Mick's Gone Potty

This all started back in January when we had some friends stay with us for about a week.  The boys decided they needed a project, so built a mezzanine floor in Mick's shed.  They finished that and still had more time, so went looking for another project.

We have a very deep garden bed around the back yard fence with lots of shrubs. It was here when we bought the house.  The corner of the garden is really deep and the shrubs so thick that they were impenetrable. We only realised there were two crepe myrtle trees in there when we wondered what the pink flowers were that we could see in the corner! 

During this last summer a few of the shrubs died, so the boys decided to remove them.This left a bit of a hole, so what to do? By the way, that is Mick's NBN Tower with the bird feeders hanging off it.  The bird bath was my 40th birthday present from Mick, so is rather special. 

We had a bit of a think and an idea started to eventuate.  We started to trawl Pinterest for inspiration.  We went to "The Junktion", which is the recycle shop up at the tip.

We bought a door - the perfect door - and a piece of matching glass to fix the cracked pane for the princely sum of $10.

Mick  removed a couple more messy shrubs at the back of the garden bed.

He dismantled his NBN Tower, moved the bird bath, leveled out the ground and made a frame.

He then made a floor 3 metres x 2 metres with footings in the corners.

Lots of scribbling took place at the kitchen table.

He played with timber on his shed floor.

He's not very good at asking for assistance.

Ooh!  Now that is giving an idea of the shape.

This took him until the end of February.  Then he had to wait for supplies to arrive.

Once his materials arrived he clad the back wall before installing it in its final place.

It was fun coming home from work each day to see what he had achieved.

Now things were really taking shape. Mind you, designing was still taking place on the fly.

Plumbing for the gutters.

Building completed, except for a final strip of flashing.

A beautiful old padbolt that has been kicking around in the shed for many, many years has finally found a use.

Inside has storage on one side.

Green house on the other. The bench was made from marine ply left over from a job Mick did a while back.  He is glad to get it out of the shed.

The final delivery arrived to finish off the project. You can see in this photo that there is a long, narrow, high window at the peak of the roof that opens for ventilation.

Ta da!

Neither of us know anything about growing plants in a green house, so hope to learn as we go along.  The aspect isn't ideal, as the fence is on the north side.  We just have to make the most of the eastern light and the roof.  The garden is much more open now and you can even see the crepe myrtles.  The tank is on the western wall, so hopefully will keep the worst of the summer heat off that wall, while maybe providing some thermal mass during the winter? Time will tell. The windows and roof are 8mm polycarbonate with a hollow construction, so hopefully will provide some insulation during winter and by opening the top window, the door and window beside the door enough ventilation will be provided during the summer months.

 You can see that he has built a raised garden bed inside as well. Under the bench is a great place to store potting mix, blood and bone etc.

Plenty of storage for pots etc.

This took him up to the end of March.

Mick has been having fun sprouting seeds.  He has carrots doing nicely in the raised garden bed and lots of poppies and lavender seeds on the way.  We have self sown parsley seedlings doing nicely and have potted up some chives, hoping they will still be productive during winter, while the ones outside die down.  The dust pan is hanging on a flower pot hook my Dad gave me many years ago, but we have never used.  It is nice to now have a home. The little flower pot man came from Mick's Mum's garden. 

Tomatoes that have been growing in pots and have been fruiting since early December are still going strong up here, although they are getting close to the end of their life span. 

The top shelf for pots was a recent addition Mick has added.  The tin tray on the bench was left over from a job Mick did and is idea for potting things on.

There was now some space beside the potting shed, so we thought it would be an ideal spot to add a couple of compost tumblers.  Aldi even had them in their catalogue the week we thought of it.  However, it happened to be at the height of the COVID-19 panic buying and they didn't get them in.

Not to worry.  Mick would make his own.  He had some signs left over from a job that were kicking around in the way in the shed, so folded them up.

Next he built a marine ply box around them.

After cladding with more weathertex from potting shed scraps and adding covers from left overs he has a tidy two bay compost set up.  We have had the plant stand since we were first married.  It was originally in Mick's childhood garden with each slat painted a different colour.  It looks like it is about ready for another make over, as we painted it over thirty years ago. You can't see it, but we have moved our worm farm to next to the compost bin as well.  Everything fits in rather nicely.

The pine bark path just finishes it nicely.

Just when you think he has everything finished, he adds an extra feature.

Now there is an internal shade cloth blind ready for the summer months, when the sun will be way to fierce without protection.  Apparently, I have to put a hem on it and he will then add some eyelets to attach it to some hooks at the other end of the roof.

This wasn't a COVID-19 project until the last part, but he has had lots of time since our semi-lockdown to play with his new toy.

Now that we have started to experience some frosts it will be interesting to see how it goes.