Perhaps that’s why so many people find solace in gardening. No stress. No pressure. There’s just you and nature working together peacefully. And when you are done you can enjoy the calming effect that a garden can bring.

But what do you do with all of your gardening tools, equipment and the myriad of sundry items that you need for your gardening when you are done your “chores”? Left unkempt, they can nullify the hard work and reduce the calming effect that your beautiful gardens can bring.

Enter the garden shed.

Which Garden Shed is Best?

Garden sheds come in all shapes and sizes. They can come in a multitude of materials as well. But which building material is best for your garden shed?

Concrete

Concrete and masonry garden buildings can be quite expensive, cumbersome and messy to construct. They can also be a time-consuming build taking much longer than other building materials.

Wood

Wood framed structures can be less expensive and usually can be constructed in much less time than concrete or masonry. However, wood framed structures are using up a valuable resource – our forests. A wood structure is not a very ecological building.

Plastic and Vinyl

The manufacturing process for plastic and vinyl buildings can be quite polluting. And when their active lives are done plastics and vinyls are pollutants in our landfill sites.

Metal

What is left? Metal garden buildings of course.

Metal buildings are the best choice for picky gardeners for a number of reasons. We can’t possibly detail all of benefits of a steel or metal garden storage building in this article but I will outline a few for you.

First and perhaps most important for some gardeners are the economics of metal buildings. For those of you who are looking for an inexpensive small storage shed, metal garden shed kits offer a wide range of sizes and styles for a very affordable price. These kits are easily assembled by anyone with even minimal handy-man type skills.

When properly installed and anchored, these light-weight structures can withstand some very wild climatic conditions.

For those of you who are looking for a larger garden storage building, steel and metal have a lot to offer you as well. There are light gauge metal framing kits available for buildings the size of a garage. If you are looking for something more structural in nature small pre-engineered metal and steel storage buildings are available. These buildings can withstand the worst conditions that Mother Nature can dish out.

Steel and metal garden buildings can be quite attractive as well. Metal buildings do not have to look like a “tin box”. In fact there is one pre-engineered steel building that looks like the Titanic complete with the iceberg that led to its demise! A custom designed metal storage building kit may be less expensive than you think.

The components of metal garden sheds will not warp, twist or crack like wood structures. They are impervious to damage by insects and rodents. They require much less maintenance than do wood structures. This all means more time for you in – and enjoying – your beautiful gardens.

Is a small greenhouse required as part of your new garden shed? That’s no problem for a metal building either. You can add a lean-to greenhouse on to your metal garden shed. If you have a larger steel garden shed the greenhouse can be incorporated right into the building with glazed walls and roof.

In the case of ecology, metal gardens buildings have the definite edge over other building materials. Over half of all structural steel and light-gauge metal products are manufactured from recycled steel. That’s right. Over one half of that metal post is made up from recycled steel.

If your garden shed outlives its usefulness for you, it can again become recycled steel and be used in the manufacture of some other useful metal products. You will not be clogging up the landfill with your metal building!

Pre-Fab Steel building kits have become the building material of choice for small and large buildings. They are used for office buildings and shopping malls; manufacturing plants and aircraft hangers; recreational facilities and churches; large warehouses and of course garden sheds.

Steel buildings can be designed and engineered to have any look you like while being able to withstand the ravages of hurricanes and earthquakes. These buildings are non-combustible as well. Oh yes… and did I mention that they also require much less maintenance than other building types?

It’s no wonder with all of the advantages that steel and metal buildings offer that industrial, commercial and low-rise residential businesses have embraced them with open arms.

Now you can have all of the same benefits in your own gardens!

Brian A Schmidt is author and publisher of a www.prefabmetalbuildingkits.com. His home is in a small community in Southwestern Ontario, Canada with his lovely wife Carol. Brian and Carol have three fantastic grown children and four wonderful small grandchildren. As the owner of a small construction company and construction manager for a few companies over the years he has had extensive experience in all sectors of the construction industry. These include commercial metal building kits, industrial buildings, residential buildings and institutional building. Gardening, woodworking in his hobby workshop and cruise vacationing take up his “free” time.

