My garden cottage has been a work in progress since I bought the house back in April.
I absolutely loved the fact that I would have a whole separate space for all my gardening tools, pots, soil, etc - it was a great selling point for me.
However.....when I closed on the house and finally got in there to take a look around...I fell right through the floor. It was a hot mess.
Don't get fooled by the photo above...that was taken after we put a ton of work into this building.
I wrote about Phase I of the garden cottage improvements back in this post and then shared Phase II in a second post, which you can view here.
Since then, there have been other updates to the garden cottage - one is still in progress, so stay tuned on that one - and one was a very nice surprise from my sweetie.
I woke up one morning in September to see this outside my bedroom window - Sweetie was having the grungy old skylight replaced in the shed - what a treat to have all that sunshine in there! And when I want to start seeds in the potting shed it will definitely help out!
We couldn't even see out of the old skylight - my sweetie tried his hardest to clean it up but it was too far gone. What a difference the new skylight made! This is what it looked like back in September, the morning after installation.
And what it looks like now in November.
And since it's November it's time for me to gather up the rest of the garden pots, clean them out, and store them for the winter. I knew I needed more storage - Brad's Daily Deals to the rescue again!!
I had this small metal rack for quite a few years - it has stored flowerpots in two previous homes and was my only shelving in the potting shed. As you can see, it was already overflowing and I still have a bunch of pots outside the shed that need to be cleaned out and stored.
So when Brad's had these shelves on a daily deal for about $30 each shipped from Walmart I jumped on the deal and ordered two.
I should have ordered more! These can be used so many different places!!
Next time.
Anyway, yesterday when I was puttering this was on my list of tasks to complete. I put the shelves together (which was super simple!) and started organizing the pots and gardening supplies that were scattered all around the shed.
The last project I completed in the dying afternoon light was to rehab my potting bench. It's been on my to-do list for months now and I decided to tackle it right then and there.
I found a can of deck stain the previous owners had left behind - we haven't been able to figure out where this was used, it must have been something they used prior to the colors that are on the house and deck now.
But I always hold onto this kind of thing. You never know when you might need it!
When I finally went inside the house to make dinner the shed was in much better shape and the potting bench was drying.
It was too dark for any decent photos. However it was just the right time for a cocktail!
This morning I headed back out with my camera and froze my little buns off to take a few photos to share with all my blogland friends.
Look at how lovely and organized my potting shed is now! Do you have any idea how happy this makes me?
Yes, I know I'm pathetic. I can't help it.
The mulch and moo-doo organic veggie garden soil has been stored in the deck box under the window....which doubles as a nice resting spot when I'm working in here.
My clay pots and other outdoor pots are all stacked neatly on the small original rack along with the saucers. Having everything stacked by size makes it so much easier for me to find and grab what I need. Also makes it easier to keep things tidy because it's so much simpler and quicker to put items right back where they belong.
The rack in the far corner holds a few plants I'm hoping will survive the winter. Also some buckets and other tools, lime, organic food for the veggie garden, and other various bits and pieces. The metal boxes on the top will go back on the potting bench for easy access on a daily basis come spring - they hold my gloves and small tools.
The rack right across from the potting bench holds my houseplant pots as well as some larger garden pots. The top rack has all my self-watering hanging planters and some other lightweight garden pots.
It's so easy to see exactly what I have now and just looking at everything lined up all neat and tidy makes me smile.
I still have some things I'd like to do in here - for one thing, I'm going to dig through my bins of old curtains and hang some cute little curtains on the windows.
I'd like a little chair in here to watch the rain on a spring day.
I'm thinking of getting a rolling plant rack that I can put in front of the rear French doors - perhaps I can keep my violas alive until the spring if I bring them in now. I'm not sure....but it's worth a try.
Other than that? Who knows!
But for now....I'm loving my organized little garden cottage. It's come a long, long way since that first day we fell through the floor.
