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Gardeners' musings

My garden shed

Posted by: Adam Pasco, 21 January 2008, 11.00AM

Adam Pasco in his shed Where would you be without a shed? I know you hear a lot about men (well, it is usually men) using their shed as a retreat, as a sanctuary, but I can't say I fall into that category.

Some do claim their shed is somewhere to escape to, especially at Christmas when relatives out-stay their welcome. But as a gardener my shed is entirely functional... no stove, no bookshelf, no biscuits, just the tools of the trade.

One of the previous owners of my house was an Italian family, and Gino, the father, certainly knew a thing or two about sheds. His was a pre-fabricated affair, but big... enormous... with a large concrete floor and all manner of panels and doors used to build the sides. But his shed held a secret. Pieces of old carpet on the floor folded back to reveal a deep pit. What would I discover inside? A body?

No, this was Gino's wine store. And going by its size and depth, Gino was a thirsty man!

Trucks laden with grapes turned up each autumn at the Italian deli at the end of the road, quickly carted off by residents to be made into wine. By all accounts this was a family affair, probably trodden the traditional way to give the wine its full flavour.

Sadly the wine store was empty when I moved in, and his dilapidated shed has now been replaced with something more substantial. There must be lots of 'tales from the potting shed' out there about exciting things taking place in sheds up and down the land... far more exciting than my rack of spade, fork, loppers...

Comments

  • Rhoda Dendron

    01 January 2007, 12.00AM

    If I was able to get in my shed I might be able to access all sorts of treasures. As it is I am unable to get past the wormery that my husband has jammed in there for the winter! In fairness to him I did say that after killing two lots of worms by drowning the first and then overdosing the second on curly kale, a third wormicide and the wormery was out.

    I believe there are at least two barbecues in there, various rakes for a lawn that disappeared years ago, some rather nice pots, a large colony of small spiders and a small colony of large ones. If I could get in there I might even find my husbands expensive, sharp, kitchen knife which I 'accidentally' used for dissecting some sempervivums last year.

  • Adam Pasco

    23 January 2008, 03.05PM

    If you do discover old gardening 'goodies', including seed packets, tools and packets of other products then don't be too quick throwing them away. They could have historic value, and would be worth mentioning to the Museum of Garden History (Tel: 0207 401 8865) who collect items like this.

  • g.morton cleethorpes N.E>Lincs.

    24 January 2008, 01.50PM

    a little trick I have been using for many years and one I am sure our older readers know about,to save space in your shed if you save things in jars instead of standing them on your shelves taking up space and getting knocked off screw the lids to the underside of the shelves and let the jars hang down.

  • grandiflora

    24 January 2008, 06.09PM

    I've just tidied my shed out ready for the Spring Rush! But what do you do with the dying and dead, soggy and unreadable packets of ??RosePlus, Chesunt compound (so rusty i can't get the lid off) and a real nasty left by the previous owners, PathClear (?) well it's Path something anyway and some Sodium Chloride said to get rid of all weeds between the paving on my Patio, but I got cold feet and decided I would rather not, I'll just use the expensive kitchen knife I used last year - well it's no good in the kitchen now is it?

  • uncle wilco

    25 January 2008, 11.28AM

    Adam, I run a shed empire from mine! Would you like to share your shed with our sheddies? on readersheds

  • Roger in Lyneham

    27 February 2008, 10.48AM

    My allotment shed is the centre of activity. I have a bench outside it and fellow plot-holders comes over and have a cup of tea (which I brew on my camping stove) and sit and discuss our respective plots. Plus I store all my tools, seeds, etc.

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