Neatly Encapsulating my Husband’s Kitchen Philosophy

Author Peterson says that there’s no such thing as a green thumb.  Well, I don’t believe her.  My Mother-in-Law, Susan, has the greenest thumb of pretty much anyone I know (sorry Mom! and Grandma!).  She routinely coaxes the orchids we send her back into bloom, and has HUGE avocado plants, papayas and other tropical monstrosities growing in her sunroom, all from the pits of a fruit purchased at the grocery store.  I believe that her indoor jungle is why my husband, bless his heart, NEVER wants to let a seed or pit go without trying to sprout it.  I don’t think he knows that I have this book yet, but he will once he reads the blog.  I’ll be sure to report back with pictures of his forthcoming experiments. With Peterson’s thorough explanation of how to grow “68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps,” anyone, even my husband, should be successful.

“One to Eat and One to Plant”

This little book was really a labor of love for the two authors, who met at a lecture about Pits that Peterson was giving.  Selsam and Peterson became best friends, and set off on a journey through New York City’s ethnic markets to find interesting plants to grow.  This was all around the early 1970s.  The new addition takes into account that things have changed, and more fruits and vegetables for experimenting are available at conventional grocery stores.  When they began their adventure of buying, eating and growing weird plants, the ladies adopted the philosophy “always buy two-one to eat and one to grow.”  If one was out and about without the other, she would buy four, so each could have two for eating and experimenting.  I love that!

Easy Instructions and Surprising Results

Some of the plants described in this book won’t produce fruit or vegetables for you, but, rather, are fun to grow on for a few months as unusual houseplants-an antidote to peace lilies in every corner of the house.  The first section of the book describes basic horticultural information for a novice grower.  The next section covers propagation, or how to take the seed, pit, root or stem of the plant you have and get it to sprout into a new plant.  The final chapters detail different types of plants and how to grow them. In addition to a good primer on how to grow weird plants, this little book is also an interesting source of information about where the food we eat comes from.

Is it Organic?

So, I hate to even put this in my review, but since I’m reviewing it for an organic gardening blog, I have to mention this:  the book does detail how to create a “moist, humid environment” for pit sprouting by using peat moss or sphagnum moss, both of which are not environmentally friendly.  I’m wondering if we could get the same result with perlite or vermiculite?  I might give that a whirl.

All in all, I think this is a cool little book for people who enjoy tinkering with houseplants.  And, because of its great price, you can get one to keep and one to share with a friend.

Wicked Plants

The Plant that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and other Botanical Atrocities

That’s the subtitle.  It promises all kinds of fun, especially near Halloween.  The plant that killed Lincoln’s mother was Eupatorium rugosum, white snakeroot.  If a cow ate this weed, it would pass along the poisons in the plant through its milk.  People who drank this milk were said to have “milk sickness.”  The symptoms:  weakness, vomiting, tremors and delirium.  Sounds LOVELY.  It is possible to buy cultivars of this plant in the garden center, notably Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’ which has dark leaves.

Here are some other delightful plants described in this book, which are probably in your home garden:

• Aconite, also called “monkshood” because the purple flowers are shaped like hoods.  This beauty causes paralysis, and stops the heart.
• Oleander, which causes nausea and vomiting, slowed heart rate and other symptoms, is common in southern gardens.  If you have kids, DON’T PLANT THIS IN YOUR GARDEN.
• Yew, which is THE FOUNDATION PLANT OF CHOICE around houses built during the 1970s and 1980s, has toxic seeds, leaves, stems, etc.

Try to Control Your Terror

If you pick up this book, you might be afraid to plant a garden or let your kids run around outside.  Right after the book came out, there was even some pretty heated discussion about whether plants should be labeled as poisonous.  The books is a handy little reference if you are a serious gardener and want to stay away from poisonous, weedy or otherwise unpleasant plants.  On the flip side, the author has a poisonous plants garden at her house, and you can too, by finding the varieties discussed in the book.

