Pimp my potting shed

Now here’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a decade.

Well, it was either that or sand back the flaking paint off the front of the potting shed.

I had originally planned for it to age quietly into the typical grey pine wood agricultural building. But as the wood was treated when it was built and a glaring yellow, it had to be covered up.

Our lovely neighbour Jean Daniel chose the colour as he was the one who objected to it most. And sadly his choice of bandaid (sticking plaster) pink did not meet with my approval.

But the poor man was in shock. This incomer had decided to pull down a perfectly serviceable chicken shed and put up a huge monstrosity. Right near his track to his house.

I recall this was my inspiration. From an image in a book that showed a design in 1805. I carried that picture around for years and years.

I wonder if I can rummage that far back in time to show you the potting shed being built. 2010.

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Yep. Pretty bad.

I had forgotten I tried to paint it a sensible green at first. But that was vetoed.

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You can just glimpse my neighbour’s house in the background in winter.

Luckily from the front (which I refused to paint on the grounds I didn’t have a ladder tall enough to reach) it has faded nicely…

To a sort of mucky grey with plenty of greenery.

You’ll have to take my word for it; I can only find this distant shot from 2020.

But this week. This.

Ignore the muck on the right hand side (I had rather hoped you wouldn’t notice that.)

Shelves. Tables where I can harden off my seedlings later in Spring. A potting shed that now wears its pots on the outside.

Etienne put up the shelves in the time it took me to wander about looking for brackets in the cellar.

And then made two natty bench tops from off cuts of wood from the stables.

I had to buy more trestles from the scary Madame Felix. And then spend a merry few hours digging out plants in front of the shed, and trying to level off the sloping bank.

And yes, you can see how well I avoided my gaze by NOT sanding the hideous front of the shed.

For an encore I replaced the concrete brick steps with chunky wooden ones.

And then positioned (and almost destroyed my slowly healing tail bone injury – fell off a platform painting in Australia) my new treats….

… right at the entrance to the shed. The most elegant trip hazards I own.

When the weather warms they will be out.

These two beauties (a lime and a lemon) are a Sorry Gift from David. While I was away he accidentally set fire to the garden.

Oh, wait. I didn’t tell you about that!

You will have to tune in another day.