Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Garden Shed

The Garden Shed / Chicken Coop is finished. Tim and I each have one part of the project left. His is the chicken fence, and mine is the window shades in the garden shed to keep it cooler in the summer.

So here is the Before when we moved it from the house next door (that we sold to Mike and Shelly):



And the After:



It has doubled in size, and Tim has finished the walkway and the deck so that we don't have mud splashing up on the siding, and we aren't tracking in all kinds of dirt. You can't imagine how much dirt sticks to dewy work boots. Because of the electric lines being dug in, there has been a nice patch of dirt right in front of the door for months.



See the apple tree in the tube in the foreground? That is one of the scions I sent down to Horse Creek back in the spring of 2009. It is growing by leaps and bounds and we had to add to the tube to keep the deer from trimming it. The second one is in the foreground of the picture below and is growing, but not as vigorously.



The gravel right behind the shed will be part of the chicken run, and the mulched area is my "perennial foods" garden where I relocated my strawberries, rhubarb and horseradish. Next spring I will add a row of asparagus. I decided to leave my first asparagus bed where it was to see if it can't make a go of it since it seems to be improving now in year 3. The Rhubarb has more than quadrupled in size since transplanting, and the Horseradish has come back to life.

Tim went above and beyond the call of duty inside the shed. We chose maple cabinets from the discount outlet and bought a small refrigerator which is great for storing "excess produce". Aside from a few cucumbers, it mostly holds beer, wine and mixers. It does make it nicer to grab a refreshment when working or socialising outdoors, and cuts down on the foot traffic in and out of the house.


Tim removed the center of the face frame and reattached it to the right hand door so the base cabinets open all the way making it easier to tuck all my larger items away.


The long handled tools are hung on the opposite wall, and the third wall has commercial shelving for storage of tomato ladders, window boxes and other plant supports.



I have a few neat garden collectables to display in here, but we haven't gotten around to cutseying it up yet.

5 comments:

  1. gorgeous. perhaps nicer than a lot of people's kitchens =)

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  2. Wow ! Add your garden shed to my growing list of "envious" ! I WISH our new barn was that close to being done, especially given that on Saturday the first group of horses is heading to the new farm.

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  3. There is a little tiny snag to having a garden shed this nice. Before I got a door mat, once I actually kicked my dirty boots off... to walk into the shed. And I don't think I can pot on that counter. I did once. We'll see. I might need an outdoor bench

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  4. Ya that might be kind of a problem ! LOL !

    Since he seems to be getting close to done up at your house, I think Tim ought to just go ahead and move down here for the next couple of years. We'll think up some snazzy title for him which will hopefully overcome his starvation wages. I will have the snazziest horse barns and run in sheds in the state of Tennessee. Sounds like your main job will be making sure everyone has removed their shoes before entering my pristine new barns. I'm warning you right now that I will almost certainly be your biggest challenge...this said tongue in cheek !

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  5. Oh - it is just adorable!!! You could rent it out to the chickens!!!

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