Is A Potting Shed The Right Shed For Your Needs?

Picture of the perfect potting shed

A potting shed is invaluable to anybody with a green thumb that spends time in their garden. As much as a gardener loves to get up close and personal with nature, it's vital to have a place to store and organize your tools.

It's also nice to have a place to work protected from the elements – i.e. rain, wind, etc.

Potting sheds vary in size and function and you can store all of your gardening related items in one. It's great when everything is stored in one location. No longer running from the garage to the storage room looking for your gardening tools.

I store fertilizer, lime and potting soil, flower pots and grass seed in my shed. I also have a lot of large items like, a lawn mower, wheel barrel and seed spreader. This doesn't finish the list, but I also have a grinder with power that I can use to sharpen my gardening tools and lawn mower blade.

It is nice having all of your tools and gardening items stored in one place. And a nice try location to put them when you are finished gardening for the day. And of course, a space to practive your green thumb and pot plants and accomplish other gardening tasks under a roof. Which is great if is is raining or nasty outside.

But where on earth do you get a potting shed? There are quite a few options available:

You can purchase one at a building center like Home Depot or Lowe's.
You can order a kit online and have it delivered to your house.
You can purchase storage shed plans and build it yourself.
You can design and build it yourself using shed plan software.

With the help of a garden shed kit and online design guides and instructions (there are many potting shed plans to choose from), you can plan out your ideal potting shed and then install it! Best of all, your potting shed can always be improved upon. For example, maybe down the road you'll want to add on more shelves, etc.

As you sketch out your ideal potting shed, complete with that classic potting shelf, consider your individual needs and desires. What tools do you want to keep there? How tall are you – how much space do you need? Draw to your heart's content! Then use the World Wide Web to track down other design schemes to see how they compare to yours. Ideally, you want a potting shed that is functional, stylish, and comfortable.

Unlike a typical storage shed, a potting shed should give you plenty of head and legroom so that you can be productive in it. And you'll also want it to be aesthetically pleasing – as you'll spend a lot of time there.

But how exactly do you go about building a potting shed? Sometimes you can simply renovate a shed you already have – installing a potting shelf inside it. In this case, tape measure will be your best friend. Make sure your shelf is the exact height and depth as you need. Cedar wood is one of the top materials used for potting shelves, as it's easy to find, durable and good-looking.

You can of course order a potting shed kit, complete with a suggested design, detailed instructions you can follow, many of the supplies as well as a list of other supplies you'll need. If you're a staunch do-it-yourselfer, you can probably take a suggestion, but gather all the supplies on your own, letting your creativity run wild. But if you're not skilled at such things, use the kit as your guide and enlist the help of a friend or two. In no time, your potting shed will be up on its feet. Just remember that the more preparation and planning you put into your potting shed, the better.

For more information building your own potting shed for the garden, please read this article on:

Selecting storage shed plans

Different styles of wood sheds