Potting heaven: my dream secret shed

I am a gardener.  I love my garden and I garden most days, certainly every week.  So if I asked you to guess what is in my garden shed you would logically assume it was pretty much dedicated to gardening equipment, right ? Wrong. Here’s what’s inside our garden shed:

• Bike x 6 (but only 4 people in our family)
• Kids’ bike seats, spare bike wheels, bike rack for car (can you see a pattern emerging here?)
• Huge shelving unit full of paint pots, power tools and general DIY stuff
• Endless outdoor toys
• A table and old cupboard doors in storage (why?!)
• Barbecue
• Lawnmower (OK, that’s a gardening thing)

So where is all my gardening stuff?  It’s tucked into a tiny corner of the shed, all jammed in and haphazard, because there is no room for my hobby in there.

To add to my general sense of chaos when trying to find what I need to do some gardening, the shed also looks less than lovely.

It ticks all the ‘meh’ boxes: painted a typical shed colour (‘american tan’ springs to mind), cobwebby, unadorned, unloved and dull, dull, dull.

So when I saw that Amanda from the Ana Mum Diary and Tiger Sheds are asking bloggers to style their own secret shed, I didn’t need much encouragement.  Pinterest is such a great place to start with this kind of project, I’ve spent hours happily browsing lots of inspiring ideas.

It’s probably no surprise that my dream secret shed would be just for me and my gardening.  I love the chaos of a busy house with young children, but by nature I’m a quiet, organised person and the noise and mess just isn’t my natural element.  I need a little quiet time on my own now and then in order to feel like me.  I think this is why I’ve always loved gardening so much actually; for me it’s the perfect way to calm my mind, focusing on soothing hands-on tasks while connecting with nature.

I would make my dream shed a place of order and calm, with a singular focus.  Somewhere for me to escape the chaos of family life for a little while, somewhere where the only mess to clear up is made by me.  Somewhere to enjoy my hobby, but also a place from which to enjoy our garden.  It would be practical, but also beautiful, inside and out; it would enhance our outdoor space.  A real indulgence.

This Multi-Store model from Tiger Sheds would be a great option: plenty of room for potting-up and seed sowing, a separate area to organise all my tools and equipment, and lots of scope to personalise the outside to suit our garden style.

Inside I’d use the separate storage area for all my garden tools and equipment: I’d really go to town with the organising so I could find what I needed at a glance.

Source: thegardenglove.com

I’d have a wooden potting station where I could sow seeds and pot up plants with everything to-hand.  It would have to be pretty.

Source: Garden Trading

I’d also have a power supply in there so I could install a heated growing bench for my seedlings, this would really extend the growing season for so many plants.  Not to mention how handy it would be to make myself a cuppa while I was down there – in fact I’d like a little chair tucked into a corner for garden planning on rainy days.  Ooh I’m really getting into this now…

source: Daily Mail

I’d paint the outside a soft grey-green; no more american tan!  I’d like to paint the doors and windows in a very pale grey to highlight the pretty details, I’d use this colour inside too.  I’d decorate the outside with planters; not just on the ground but also on the vertical, I love this idea of using old crates as frames for containers.

source: flickr

There would have to be some fragrant flowers right next to the door, to give you a hit of scent every time you went in and out.

Source: flickr

I’m keen to encourage wildlife in our garden so I’d also add some pretty habitats for our wild visitors.

And last but not least, no dream shed of mine is complete without a lovely seat outside from which to enjoy the garden with a glass of wine.  Perfect.

Source: flickr

My secret shed is a real self-indulgence and as such it’s a stark contrast to our home, where every room has to multi-task to suit the whole family.  But it’s nice to dream isn’t it?   And if you offered to turn my dream into reality I’d certainly find a way to relocate those bikes… 😉