See how I cleaned up and prettied up my potting shed area with help from my Flea Market Gardening friends. Even I didn’t know how it would turn out!
I posted a picture of my terribly messy potting bench area on our Flea Market Gardening Facebook page and asked for help from all of you! You leaped in enthusiastically with all sorts of ideas and suggestions. You all helped me and I took a couple weeks to follow your advice and revamp the whole spot. Here is the awful “before”:
Why do we pile things up against a wall like this? Good grief, Marie!
I bit the bullet and cleared everything out of the area, which is on the side of our 8×16 ft shed. It looked worse than before! This shed is seen as you enter the back patio area and where friends usually arrive. Distressing! I read through the comments again that the Flea Marketers had offered and went out to look over my stash of junk behind the goat shed.
If I seem to be over-interested in junk, it is because I am, and I have a lot of it too — half a garage full of bits and broken pieces. … I do have a genuine and mostly miserly interest in worthless objects. My excuse is that in this era of planned obsolescence, when a thing breaks down I can usually find something in my collection to repair it — a toilet, or a motor, or a lawn mower. But I guess the truth is that I simply like junk. — John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley
Before moving from Fullerton, a small suburban city in Orange County, California to here, when I’d find an old wheelbarrow or old window in the trash, I would snag them and carry them home. I once made my walking partner, Dori, help me carry a nice wooden screen door home to our houses which were set opposite each other on the street. One trash day we found two identical wooden birdhouses, one for each, and an old ladder for her garden (I already had several) and she was a bit more sold on scrounging. Yes, I like junk. It’s amazing what you can find when you look, and I actually can’t explain it, but I have been reusing junk for a long time in the garden.
After looking through the stash of old windows, shutters, doors …and some of the old wood found around the place over the years, I set up an arrangement of them on the bench and we (Tractor man and I) went to work putting those up and adding some shelves.
old window
shutters
black shelf brackets
old wood for shelves
Boraxo soap holder
wrought iron twine holder
Bauer pots
rake for a tool holder
mailbox
old crate
galvanized tubs
Nursery pots
too cute doodads
broken chairs
plant tags and labels
rusty stakes
broken cupboards
broken pots
broken stool
old baskets-broken
wheelie bin full of trash
old plastic pots
I sorted through all the junkola and separated the good stuff from the trash. The nursery pots that can be, will be recycled and the rest taken to the dump. It feels good to get the potting bench functional again and more presentable and I’ll post again if we make more progress. I hope to find a faucet for the sink so it can be hooked up to a hose to make the sink really useable.
it needs plants around
lower shelf on bench
hook up faucet
find a better chair
gravel ‘floor’
add color somewhere
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After seeing this, I am oh, so sorry that I ever got rid of that old drainboard kitchen sink when we remodeled our last house 40 years ago. On the other hand, I do still have the same husband...and I might not have if he'd had to move that thing multiple times.
Thanks, Kat! Yes, DO keep the husband! I found this sink next to a dumpster,...or near it, at a small nursery. They had been using it as a display and when I offered twenty bucks for it,...they said yes! Sold! ~~ Sue
Good to see this post! I worked on my garden shed some more today ...it's coming tog! Like you, I'm sorting good junk & bad junk (is there such a thing as 'bad junk?') Nah...I'm passing on some of my 'extra junk' to Goodwill. Love all your shed came tog w/all the hard work of you & Tractor Man!
Jeanne, I'm collecting your shed fix up photos....we'll share them all...soon! :-) Sue
Looks great, but how about a burlap skirt around your sink? Stick it on with velcro that way you can stash other pots and bags of dirt out of sight but not out of mind. Because no matter how much you get rid of stuff, more stuff seems to always take its place. At least that's what happens at my house and garden. Thanks for sharing--Susan B.
A burlap 'skirt' is a great idea,...easy to staple up and easy to draw aside to reach the storage. Thanks, Susan...
P. S. I love your quote from John Steinbeck. I'm saving it in my "Words to remember" file. :+)
It's comforting to be in good company, huh? To be kindred spirits along with John Steinbeck,...who'd have thunk?
I just discovered you through Pinterest and am thrilled. This is the first full article I've read and can't wait to see the finished product. Please let me know if I've missed any 'in which I clean up my potting shed' follow ups.
I'm so happy!
Christine
I'd add color by painting the wooden trellis-y thing and the shelves. Yeah, old wood is kinda vogue - but you'll get a few more years out of the piece if it's painted with outdoor house paint.