Naomi Slade gets smart with her storage!
I’m clearing up with a small, stylish shed
There has been unrest in the household of late. Due to some slight interest in gardening on my part, there’s a necessary and perfectly reasonable accumulation of paraphernalia by the back door. Yet apparently not all is well. Harsh words such as ‘untidy’, ‘scruffy’ and ‘in the way’ have been bandied around. What’s a girl to do?
Having my stuff to hand is important. I can’t store it under the deck: it’s damp. And the crawl-space under the house is too awkward. So the solution is clearly to buy a shed. But what I want is the sort of shed that takes up minimal room in the garden and has maximum internal space – ideally some sort of modest box that has access to a void in space and time and would also accommodate a home office… but I don’t think that the chaps who made the TARDIS have expanded to the garden shed market, despite clear commercial potential, so the mundane must suffice!
It’s taken me a while to decide, as size, height, quality and style are all considerations. I don’t want anything tickytacky that will rot in the rain and it has to look pleasing. But there are surprisingly few really small storage units out there – and in a way it’s fortunate that the eye-wateringly expensive one I fell for is too big for the space.
Finally, I have plumped for a simple sentry box style. Dinky it may be, measuring just 78cm (2½ft) wide, 54.5cm (1¾ft) deep and 178cm (5¾ft) high, but it fits very neatly into the space by the back door on the left-hand side of the deck; doubling as a convenient screen between us and the neighbours.
A nd there’s space for spades and loppers, plant food and string. Seeds can stay inside the house until it has proven itself – they need cool, dry storage and I’m not prepared to risk it. But it’s an interim location for lifted dahlia tubers – at least until it gets really cold.
P ractically speaking, it was easy to erect in about an hour, and while I’m not wild about deep yellow, it was rather a bargain at £149.99 from www.greenfingers. com. Most importantly, the end of the kitchen is tidy, my spouse placated and domestic harmony restored!