Who would have guessed I would miss my shed!

What with all the stripping of wall paper, woodwork, sanding and painting I have hardly had any time in the garden.  When I do get out, it tends to be just a quick look to check everything is OK and to dispose of any snails.  I am finding it very hard not to plan the garden and just want to get out there and get started. As we are having the garage demolished (the roof is asbestos, a strangely British thing), plus building an extension so we have a larger kitchen and my OH gets the sewing studio she has been dreaming about. All this means I can not plan anything until the architects have done their bits.

Instead I am focusing on the things that I can do and rapidly need to be done.  Firstly some winter storage for the plants.  I was thinking about building a greenhouse-sized cold frame out of polycarb sheeting.  That was until I priced it and found out I could buy a green house for roughly the same amount.  So while it would be great for the short time, there are probably better things I can spend my money on at the moment, (my OH seems to think carpets and furniture should be higher up the priorities).  So instead it looks like I will be adding a second cold frame to the one I usually build. I know these work for most of my plants, as it is much keeping them dry as protection from the cold.  Here is the one from this time last year, filling up ready for the front and top to go on.

There will be a few more plants brought in this winter, on special permission (I have filled out the required forms in triplicate and got them signed), so my precious plants should all be OK. It does mean I won't have anywhere outside to potter and made me reminisce about my old shed.  It wasn't big or grand, but it turned out to be very functional for storing plants both in the summer and winter. 

Many happy hours were spent pottering in there, examining every detail of whatever plants were on the shelves at the time. No matter how cold or rainy I could pop out without getting wet and the rain on the roof was very calming. For much of the year it was full of little flower spikes, often creeping up to the shelf above. 

Once the new garden is started and the workshop and green house are all in place, I will have all the space for endless pottering.  But no doubt as I walk down the garden in the rain to get to them, some part of me will remember back to my first little shed and how dry it kept me.