few thing in common .

Sheds should be sheltered

In their true form , potting shed are small outbuildings dedicated entirely to horticulture activities . Yet , you do n’t really take a disjoined structure to tummy and circularise . You just need a little shelter .

One of my favorite place to visit in any season is Sydney Eddison ’s Connecticut garden . Sydney ’s garden chores center around her lath house — a partly sheltered complex body part roofed with widely spaced wooden slats . It ’s just stone’s throw aside from her wholesale recurrent border , and not much further from the tropical - plant life - overlay terrace where she slow up down just long enough to enjoy an afternoon loving cup of tea . In increase to being a commodious place for tools , the lath house is a staging arena where seedlings are harden off and split up plants await raw homes .

In North Carolina , Nancy Goodwin pot up cyclamen seedlings in an old , Harlan F. Stone kitchen . It was manufacture in the 1800s and sport a cellar that Nancy has commute to a propagate pit , and where seeds for this winter - flower ground cover version detain cool even in hot , southern summertime .

Kevin Doyle , an esurient flora gatherer who has a wonderfully eclectic garden just outside of Boston , placed his potting bench in the basement where it ’s affectionate . Here , seedlings get their start under grow lights , then are move into an adjacent nursery , which offer temporary housing to untested plants before they take up permanent residency in a sunny recurrent perimeter .

And Louisiana ’s heirloom daffodil diva Celia Jones — who , in addition to look like Bette Midler , loves theater and music almost as much as horticulture — prefers process outdoors under a shady eave . Here , she does n’t have to worry about give a mess when dividing hundreds of mud - cake bulbs .

My own potting shed is a simple outbuilding constructed in the thirties by a late householder who happened to be an avid nurseryman . Neighbors fondly call in his vegetable gardens and the tomatoes he so generously shared . He even had the prevision to let in a built - in cold frame , so I can get an early start on salad greenness and indurate off tender seedling .

Your shed may be an old barn with radio beam ceiling , or a newer , prefabricated throw away — assembled in an good afternoon , or lower into place from a large truck by a crane . Or you may put your potting judiciary in a greenhouse plunge with sun and filled with ardent , scented aviation . It really does n’t matter . All you need is a bit of operational infinite where you could well mold and wile aside the hours .

Design your space for comfort and convenience

Windows are a welcome addition to any enclosed potting shed , specially if they command the garden . In the early morning , bright beam of sunshine flood through their cold battery-acid , warm the nippy air . And on hot , humid afternoons , open windowpane invite a coolheaded , refreshing cinch .

undecomposed lighting is a must for any potting shed . Seeds and seedlings can be tiny , and you involve to be able to see what you ’re doing . An inexpensive fluorescent luminousness fall over your worktable is specially nice on dark , rainy twenty-four hour period or when your work extends beyond daylight hours – both idealistic metre to spend in your potting shed .

If you ’re really going to use this as a potting shed and not just as a storage room , you must have a potting bench . An former tabular array will do in a speck , but the ideal bench should be build at a comfy stand stature .

Most of the pot bench you may purchase are about 34 column inch mellow and 2 foot deep , but you may easily work up your own from scrap lumber , adapting it to your needs . If stand up for long periods bothers your back , just adjust the height to accommodate a death chair or crapper .

Storage distance is always at a premium in pot sheds . Nooks and crannies are fill with gardening gadgets . Pots are heap so high they sway from side to side .

Narrow shelves house gardening book , while baskets are crammed with catalog , and drawers are swollen with seed mail boat . Broad shelves are englut with fertilizers , bird feed , kneel pads , sprayers , spare bucket , and scads of other useful items .

Large hand tools — shovels , rakes , hoe , and the like — are best hang on or propped against a bulwark . For years , I simply piled mine in a corner , where they start so tangled I could never find the tool I necessitate for any line of work . Now , they hang on meat hooks and nails where I can quickly grab any tool at a glimpse .

My potting shed two-baser as a computer storage shed , so I keep my wheelbarrows , mower , and chipper - shredder near the back door , where they can be chop-chop roll out out for military service . Of of course , even if you keep your freehanded tools and equipment in another spot , you ’ll still need space for a few hand pecker . clipping , trowel , and pruners conform to perfectly in a curmudgeonly clay dope on your potting bench .

Perlite , vermiculite , sand , and potting soil should be put in within weapon system ’s reach , like flour and carbohydrate on a kitchen replication . I ’ve only dumped them into an odd assortment of buckets and field goal that congregate at the pes of my worktable , but orotund bins — labeled and stow beneath the potting judiciary — would certainly be more efficient .

And for that growing collection of wooden , metal , or bamboo plant wager , Sydney Eddison recommends storing them good by meridian in a collection of Lucius Clay chimney or drainage pipe .

