Building a Potting Shed

One thing I loved most about our garden when we first arrived, was the buildings. They added so much charm to the space and provided shelter in the rainier months. They were very old and falling down, with random panes of glass clinging on the rotten beams, and filled with many years worth of rubbish collected from previous tenants. We rebuilt the greenhouse back in February, and it has been an amazing resource for growing this season. Now, we set our sites on the potting shed…

Jim manages the allotment site where our garden is based. He is a fountain of knowledge and always on hand to help. We talked to him about our potting shed, and he said he’d be up for giving us a hand! We rallied our trusty team of volunteers and set to work. I think the previous owners of our garden had tried to restore the old shed because one side of the roof had fairly new beams in place already. We had to remove the old rotton ones, and replace with new on one side. We put up a brand new roof on both sides, and Jim popped us in some roof windows, so we can get as much light in as possible. The roof was felted, and we are waiting to put some guttering along the bottom edge to collect the rain.

Inside the shed, we recladded the walls as they were quite uneven and made out of a mixture of woods and panels. The shed already had a beautiful brick floor, which we are definitely keeping. We are going to paint the inside of the shed with Little Greene paint, that was so kindly gifted to us by Enclosed Spaces on Abbeydale Road. Now we just need to plan what is going inside the space. I’m undecided between a bench running around the edge, with stools underneath, or a big central table in the middle. Suggestions and inspiration welcome!

It is so exciting to have another dry, indoor space at our garden. It is going to be perfect for sowing seeds, potting on, and cooking up new ideas! Thank you to all that helped transform this space, and a special thanks to Jim for sharing his knowledge and time with us!