My Garden Reveal - English Inspired Garden Shed
My Garden Reveal
August, 2022
I’ve finally deemed my garden and shed worthy of sharing. This project was a labor of love and has quickly become one of my favorite elements of my home. I wanted my garden and potting shed to be a destination in my yard where I could spend time alone in nature, pick veggies and flowers with my daughter, Clara, and entertain family and friends. My garden is a reminder that real living happens both inside and outside the walls of your home. I encourage my clients to think about this in their own lives and as a designer I try to prioritize indoor/outdoor living whenever I can. I’m no expert, but I’m having fun and I’ve learned a lot these past two years.
THE GARDEN INSPIRATION
Because I like to keep my yard manageable and low maintenance, my goal was to create a cut garden where I could experiment with new florals, colors and organic veggies while keeping our yard more “kept”. I grow all of my flowers from seeds and you can read more about my growing process here. This space has become an extension of our home. It is a place where Clara and I enjoy special lunch dates, I host dinner parties and I create floral arrangements for friends and my family.
My garden shed is where I love to do my floral arranging. It also serves as great storage space for my pots, vases, outdoor serve ware, chair cushions, plant care and garden accessories. This was a really fun space to design. I love the integrated large soap stone sink and unlacquered brass pot filler. I covered the walls in V-groove and left the ceiling exposed. Nothing is too precious and I’m not going to lie, it’s not typically this pristine.
Paint: Farrow & Ball- Mizzle
Lantern: Bevolo Classic Copper Lantern
Faucet: Unlacquered Brass Pot Filler from Waterworks
Sink: Soapstone
THE GARDEN PROCESS
For this undertaking, I enlisted design help from local landscape designer, Kelly McGovern and we conceived a 24’ x 40’ cut garden. Kelly is a very talented landscape designer and truly a wonderful person whom I could not recommend more. She does mostly large scale projects and is really busy, so if you’re interested in working with her, make sure get on her radar early in the season (like February or before). The shed is 11’ x 11’ and we trenched electrical and plumbing out there to make it very functional. I wanted the perimeter beds to be dedicated to cut flowers and the center beds to be organic veggies. The shed is big enough to store all my necessary garden tools, pots, and shovels, but it’s mostly just a chic place for creating arrangements and potting.
Here are process images of Kelly’s sketches and my inspiration board of the shed interior. Below is also a gallery of the demo and progress throughout the Spring of 2021.
FRUITS OF MY LABOR
I’ve really enjoyed learning how to garden and think it’s a great “hobby” while you have young children. I think balance is near impossible to achieve at this stage of life, being a mom to a toddler and one on the way (literally any day now). I like that I can run out here during naps or before Clara wakes up in the morning. I love that we can come out here after a work day and pick veggies and use them for dinner with her. I love getting my hands dirty and being in nature.
When friends or clients ask for advice on starting their own garden, I tell them that gardening is all about trial & error. I have yet to perfect this skill and I am still learning every day. You have to kill a few plants to succeed. I didn’t have success with my sweet peas last year, so I tried again this year and they thrived. My advice to anyone who wants to start growing would be to remember to enjoy the process. I embrace every aspect of it from the pre-season planning, to the actual growing, to the end of the year clean-up. I hope this inspires you to create one of your own.