In addition to discussing plants that are poisonous to humans and pets, Stewart also highlights plants that are invasive, weedy, and, in the case of Kudzu, plants that have basically smothered an entire region of the country.  It is a fun and functional book.  I enjoy reading the back stories and historical information about the notorious plants I already know are poisonous, and I learned some new stuff, too!

Pretty Pictures

A bonus in Wicked Plants are the botanical etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs and the drawings by Jonathon Rosen.  Both add to the overall creepy atmosphere of the book, which is great for a conversation piece or coffee table book in addition to a reference.

If you want to watch the AWESOME trailer video for the book, visit Amy’s website.  If you’re one of the, like, THREE people in the WORLD who don’t already have this book well, get it from us!  You won’t be sorry, (cue cackling laughter) heh heh.

Best laid plans. . .

If you read my blog posts early in the spring (around March/April), you saw that I was SUPER EXCITED to have my own vegetable garden again.  My husband and I embarked on a gigantic re-purposing of our back landscape beds for vegetables.  We put in edging, compost, and tons of veggie seeds.  We moved perennials we liked and dumped soil over plants we didn’t like.  We got some tomato seedlings from the farmer’s market and sowed squash seeds.

Early Spring

Early spring is great.  We have lots of lettuce to eat.  Lettuce coming out of our ears.  The herbs start to come up and the tomatoes take off once the heat is to their liking.  We eat radishes for days on end.  All is well.

Early Summer

Early summer.  June-ish.  The leaves on the trees in the backyard and front yard start to fill in.  Our re-purposed garden gets a bit shady for anything but lettuce.  The Swiss chard persists in hanging on to the SAME THREE LEAVES for months at a time.  The cilantro, radish and lettuce bolts.  “Radish flowers are pretty,” I muse.

Mid Summer

We start harvesting a few peppers here and there.  The eggplant flowers, but doesn’t fruit.  Not enough sun, I think.  The yellow pear tomato vines live up to their description and grow six feet in two weeks, all but strangling everything around them.  I become a religious attender of my local farmer’s market, buying everything I need to eat for the week: bread, eggs, grass fed beef and chicken, and LOTS of vegetables and fruits.

Late Summer

My husband continues to pick yellow tomatoes by the bucket-full.  The basil plants are enormous, and great for making tomato soup, fresh pasta, tomato onion gratin, and spaghetti sauce.  I wish I liked pesto, but I don’t.  I give up on the eggplants.

Fall

I’ve decided that next year, I’m letting the area truck farms and organic farms provide my vegetables.  My garden is worn out.  I’m worn out.  I’d rather have pretty flowers to look at out my window next to my writing desk.  Maybe I’ll try some self-watering patio containers with patio veggies.

Who am I kidding?

For all of my resolution to let the local farmers grow the veggies for me next year, I’ll probably churn up the ONE COMPLETELY SUNNY spot in my ENTIRE YARD that I’ve identified and make it a vegetable garden once the air warms up a bit.  The strawberry farm had reasonably priced blueberry bushes this spring. . .

Next year, lettuce.

Here are some photographs from my Summer 2009 travels.  As you can see, I was welcomed by rain, humidity and general weather malaise during most of my visits.  If the picture is blurry, well, blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah.

Clockwise from top left: Ornamental grass, Jacob's ladder, Coral bells

Hydrangea (top), ornamental grass (bottom)

Dianthus, ornamental grass, hollyhocks-all butterfly plants

Coral bells, Astilbe, Jacob's ladder, Lungwort and other shade plants

Ornamental grass (back), Coleus (front)

Colchicum (fall blooming bulb flowers) with Ophiopogon (looks like black grass)

Salvia 'Limelight' (front), sweet potato vine (back)

Castor bean, Dahlias, Ornamental grass, lantana at Montrose

Russian sage (back), Coneflower (front)

The reason I love all of these plant combinations are that they provide contrast.  Either the colors contrast, the texture contrasts, the shape contrasts or the size contrasts.

Two of the pictures are from a garden center I visited this spring.  They were great merchandisers because they had little plant combinations all over the nursery floor.  If someone wanted to, he or she could just walk on by, scoop up the entire group of plants, go home and have an instant garden.  This technique also helps garden shoppers see just how many plants they need to put in a nice sized little landscape bed.

