Choosing and Organizing a Garden Shed

Sometimes the garage just isn’t a good fit for your gardening tools and supplies—whether it’s possible to organize them in the space or they just don’t fit with all your other stuff. However, the simple act of choosing and putting together a garden shed can solve this problem and make the upkeep of your home much easier.

That is, of course, if you do it right. Follow these guidelines, and setting up a system that makes your life less cluttered inside and outside the garden shed can be easier than maintaining an office plant.

Choosing the Shed
Before you choose a shed, catalog your essential gardening supplies so you’ll have an accurate picture of what all the shed needs to hold. Remember, the shed is there to make your gardening tools more accessible for everyday gardening and make your job easier in the process.

How many large pieces of equipment do you have? Your mower (riding or pushed) should be stored in the garage rather than the shed, along with chainsaws, string trimmers, and other gardening tools that have a measurable horsepower.

This is an excellent time to go through your garden tools and throw out any broken, rusting, or otherwise irreparable tools, including cracking shovels, the gardening gloves with a hole in one finger, etc. When that’s taken care of, take stock of what you have so you know what you’ll need to store.

The other major two considerations to take when looking at garden shed plans are how much space you have in your yard for such a structure and what will go with your house. There are different plans and color schemes for your available space and the exterior color of your home.

Organizing the Shed
Once your shed is set up where you want it, it’s time to organize your tools inside. You may need to add some shelving and pegs, but the easy access you’ll have to your garden tools will make the effort worth it.

For larger tools, such as shovels, spades, or rakes, mount larger, sturdier pegs close together near the top of the wall; this will hold these items in place and off the floor for easy access and storage before and after yard work.

Use pegboard and pegs or hooks to hang smaller garden tools that you want kept out in the shed for quick access, like your hand trowel, hand rake, garden shears, bypass loppers, pruning saws, small sprayers, garden gloves, etc. The pegboard should hold the smaller tools you use the most often and don’t wish to spend time digging or searching for on a shelf; a pegboard keeps these items in easy sight and reach.

Not that you should exclude shelving from your shed organization plans entirely. Box shelving is an excellent form of shelving for organizing garden materials like stakes, chicken wire, and extra pots. You can try to find one that fits you shed or make a custom unit out of old plywood or two-by-fours. This is also an excellent way to store pebbles, wood chips, or other mulching materials, even fertilizers—simply place them in labeled bins on the shelves!

When storing extra seeds, make sure the interior of the shed won’t get too hot or cold during the year to make that the place to store seeds: at your desk or in your kitchen may be a better place. However, if you are lucky enough to live in a stable climate year-round where it won’t be too hot or cold for your seeds in your shed, then by all means keep them out there. One of the best ways to organize seeds in the packet is with an ordinary index card file. Simply divide seeds according to what type of plant they are (perennial, vegetable, etc.) and label each seed packet with basic information about the plant the seeds are meant to produce.

And voilà! You have an organized garden shed that is ready to serve you as you make that garden grow!

Leslie Mason is a homemaker and gardening expert. She loves writing, gardening, do-it-yourself projects, and fixing up her house.