Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden: Why a tiny shed is the perfect winter retreat

A summer garden shed can also be a cosy place to wile away a winter evening. Photo / Do Huy Hoang, Pexels

Kem Ormond is a features writer for The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s writing about a shed at the bottom of the garden.

OPINION

I guess we don’t do summer houses so much here in New Zealand as they seem to do overseas.

A summer house is referred to as a building or shelter used for relaxation in the warmer weather.

We are all too busy packing up the chilly bin and heading to the beach.

Is it because we build our houses with entertaining areas, are lucky and get a fair amount of sunshine, or do we think sitting in a summer house is like being down the back of the section in the woodshed?

I love little sheds, whether a summer house, a gardening shed or a reading room.

In summer, I have a hammock hung up in the shade of some large punga trees, a great place to chill out when the summer heat is at its peak.

When winter comes, I prefer my cane hanging chair where I can look out at the garden, coffee in hand, and enjoy the winter sun that shines on my patio.

Over the years, I have been on many garden walks and tours and have seen the cutest, smallest and most charming little sheds being enjoyed close to the owner’s vegetable garden.

Some were as little as what they used to call a drovers shed, somewhere the drover could lay his head when moving stock.

In fact, I have an old, galvanised, standard build-your-own shed, which I have let Boston ivy climb over.

I have also planted a small, trimmed hedge around it and hung a stained-glass window on it for a bit of rustic charm.

I use it to house my gardening tools.

It’s warm and a great place to raise seeds in the winter.

I have visited homes with little bespoke sheds that have had small gardening benches incorporated into them, an ideal place to potter on a cold winter day, but they need to be built in the right spot.

They add interest to your vegetable garden as well as being useful.

Your shed can be as practical as you want.

You can use it for your gardening tools or as a place for all your spare pots and seed trays.

Be warned, your garden haven may be overtaken by a feline friend. Photo / Mathias Reding, Pexels

You can dry your collected vegetable seeds and have them ready for the following year, and store plant food and your frost cloth!

But if you take the time to line it and even get electricity for it, you can have your own gardener’s haven.

A place to store all your garden books, a spot to contemplate and plan what you are going to plant come summer, a special nook to curl up and enjoy a cup of herbal tea picked straight from your herb patch.

A cherished area where your cat will really take a shine to, as my cat does at this time of the year, when I turn on the heating pad in one of my shade houses.

Fill lots of terracotta pots with lettuce, herbs and vegetables to add some interest in front of it, add a small table and chair just outside, and you will find pottering in your vegetable garden during winter far more pleasant.

Our lives are busy, and sometimes we need to take a few minutes for ourselves.

That’s where a little piece of paradise at the bottom of the garden will let it all happen to you!

Come summer, what a great spot to take time out from all that weeding, digging and planting that needs to be done!

Happy gardening.