Puttering in the Potting Shed

I'm afraid Spring has made me giddy..............I feel the need to get out in the garden to see every little shoot emerge from the hard North Carolina clay soil, a miracle after the the long drought. I hasten from bed to bed in awe..................not just daffodils, tulips and azaleas are now in full bloom, but hostas are bursting through alongside Solomon's Seal, violets, and bluebells. Roses are climbing alongside golden flowered jasmine and bright pink honeysuckle, clematis are twining around the obelisks and buds are forming. Ivy and vinca creeping, no racing, everywhere, the hydrangeas have tiny buds already. Time has come to get out into the warm Spring air ~ the garden calls.

The center of my gardening world, my long wished for English potting shed. Built here for me several years ago, it has always been a special retreat in my back garden. When the builder left me with a basic shed I worked hard to make it mine. I painted it sage green with purple shutters. Inside I painted the floor and stencilled a 'rug' complete with sprays of roses. I hung my Mother's beautiful set of English Beswick china flying geese on the wall, and a metal chandelier from the ceiling.

The shelves are stocked with pots, garden hand tools hang from hooks, along with a plethora of odds and ends required for keeping up a garden.............twine, bamboo stakes, birdseed and watering cans. It stores Fall's dried gourds, Christmas wreaths, containers full of holiday lights, outdoor floods and drop cords, leftover tiles from the kitchen back splash, buckets and spades for the beach, bicycle pumps, brooms, a vintage clothes rack, a child's tiny table and chairs, a portable fan, a heater, Summer lanterns and candles, my necessary Barbour waxed jacket and clogs as the British always do a little gardening in the rain. And even with all this there is still room to move about - to actually pot up plants, or paint a pot.........to sit in an old wicker chair complete with flowery pillows and a dog-eared gardening book or magazine showing new ideas for one's little part of an acre.

I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning out the potting shed as it will soon be time to plant the seeds for the season. When you step inside the smell of warm earth envelopes you. Terra cotta pots tower in the corner, there are jars holding old seeds, the packets new ones. Time to buy potting soil to mix with the compost I've been preparing all Winter.



For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,

You find the tool and potting sheds which are the heart of all.

......................Rudyard Kipling...................

So, if you stop by some day soon, I may not answer the front door bell. Just walk around to the back and you will find me in the potting shed.......it's the place where gardeners grow!