Photos: Garden Shed
Mar. 13th, 2025 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithI took these photos later in the day to show off the posts I found in the Free Wood area at Rural King. :D
See all of today's photography posts:
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Photos: Back Toward the House
Photos: Garden Shed
Looking southeast, you can see the garden shed and the hollowed ground just north of it.
Looking south, you can see the north side of the shed. This is where I'd like to put a potting bench.
Pros: It faces the old picnic table just a short distance away. This makes it the most convenient place to put a potting bench.
It has the most room, by far, of the three available sides. (I don't really want to block the front under the window, because we need the maneuvering room sometimes.)
It's also relatively sheltered.
Cons: There is a slope from the house yard down to the south lot. The hollow there is also substantial. This would require work to level it.
My partner Doug pointed out that this is also where we tend to park stuff when we move it out of the shed so we can use the shed for an activity space.
Here's a better view of the back side of the shed, looking south. There isn't enough room to show a flat view of the back.
Pros: It's a long side rather than a short side, thus it has more room.
It's fairly flat already.
We don't park things here, so it's out of the way.
Cons: It's a little farther from the picnic table.
More seriously, there is much less room here. Plenty to get a mower through once or maybe twice, but not really enough for a potting bench AND a good mow path without bushwhacking a wider space.
Even worse, rainwater runs off the front and back of the roof. There are already little ditches forming on the ground under the eaves, so we might want to add gutters to direct water away from the foundation or into a rain barrel. Having water run onto a potting bench is not good for the materials, and will turn the ground into a muddy mess. I've thought about adding some pavers to stand on, but I'd rather not have to do that immediately.
Today I found a bunch of posts in the Free Wood area at Rural King. I'm so excited. From the left there are 6 round posts, 3 that are kind of oblong, 6 half-round ones, and 2 reddish oblong ones. I suspect they're about 3-4 feet tall. I've been considering 4 feet as a section width for the potting bench. The short ones I might use for stabilization. An advantage of these thick posts is that they're unlikely to bend, even if I plonk 20-40 pounds of compost or heavy ceramic pots on them. So these would make good lower shelves for storage. And they were FREE! :D 3q3q3q!!!
The idea is to use concrete blocks for the legs of the potting shelf and boards or posts to create shelves between them. I'm not much use at carpentry but I can move chunks of things around. Jenga and Pickup Sticks and Lincoln Logs all teach valuable life skills that I used today in salvaging wood to save money.
This view also shows the south side of the shed, now looking east.
Pros: It's fairly flat already.
We don't park things here, so it's out of the way.
Cons: It's a lot farther from the picnic table, which makes it the least desirable in terms of convenience for me.
More seriously, there is much less room here. Plenty to get a mower through once or maybe twice, but not really enough for a potting bench AND a good mow path without bushwhacking a wider space.
EDIT 3/14/25 -- I thought of another possible location, along the south side of the house. A sidewalk runs there, which isn't used for much.
Pros: That area is already flat.
It's protected.
Cons: It's also under the eaves and the gutter is iffy, which means the sidewalk collects water whenever it rains.
It's in full sun, which would likely limit my worktime on warm sunny days, compared to shadier spots.
I'm not sure how wide the sidewalk is or whether this location might be viable, but it's worth considering. It would just be close to a different area of plants.
Also, a modular potting bench can be taken apart and moved if necessary, so the first place it goes doesn't have to be the last. Moving heavy concrete blocks is a pain in the ass, but doable.
I raked up this tiny mulch pile in hopes of attracting detritivores, then covered part of it with a flat piece of wood. I've been making terraria. (See the spice jar terrarium.) I have a small globe-shaped one that would benefit from adding pillbugs and, if they show up, springtails when assembled. I don't think it's big enough for a millipede, but the larger cylindrical one probably would be.
Here's a peek at the underside of the wood. I watered the tiny mulch pile and the wood to make it moist and appealing.
See all of today's photography posts:
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Photos: Back Toward the House
Photos: Garden Shed
Looking southeast, you can see the garden shed and the hollowed ground just north of it.
Looking south, you can see the north side of the shed. This is where I'd like to put a potting bench.
Pros: It faces the old picnic table just a short distance away. This makes it the most convenient place to put a potting bench.
It has the most room, by far, of the three available sides. (I don't really want to block the front under the window, because we need the maneuvering room sometimes.)
It's also relatively sheltered.
Cons: There is a slope from the house yard down to the south lot. The hollow there is also substantial. This would require work to level it.
My partner Doug pointed out that this is also where we tend to park stuff when we move it out of the shed so we can use the shed for an activity space.
Here's a better view of the back side of the shed, looking south. There isn't enough room to show a flat view of the back.
Pros: It's a long side rather than a short side, thus it has more room.
It's fairly flat already.
We don't park things here, so it's out of the way.
Cons: It's a little farther from the picnic table.
More seriously, there is much less room here. Plenty to get a mower through once or maybe twice, but not really enough for a potting bench AND a good mow path without bushwhacking a wider space.
Even worse, rainwater runs off the front and back of the roof. There are already little ditches forming on the ground under the eaves, so we might want to add gutters to direct water away from the foundation or into a rain barrel. Having water run onto a potting bench is not good for the materials, and will turn the ground into a muddy mess. I've thought about adding some pavers to stand on, but I'd rather not have to do that immediately.
Today I found a bunch of posts in the Free Wood area at Rural King. I'm so excited. From the left there are 6 round posts, 3 that are kind of oblong, 6 half-round ones, and 2 reddish oblong ones. I suspect they're about 3-4 feet tall. I've been considering 4 feet as a section width for the potting bench. The short ones I might use for stabilization. An advantage of these thick posts is that they're unlikely to bend, even if I plonk 20-40 pounds of compost or heavy ceramic pots on them. So these would make good lower shelves for storage. And they were FREE! :D 3q3q3q!!!
The idea is to use concrete blocks for the legs of the potting shelf and boards or posts to create shelves between them. I'm not much use at carpentry but I can move chunks of things around. Jenga and Pickup Sticks and Lincoln Logs all teach valuable life skills that I used today in salvaging wood to save money.
This view also shows the south side of the shed, now looking east.
Pros: It's fairly flat already.
We don't park things here, so it's out of the way.
Cons: It's a lot farther from the picnic table, which makes it the least desirable in terms of convenience for me.
More seriously, there is much less room here. Plenty to get a mower through once or maybe twice, but not really enough for a potting bench AND a good mow path without bushwhacking a wider space.
EDIT 3/14/25 -- I thought of another possible location, along the south side of the house. A sidewalk runs there, which isn't used for much.
Pros: That area is already flat.
It's protected.
Cons: It's also under the eaves and the gutter is iffy, which means the sidewalk collects water whenever it rains.
It's in full sun, which would likely limit my worktime on warm sunny days, compared to shadier spots.
I'm not sure how wide the sidewalk is or whether this location might be viable, but it's worth considering. It would just be close to a different area of plants.
Also, a modular potting bench can be taken apart and moved if necessary, so the first place it goes doesn't have to be the last. Moving heavy concrete blocks is a pain in the ass, but doable.
I raked up this tiny mulch pile in hopes of attracting detritivores, then covered part of it with a flat piece of wood. I've been making terraria. (See the spice jar terrarium.) I have a small globe-shaped one that would benefit from adding pillbugs and, if they show up, springtails when assembled. I don't think it's big enough for a millipede, but the larger cylindrical one probably would be.
Here's a peek at the underside of the wood. I watered the tiny mulch pile and the wood to make it moist and appealing.
