Sheds for every garden
Every garden needs a shed, says JENNIFER STACKHOUSE
Agarden of any size usually has a shed. It may be holding up a climber or sitting neat as a pin down the back behind the clothesline and beside the compost heap. We have four sheds in our large, old rambling garden in Tasmania, and
I love them all.
There’s a wood shed and a lean-to, where the push mower, wheelbarrow and a ladder sit. My husband Jim also uses it as the spot to smoke the trout he catches regularly in nearby Lake Barrington. Next to the lean-to is a building that’s almost too cute to call a shed. Dubbed the ‘Old School House’ by our property’s previous owners, it was their kids’ playhouse. They added a small verandah, which is a top spot to sit to admire the garden. Digging further back into the property’s history we’ve discovered that this little building was a small dairy, where the milk from the house cow was turned into fresh butter. It now stores most of our garden tools. There are shelves and hooks to keep it tidy, so it’s easy to find what’s needed.
Our final shed is adjacent to the chook yard and vegie garden. It was the obvious space to store the chook food and a few extra tools, stakes, twine and netting, so we have them handy when working in the vegie patch. Once a bland metal building with a skillion roof, a coat of cream and green paint means it now blends in with the house. It’s also in a sunny spot, so I am training climbing roses over it for further concealment.
His Orangeness (Leo, the cat) enjoys it as a place to perch in the sun and watch over the garden and his flock of chooks.
I am not alone in loving my garden sheds. Gardening Australia presenter
Tino Carnevale loves the shed in his Tasmanian garden so much he’s written a haiku-inspired poem in its honour.
“My shed, my shed a place to rest my head that’s not my bed” - Tino Carnevale
RENOVATE, DEMOLISH OR REPURPOSE?
Our sheds add character as well as functionality to our garden. It’s worth doing the minor repairs needed to keep them waterproof and functional. Often sheds appear very run-down, but before making the decision to demolish your shed, consider whether it might be able to be repaired as a quirky garden feature.
If demolition of an old shed is on the agenda, or if you’re planning to repair it, it’s important to have it checked out by an expert to see if it contains any asbestos before starting the work.
Just about any structure in the garden can be repurposed as a shed, from the kids’ disused cubby to the old outhouse. If you can stand up in it, then you can turn it into a garden shed.
Not far from us is a garden that has a gypsy caravan as a shed. With its pot belly stove, it’s a very cosy shed that’s more for comfort than storage. Even grander is Gardening Australia presenter and regular contributor Sophie Thomson’s old railway carriage, which she has repurposed as a shed and workshop in her garden at Mount Barker in South Australia.
CHOOSING A NEW SHED
We inherited our sheds, but in a new or renovated garden the shed is likely to be a new build. Choosing what to build won’t be easy, as there’s a shed-load of sizes and designs available. Where budget is not an issue but aesthetics are, employ an architect or builder to design a bespoke shed to match the look of your house or garage. For a simpler and cheaper version, select one of the many off-the-shelf options available. Off-the-shelf sheds range from simple Zincalume or steel sheds, which are
available as flat-pack kits in a range of sizes, to fancy timber constructions made from treated pine, western red cedar or other timbers. There are also heavy-duty plastic sheds. Sheds are available from specialist manufacturers or hardware stores. Delivery may be extra, depending on how much you’re spending and how far you are from the nearest distributor.
A basic metal garden locker or small shed with a flat or skillion (sloping) roof that’s high enough to stand in starts at around $300 to $400. For a shed that has space for a workbench and plenty of equipment, such as ride-on mowers, prices range from about $600 for a modest 3m x 3m x 2.1m shed to $1200 or more for a 4.5m x 3m x 2.1m shed.
Generally timber sheds cost more than metal sheds. Small cedar shed flat-pack kits cost about $700 to $1000, and larger sheds about 4.8m x 2.5m x 1.8m sell for more than $4000. Timber sheds usually include a window, either in the door or wall, and have skillion or pitched roofs.
Plastic sheds, which are made from polypropylene resin or polycarbonate, are lightweight and easy to manage. They are reinforced with a metal frame (either steel or aluminium) and have an in-built floor and provision for shelving systems. Prices start at about $500 to $700 for a small shed, and rise to more than $1000 for a shed that measures about 2.4m x 2.2m x 2.1m.
When you are deciding what to build, consider how handy you are. Sheds require two people to erect them safely, and demand prior building experience or experience with tools. Most shed suppliers offer help with construction or can recommend a builder. It’s probably about a day’s work for a builder to put a simple flat-pack shed together, especially if you need a concrete or paved base, or require piers or foundations for a wooden shed.