Spring in the Potting Shed

My little Potting Shed is where I make my messes....plant my plants, keep my pots, soil and fertilizers. It gets all the yard things stuffed into it in the winter and then came Spring...the big clean out. I only have about half of the 10x16 space. When we first ordered it the shed was to be all mine. Then hubby bought a Austin Healy and the tractor and mower got moved into my shed. So I have less space. I wanted to make the best of it. It is a working shed and gets messy at times as you will see in the before. I have prettied it up a bit. I saw another blog that had a similar window treatment and the light went off in my head.

Here is the before~ I needed to hide some of the unsightly's, but needed easy access. So in the cupboard they go. Some of the stuff is going away as I try to become more organic, but it is a bit like going on a diet...I can't quit cold turkey. I got some seeds started this weekend. This is the first few nice days here. The last of the snow left my yard last Thursday. It has been colder than usual. 

...........and the after. Now maybe I have some ideas for the pool house which is a similar shed.  Hmmm.

My Potting Shed

I wanted to tell you a bit about my Potting Shed. I have been in search of pictures which I thought I took. I wish I took? We got our little shed to replace a small metal one we had. The old shed served us well but had just gotten ugly and worn out. We started looking around and we found a company we really liked at the Home Show in Boston. Then I saw them at the Garden Show. Finally in 2002 went to Pine Harbor Sheds and ordered our shed. They couldn't deliver until November. Darn it would be too cold to paint. I wanted to play with my shed, It is 10x16. Now I wish it were a bit bigger, but it was bigger than the old one that was like 6x8...who knew? The new shed is post and beam construction. These are some of my earliest pictures I can find...I may be missing the blue green door.

We added lights which we never had in the old one. It is so nice in the fall and winter.

 My shed sits sadly abandoned...unless I need bird food (which is daily this time of year)

 This is the piece of granite that replaced the builders ramp. I like how this looks much better.

This is my old bench that I hung onto for years until I found the perfect spot for it. Under the old window my son installed for me.

You can see it is a working shed.

This is how my shed looks right now. I am waiting for Spring because I have a few ideas....

Going Natural

Fall in New England is a beautiful thing. It starts slowly, some touches of yellow, some cooler nights. Then we start the hustle to move plants in doors, close up the pool. Pack up cushions and anything that might freeze in the pool house over winter. There is a touch of sadness over the end of summer. My gardens are going by and will need lots of clean up. Cannas need to be dug and brought in.

Then I tackle my bins of Harvest and Halloween decorations. I feel less is more these days. The Grands are getting older so I don't need the stuff I did just for them. I find I love the natural decorations so much more. So instead of fake twigs of colored leaves this year I cut my grasses and Hydrangeas, some Sedums and some Artemisia.  This is the result, my little potting shed got a decorative touch on the door and my wooden box in the kitchen received the same treatment.

We see some touches of color here, but it will be a couple of weeks before the yellow and orange of the maples shine and the blaze of red from the oaks drench the yard in their color. So I will make some more Pumpkin Bread to have while I sip my apple cider and enjoy each day because while Autumn is a wonderful time of year....it means.....dang, sniffle, whimper...that darn snow is on its way. My least favorite season.

 

It is still Autumn.

Ok, so the windows are washed and sparkling in the sunshine. I have cleaned the glass on the onion post lights and all the porch windows along with the house windows. All the oaks in the front yard are casting a wonderful warm red glow. They are the last to turn color...it starts with the maples and birch in the back that turn yellow. The red of the oaks will turn brown after the red. There is a sweet smell of Autumn in the air. Wood is stacked and gardens are almost all cut back.

As I look at the blogs I see Christmas everywhere. I want to think about Thanksgiving first. A bit more Autumn...although I did pick up some Christmas gift bags and have got my list together. I am just not ready for decorating for Christmas yet.

My kittys are staying in more with the nip to the air. I like them around the house. ~In the summer they are about in the gardens and when I go out to work they will pounce and run.

There will be snow and ice before we know it and the scent of pine will be in the air.

Let's just savor these last fall days while we have them.

My Potting Shed

This is my place to pot up plants, start plants and store my tools and garden stuff. This little 10x16 post and beam shed was built in 2004 in early November and I had to wait until spring to really decorate it. At that time we did not need to keep the lawnmower and tractor in there and it was so much better, but I love it just the same.

 After it was built my hubs added the outside light and a light inside so I can go out at night without the aid of a flashlight. The electric outlet lets me put candles in the windows at Christmas time too.

This cabinet I found in the basement of an old brick building my husbands family owned. They said it used to be a bakery and everyone thought I was crazy when I brought it home 25 yrs ago. Why did I want that crappy piece? I put it in the garage and held on to it. I knew I would find the perfect home someday! I think it was made for this spot. I love to work on it and look out the old window my son installed a few years later.
The window I too brought home when a friend had new windows installed in her 1900's era home. I put a stack of them in my car, how I wish I had taken more. I still have some in the shed waiting for me to put them to good use.

The other day it was raining and I love to go out in the garden and work in the shed. I cut some hydrangeas and used a straw base and some u pins and made this wreath. I can do many more when I cut the Limelight  hydrangea bush. It is best to work with the green stems and let them dry on the base. They are too brittle otherwise.

My cans for the birdseed and the mower and tractor, necessary evils......

Mums that need to go to the potting bench, because I like them in clay pots.

Doesn't this look better?

My stone step that hubs had put there for me.....much nicer then the wood ramp the builder left us with.

I can feel Fall in the air, we have the solar cover on the pool so it will be warm for the Grands on the weekend. Then we can have pumpkin bread and cider and swim too!  My potting shed will see less and less of me as it gets colder and the mice scurry in, yuk. My kittys better get to work, but I think they are too well fed to hunt like they should. Snow will come and we will go in there to get bird seed for the feeders and to decorate for Christmas, but then Spring will come again and there will be a flurry of activity. I put plants in there when it is too cold to be outside and I putter  in there when spring rains would keep me in. I just love my little potting shed!

I have new window boxes that I am still painting and will get some more fall decorating done as it gets cooler.  

So do you have a place you can go to do your messy chores?