Home accessories: A Potting Shed for Rattlebridge

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

When we began renovating Rattlebridge Farm, a potting shed was the last thing on my mind.

It didn't even make the Top 500 in my To-Do list.

Then we built a small vegetable garden (a potager-to-be) and refurbished another space,

all the while caring for weed-loving herb and perennial gardens.

It wasn't long before we'd filled one end of the garage with tools, fertilizer, weed

emergent, and even a few bottles of lethal and icky Round-Up.

Two city slickers, eaten alive with ticks and chiggers, yet knee deep in chemicals.

A view of our "potager" from afar, with its itty boxwood border:

We could see a Godzilla-sized mess forming, so we met with a local landscape architect. Jason

was a Master Gardener at Cheekwood Gardens before starting his business, and he

suggested a few ideas, which I instantly embraced.

He envisioned limestone steps leading to the potager.

And a potting shed, Williamsburg style, tucked to one side of the magnolia (hill) garden.

Here's a picture of the potager (foreground) and the freshly weeded hill garden (magnolia).

There are two possible places for the shed.

The refurbished, weeded hill (or magnolia) garden lies beyond the potager.

Jason thought a gate would look lovely, too.
And a focal point.
I always, always, forget about that.

He described a curved path that would lead to the potting shed.

I don't know.
This might be a place where I would spend lots and lots of time.

I have a lovely potting table in the basement, a bit similar to this one:

Tonight, as rain glazes the windows and a coolness spills

through the mountains, I think of my gardens. I won't need

to water them until tomorrow. Until then, I can take a breath and dream.

Home accessories