The Garden Shed

Entitling this section “The Garden Shed” is done for the lack of a better term. While a garden shed is a luxurious item to have for more reasons than I can count, it is hardly a must. A corner of a garage, even somewhere outdoors with a minimal amount of shelter works fine for most gardeners. The issue is many fold but the primary reason for a protected and sheltered area is that we will have invested at least some money and effort into purchasing tools and other items relative to the gardening work. Having a sheltered area to put them inside – or under – will allow these tools to last longer and be more durable.

Tools are designed for years of wear but the ravages of weather can be fast acting and destructive. Rust can ruin a steel tool. The wood handles on most long handled tools can lose tone and temper, be more easily broken and just pick up slimy stuff like moss and algae when exposed to a combination of rain and shade – or even rain and sun. Care of tools is an easy way to extend the value of the item so it makes sense from an economic standpoint alone.

That said, a gardener eventually finds his “corner of the garage” accumulating things. As we progress over the course of a year, items like chemicals and gas cans, additional purchases for landscaping, say, or for arbor care mount up. Your small section begins to become larger and soon you find a tripping hazard when walking through. Staking alone – for tomatoes, Delphiniums, even Roses – take up space in Winter as well as the plastic wrapping for them, the fertilizers and Rose Dust and so on. There does come a time, in almost every garden, when a garden shed becomes a desirable item. With smaller yards now becoming the norm, it may be that this is less a problem than when larger expanses were ‘de rigueur’, yet, even here, a separate space is at a minimum a nice thing to have.

The garden shed, in the end, allows us a number of options and definite pluses:

1. It is generally closer to the garden.
2. It protects tools from the elements, including any gas-powered tools that unquestionably require protection, as well as their fuels.
3. It is a place away from the house where we can safely store these fuels, chemicals and fertilizers that can cause either illness on contact or that can be obnoxious in terms of smell.
4. A shed allows us to organize better. It can have racks where we put hand tools and smaller items which get lost in the clutter where they share space with household items.
5. A shed also gives us a place where we can store purchases made – like garden art, even plants (temporarily) – and know where to find them away from the kids and animals which we try and protect.

Sheds come in many forms – prebuilt - plastic, fiberglass, and aluminum, even wood, already manufactured in kit form and ready to assemble. The enterprising gardener can also build sheds from wood . It does not take much to put one together and they do not need to be of house-like construction. Something solid and stable, perhaps painted to reflect a whimsical gardening delight is all it takes. A roof, in the end, is the most powerful accoutrement. Doors and walls can even be optional.