Garden Potting Shed

Garden Potting Shed

A garden potting shed is a must have accessory for any avid gardener. By putting a nice garden potting shed out in the back yard, gardeners in all areas of the country can enjoy gardening activities almost year round. A garden potting shed can be used for simple garden tool and supply storage, but it’s ideal for starting plants from seed, overwintering your flower bulbs, and sometimes even using as a small greenhouse to get a head start on springtime.

Potting sheds don’t have to be elaborate to be useful of course. Some gardeners have simple, small little tool type sheds or boxes in the backyard which they use for their gardening supplies. These smaller utility sheds are wonderful for keeping all of your garden tools together, and it also gives you a place to store extra gardening supplies such as empty garden pots, mulch, fertilizer, and potting soil.

If you have the opportunity and the space though, you really should buy or build a full fledged potting shed for exclusive gardening use. Once you’ve had a potting shed, you’ll really wonder how you were able to do without one for so long.

Potting sheds provide you with a variety of uses all rolled into one. Most potting sheds have the ability to store all of your large and small gardening tools, plus they have a work bench area which is excellent for repotting plants, updating your garden journal, or organizing your seeds. A potting shed often has shelves and storage bins scattered around it too, so you’re easily able to keep track of where everything is and reach it when it’s needed.

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Garden Tip...

The earth in vases of plants that stand out in exposed places, will rapidly dry out; if shells or fine gravel is laid over the surface of the soil, they will prevent it from "baking" after watering, and hold the moisture much longer than without. Try it.
~ James Sheehan
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If you have a potting shed large enough for a potting bench, then try installing some storage bins below the bench area. This will allow you to put mulch, extra potting soil, or even flower bulbs into the various bins and have them within easy reach of your work bench.

Your larger garden tools should hang on the wall, or hang from hooks in the ceiling so they’re easy to reach yet still out of the way when they’re not needed. Smaller tools can be placed into empty flower pots, or placed on shelves along side your work bench. Some smaller hand tools such as a trowel can also be hung from hooks on the wall too.

When planning the building of your garden potting shed though, if you’re able to you should plan for one side to have a lot of glass windows so you can use it as a greenhouse during the colder months of the year. Having a small area of your potting shed as a greenhouse can be particularly pleasant because it allows you to start your gardening activities long before spring actually arrives. These types of potting sheds often have at least one large shelf near the windows too, so you’re able to sit your newly planted seeds there in the sunlight for sprouting.
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Garden Tip...

If a new lawn of any extent is to be made, it should first be plowed deep, and if uneven and hilly, grade it to a level surface. The surface should have a heavy dressing of manure, which should be lightly plowed under, and then the surface should be dragged several times until fine, and then rolled with a heavy roller. The seed may now be sown, after which it should be rolled again. The spring is the best time to do this work, although if the fall be dry, it will answer nearly as well to do it at that time. The dryer the ground in preparing it for the seed, and for the sowing of the same, the better.
~ James Sheehan
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