End of Spring Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

Loving your shed Compo! It looks huge & very tidy!

Maybe time for us real guys & girls to come clean & post a shed pic! I get shed envy with pics of those ones with a cosy arm chair with a log burner, but then reality sets in to say a) No time to sit down & b) Where would I put the bits & c) the shed would burn down!

[Compo]

Thanks Westi, I have difficulty keeping the shed tidy but enjoy it when I do. I have got into a habit since lockdown, I spend very little time in the house having just retired. I have little hobbies in the house, although I have a decent garden and workshop, so I just head for the plot mid morning with food for lunch, sometimes I cook an egg or make a toastie as I have a single burner stove up there. Also an outside firebox to cook stuff on and boil the kettle. I keep all the timber folk throw away and spend a lot of time sawing and chopping for the stove and firebox. In the winter I light the home made woodburner.

Then of course there is the plot. Digging, weeding, planting out and watering. I tend to spend a whole day there most days during this lock down time. Radio is great and the BBC sounds app on my phone along with a small blue tooth speaker which makes the entertainment options pretty good. Before social distancing my good plot buddy and I used to share tea and coffee making duties. Now we make our own and chat at a distance of 3m at least.

Having a routine is important, and the weather has been kind. But with a big shed, I can make kindling or pot on plants. This year I have a lot of seeds from those gift packs you get from folk with packs of seeds inside a tin mug or something. I have sewn all of them, so now have a mammoth task of potting on and of course I won't be able to plant all of them so will look forward to passing them on.

Very grateful for the weather, but of course we need rain. I have one of those cubic metre tanks and a big water butt that I have filled with rain water from the greenhouse and shed roof collections, but am now down to half full. We have a tap but I fear a horrendous water bill this year, however with a plot fee of £20 it could double and I wouldn't complain!!

So there you go thats' a brief blog of my lockdown life. My other hobbies include swimming 2 to 3 times a week 40 plodding lengths. Canoeing in my canadian canoe and teaching the Junior Sea Cadets aged 10-12. All of those hobbies are now curtailed so the plot is a life line.

I am also really happy to have found the kitchen garden forum again, and it is good to be acquainted with you all again.

Until the next time!!

[Shallot Man]

Loving your shed Compo! It looks huge & very tidy!

Maybe time for us real guys & girls to come clean & post a shed pic! I get shed envy with pics of those ones with a cosy arm chair with a log burner, but then reality sets in to say a) No time to sit down & b) Where would I put the bits & c) the shed would burn down!

Sorry to say. In my shed if you can't reach it from the door. Don't bother.

[Compo]

Let's have your shed pics then!!

[Stephen]

I didn't take a shed pic today but will tomorrow.

Lots of frost damage - to those who didn't fleece up. Blackened potato leaves (they will recover) on the next door plot, also I fear for his beans.
I think there is a little frost damage to my spuds despite the fleece over the top.

And another equally cold night forecast for tonight.

[Monika]

I noticed some rather sad looking potatoes and especially marrows/courgettes on my way through the village today. Our potatoes were covered with thick bubble plastic but it caught some of the side leaves even then. So I have doubled the thickness for tonight!

[Westi]

I shall take a shed pic tomorrow! It looks better from the outside than within & limited mod cons but 50% better than last year! Too small but already over the allotted size on my contract, but on it's last legs & I note bigger ones popping up now we are under a new council. I'll limp it through until it's demise maybe 2yrs, but any new one is going in the same spot as great to hide stuff behind! (Well only if I don't need it during summer then the adders are not happy)!

[peter]

Let's have your shed pics then!!

IMG_20200513_211218.jpg (5.48 MiB) Viewed 2859 times

IMG_20180805_192235.jpg (4.34 MiB) Viewed 2859 times

IMG_20180805_192227.jpg (4.61 MiB) Viewed 2859 times

IMG_20180507_190625.jpg (4.04 MiB) Viewed 2859 times

IMG_20180805_192158.jpg (4.28 MiB) Viewed 2859 times

Four phases of shed, two DIY shop sheds came with the house side by side down the boundary from the attached garage
Moved one down the garden and cut the usable remnants of the other into a portaloo sized allotment shed.
Then we got a play shed for the kids halfway between the shed and the house.
The greenhouse was dad's 1977 retirement present and was dismantled and moved when mum died in 2007. With the inheritance we extended the house and ran power to the greenhouse via the playshed.
I acquired timber via Freecycle over a period and the playshed came down, usable bits reused, electrics in a plastic bag in a dustbin and the first rectangular shed was born, with a workbench.
Over time it got to half an hour unpacking to get the necessary tool, half an hour to put it away, then need something else. Plus the original, with the house, shed had died, been replaced with a freecycle metal shed that was used on my allotment for a few years, moved home reroofed, found impractical.
So a shed extension was grafted on across the gap in between and absorbing the space the metal shed had been on.

Voila the three level, mains powered, insulated, double glazed, four door, mancave with wife's exercise equipment area. About fifty percent recycled materials, corrugated roofing, ply lining, ply floor and some structural timber was new. One window was bought as a mis-sized cheapo from a glazing firm, the rest were off the house together with the doors. The aluminium doors are easy to spot the double doors are wooden and match the cladding, between the tall white window and the bottom door.

Then there's the three pallet base logstores....

[Shallot Man]

Peter. Re your shed photo's Can I book the first two weeks in August.

[Stephen]

Shallot Man, that's very similar to my thought; it looks more roomy and luxurious than many seaside cabins!

[Compo]

SNOOZE BOX.jpg (341.64 KiB) Viewed 2841 times

SNOOZEBOXHITCHEDUP.jpg (196.67 KiB) Viewed 2841 times

Peter that is an amazing man cave complex, a positive labrynth, so well done you. I take it your veg plot is at home?

I had a standard dellopated 8x6 when I first took on the plot, I am struggling in mind mind to remember what it looked like. I will try and find a picture of it being taken apart, largely it became a bonfire. I built as big as I could get away with on the new plot, with all new timber from Mole Valley. My 'van' is my skoda octavia estate roof rack. And the timber cost about £700 and was screwed together, not a nail in the structure to allow for a possible future relocation. It has a metal corrugated roof with that square profile stuff. It means I never have to worry about roofing felt.

The new shed is about 11ft by 8ft. and given that it is my current escape pod from the world, it is cheap at half the price.

I am absolutely fascinated by sheds, so much so that I have built a camping shed. A small sleep trailer for my canoeing trips

[Compo]

I must apologise if I'm over posting. I'll take a breath!!

[Primrose]

Lovely pictures. I think there must be an awful lot of people who have taken solace from their sheds/caves or whatever during this surreal lockdown period.

[peter]

Peter that is an amazing man cave complex, a positive labrynth, so well done you. I take it your veg plot is at home?
......
I am absolutely fascinated by sheds, so much so that I have built a camping shed. A small sleep trailer for my canoeing trips

Eighth semi-detached from main allotment entrance, back garden gate into park and six foot from a crushed stone footpath leading to the cycleway crossing the park and the allotment main gate is opposite the footpath. The cycleway is our vehicle access to the allotment site and my garden gate is about 75 yards from the allotments gate.

Likewise Compo, my friend has better sheds then me by far. Drawers with screws sorted into partitions by metal, head type and size in one. Another down the bottom of his long garden has a gas bottle log burner, wood lathe, saw bench.......

[Stephen]

My shed.
Packed and unpacked.