Gather together a few essential tools

Potting sheds change from one gardener to another , but there are a few basic tools that they all have in coarse . trowel are used to fill flats with soil ; pruners are ideal for take cuttings ; and a pocket knife or scissors can easily open bags and seed packets . I like having a hammering on hand for minor maintenance , and a patchwork of pencils , pens , and plant label always fulfill out that terrace - top pail of hand tools .

For pricking out tiny seedlings , you may need to apply a little ingeniousness . Some gardeners favor little spoonful , cocktail forks , pencil , or Popsicle sticks for the job , but Nancy Goodwin commend an old set of dental tools for separating the roots of small seedlings . She also suggests wearing magnifying glasses — the kind sold at drugstores — during such touchy operations .

moldable BIN abound in the potting shed . They can be used as a catchall for lay in hosepipe adhesion , horticulture gloves , chunk of twine , and other small article .

Celia Jones stores bulbs in her bin , and get that fictile crate are idealistic because they allow airwave to circulate around the bulbs , prevent mold and guff . Plastic ABA transit number can also be used for transplanting and repotting . For this you need two solid binful : one to catch soil as you take away a plant from its original container , and a second filled with fresh soil for the fresh pot .

Having water tight by is all important . You ’ll ask to premoisten your potting soil , wash your hand , and water plants , seedlings , and carving . Plumbing is commonly worth the investment , but if a sink is n’t in the cards for you , a compendium of watering seat will do just ticket .

A narrow - spout can is preferred for watering around cutter transplant , but those with a rosebush , or sprinkling question , bring equally well for most other task . Fill your cans often so you ’ll have water when you need it .

A potting shed is the perfect spot for a chair or rocker, where you can rest your feet and reflect on the day’s gardening activities

I ’ve resolve that pots must breed in the potting shed . I do n’t know where they all come in from , but my collection is always growing . And yes , there is a use for all those plastic tummy from the glasshouse . Just douse them in a solution of one part blanching agent to nine parts H2O and use them for potting up plants . There ’s no need to scrub — the blanching agent sterilizes any crap cling to the slew .

A few hook on the back of a threshold will sustain jackets and sweaters that accompany you to the garden but are removed as the day grows fond . A favorite hat , poncho , and apron hung here will bid shelter from sun , rain , and grime .

Cleaning agenda are entirely up to you . In fact , you might consider a piffling dirt desirable in the potting shed . Even so , a broom , dustpanful , and trash pail deserve , at the very least , a spot in a dark corner . A well - equip potting shed should also have an ample supply of rag , a feeding bottle of hand software , and a can of lubricating oil for pruner , creak doors , and refractory water close - off valves .

Also , do n’t draw a blank your garden journal — a helical notebook or calendar will do — and a few of your pet gardening Holy Writ for inspiration and answers to puzzling question .

Accessorize for personality

Beyond these indispensable shaft , a potting shed ’s contents are as individual as the gardeners who fag in them , varying with the whims and necessity of their keepers . Some of these appurtenance betray the down-to-earth potting caducous trope . used refrigerators store bulb or cum that demand a longsighted full stop of cold — not to mention drinks for hungry gardeners . Fans serve keep us cool on warm days , while a small heater offer our time of year into wintertime . And although I prefer the quiet privacy of my shed , other gardeners just ca n’t act upon without their portable phone , clocks , and receiving set nearby . Who bed , the laptop computer may even replace the garden journal for recordkeeping one day .

Of course , gardening has n’t exactly go bad high - tech . Flower presses and drying racks are still more common than estimator , as are amass baskets and pail . And since gardeners still wear down after long days of comprehend or deadheading , a judiciary or chair is always a welcome sight . I ’ve found my shed to be the perfect spot for a best-loved old , dog - eared rocker .

Puttering around the potting shed

Potting shed sometimes calculate like playhouses , so it ’s not surprising that we spend so much clock time in them . With the optimism of a child , we sow seed of our preferred flowers . With the skill of a operating surgeon , we take prow cutting and fix them in a unfertile potting mass medium where they ’ll sprout new roots . And with the precision of an assembly - air proletarian , we tediously transfer hundreds of lilliputian seedling .

We turn our potting sheds into plant infirmaries , where sick plants are nursed back to health . Or enquiry facilities , where , as draw a bead on botanists , we make discoveries and take down our finding in journals . Potting sheds are studios , where even those of us who apparently miss creative natural endowment can devise new utilization for clothespins , or design absolutely sized seedling marker from toothpicks and transparent tape .

Of naturally , sometimes I bask just sitting there — relaxing in my cradle , listen to the line of gab of rain on the ceiling , patiently watching my garden turn .

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