Shedwork

My shed at the bottom of the garden
What horrors lie behind those doors? Read on to find out... 

A little while ago Beryl 'fessed up about the sorry state of a corner of her allotment and challenged others to do the same. I told her I would soon reveal the horror that is my garden shed instead. As you can see, now's the time to do so.

My shed stuffed to the gills with all sorts
BEFORE: the view inside - I could only just about squeeze in to start sorting things out

How did my beloved shed get into this sorry state of affairs? Well, it's been too easy just to dump and store stuff in there when we've had any major clearing up to do. After a while it got so bad, I felt too overwhelmed to go down there and sort it out.

This spring I found the constant bending over pots for seed sowing and potting up wasn't a comfortable way of doing things any more. At this point the potting bench in the corner of my shed started to send out subliminal messages reminding me I have the solution ready and waiting.

Time to get cracking with that clearout now the weather's decent enough to do so...

The garden strewn with items unearthed from my shed
Starting to sort out what lies within

As well as providing a major appartment block for spiders, I was amazed at how much I'd managed to cram inside the TARDIS-like interior of my shed AND forget it was there...

  • Not one, but two tub trugs. NAH bought another two earlier this year because he thought I needed them
  • A compost bin - now added to the collection up at the allotment
  • A bag of citrus compost for the kaffir lime I had (RIP, probably because I never repotted it with said special compost), I hope it'll prove of good service to a friend's moribund citrus tree instead
  • Four cheap ready to assemble garden arches - now proven to be too cheap as they've rusted through
  • A whole mini-greenhouse - bought originally for use at peak sowing time, but that idea was abandoned when I realised the proposed location was too shady from the trees nearby. Now I'm working out how to use it up at the allotment without it blowing away
  • Lots of garden ornaments brought in for the winter
  • Enough protective fleece to cover the entire garden
  • The geological hammer I thought I'd lost
  • The usual flotsam of pots, trays, baskets, empty compost bags, supports and bits of 'useful wood for later'
  • A carload of various items for recycling or dumping - broken garden ornaments, those garden arches, empty cardboard boxes, rotted through garden bench covers, some of that 'useful wood' etc etc

The shed after its tidy up - part one
AFTER: It's not perfect, a repair to that shelf and some more storage boxes will help improve things further

A quick day's work and now I know where everything is and my potting bench can be used again. It's just as well as I potted up 180 box cuttings earlier this week. It was lovely not to have an aching back after dealing with that little lot.

Now to decide just how many 'useful pots and trays' I need to keep for later, then recycle the rest at my local garden centre.

Do you have a horror corner somewhere in your garden or allotment? Beryl and I are eager to hear your confessions...



Disclosure: This post is sponsored by The Big Yellow Self Storage Company.

Note that sponsorship goes towards my blogging costs; the words and pictures are mine. There are no cookies or affiliate links associated with this post.

Comments

  1. Margaret13 July 2017 at 16:37

    Ha - the state of my shed is often in a "can barely squeeze in there" state as well. It feels great once I clean it out and I usually scold myself for not getting to it sooner as I waste so much time looking for/getting access to what's buried in there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:23

      I know what you mean Margaret! At least I know where everything is now. I felt so smug yesterday when I fetched some of the bags I now keep in that huge green bag you can see hanging up. NAH has tackled a wayward clematis which is growing into next door's garage and I needed the bags to gather up the huge amount of clippings that accumulated on the patio. Bearing in mind my previous track record with my shed, how long this happy state of affairs will continue is anyone's guess ;)

      Delete
  2. colleen13 July 2017 at 17:16

    When I left the allotment today I told myself (as you do when you're on your own) that I really must get ithe shed sorted, even though there is a critical path which involves sorting out the cellar at home. This post not only made me laugh, it made me feel better about my untidiness. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:24

      My critical path for tidying up some of the house was getting the shed sorted out Colleen ;) I'm so glad you enjoyed this post... it's been quite a few years in the making!

      Delete
  3. Sheena14 July 2017 at 07:48

    What is it about protection fleece and bits of useful wood? Some of the useful wood has been there so long spiders have, peacefully, raised multiple generations around it so obviously only useful to spiders but I still can't bring myself to throw it out. Maybe this time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:26

      I managed to take around half of the 'useful pieces of wood' for recycling Sheena, but then I do have NAH's 'useful pile of wood' in the garage to plunder if needed ;)

      Delete
  4. Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax!14 July 2017 at 09:48

    Like Sheena the 'useful wood' and spiders attracted my special attention. I've collected loads of useful things over the years; not pretend 'useful' (e.g. because I can't bear to throw them away, but genuinely useful. The trouble is, when the time comes to use them either I can't find them or have completely forgotten they are there. And if you don't know you have something you can't . . er . . . use it. Which means they aren't useful at all. So getting rid of them makes sense - except you know that a week after you've passed them on you will find you need them after all.
    Spiders though - I like spiders. They are what makes a shed a home; caretakers for when we are boringly in our houses and doing rubbish stuff like washing up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:27

      I've tried to leave the spiders Lucy, such interesting creatures, though I did have to get rid of quite a lot of webbing which had gathered over all the other useful things in the shed!

      Delete
  5. Sue Garrett14 July 2017 at 12:47

    I posted about tidying our allotment shed recently. We have plenty of horror corners some of which I have already blogged about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:28

      Sadly my allotment shed is no more Sue as the committee asked me to remove it last year as it had got too delapidated. I'm now having a long think about what's best to replace it...

      Delete
    2. Sue Garrett16 July 2017 at 11:19

      I'd like to see any committee trying that on our site. When we had a committee we suffered a load of abuse for trying to get everyone to lock the gates. Now we have no committee - not worth the grief.

      Delete
  6. Margaret15 July 2017 at 23:24

    Our horror corner is behind the allotment shed where we dump the greenhouse staging when it has to come out to make room for the tomatoes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP16 July 2017 at 10:29

      Looking at our allotment site there are plenty of plot holders who do the same Margaret!

      Delete

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