Go forth and shop the garden center sales!

Are you ready? Here’s a little garden’s worth of spooky delights to showcase for your trick or treaters!

Spiderflower

Spiderflower, or Cleome, is a perfect start to the Halloween garden. What’s Halloween without spooky spiders? To boot, this plant also has vicious sneaky spines along its stem. It flowers all summer, until frost, and prefers full sun to part shade. It is an annual that re-seeds like crazy, so BEWARE!

Eyeball Plant

Show the neighbors that you’ve got your eye on them by growing the Eyeball plant, Spilanthes oleracea. It can be grown as an annual plant or a houseplant, and does well in part-shade.

Witchhazel

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without witches! Witchhazel is an understory shrub that blooms in either the fall or spring, depending on the species that you plant. It is hardy from Zone 4 to Zone 8. Cultivars that lose their leaves during the winter are the nicest for gardeners, because the leaf loss allows you to see the small, delicate flowers more easily.

Bloodgrass

Bloodgrass, Imperata cylindrical, is as scary as vampires, in some parts of North America. It will take over and spread like a zombie infestation, so it is best to just admire pictures of it, rather than planting it in your garden.

Boneset

Do you feel like skeletons are chasing you? You might, if you grow Boneset, or Eupatorium perfoliatum, in your garden. It is a native perennial wildflower, which grows best in full sun, very moist to swampy soils.

Ghost Plants

Do you have ghosts in your garden? If not, get some Ghost plants, Graptopetalum paraguayense, succulent plants that practically glow in the dark like ghosts hovering near the ground.

Have a Happy Halloween, everyone! Check out Halloween Alliance for more Halloween Party tips, tricks and treats, and do-it-yourself Halloween decorations.

Feast your eyes on some recent sightings. (For the most part, the plants are market. I have no idea what the last plant is.)

Beautyberry

Beautyberry closeup

Blackberry lily

Eunoymus americanus, called Hearts-a-burstin'

Holly?

I have no idea what this is but it is cool.

Add a bit of interest to your fall garden with berry plants. The birds will thank you!

Another talk, the keynote speech at the same conference, couched all of the above in different terms.  This speaker said that Gen Y’s grandparents, who came of age during the Great Depression and World War Two, were in survival mode their entire lives.  Because of what they did, their children were able to have a higher standard of living.  Those children, my generation, are philosophically beyond subsistence (For the most part.  We’ll see how this recession-thing goes), and up in the dream space.

Sign in the "SEEDS Garden," Durham, NC

In the Mean Time. . .

How to get us interested in gardening before our lives depend upon it?  (Some would say that our lives already do.)  Well, my favorite comment from this guy, Kelly Norris, was that people who write about gardening, or are in the gardening business, need to focus more on the benefits of the process, less on the end result.  I’d second that.  I was positively giddy to jump out of the car and check on my garden after being away for five days.  I wasn’t expecting big changes, because it is fall, in the south, and my plants are saying “We are D-U-N. Done!”  But, there were little surprises or greetings–my Mexican sage is blooming now.  The giant golden orb spider over the sidewalk is about twice as big as when I left.  My encore azaleas are blooming.

I asked my husband, who is an un-trained gardening fanatic, why he likes to garden.  He’s a seriously enthusiastic hobbyist.  He has Pam Beck’s Best Garden Plants for North Carolina, and keeps it by his bedside, marking the pages of plants he wants.  When he makes a grocery list he puts “plants” at the bottom.  He was thrilled when I told him that I brought home a toad lily from Plant Delights.  He ran and got his book and showed me the post-it on the toad lily page in his book.

He told me “Gardening is soothing.  It keeps me connected with the earth.  It lets me give back to nature’s creatures.”  (We don’t spray pesticides in our yard.)  I said “Are you just saying that because I’m a garden blogger?  Do you really mean it?”  He said that, yes, he did mean it.  He said he also viewed gardening as a bit of a challenge.  If he kills something (which is often), he tries again, with different techniques.  He said he has noticed that it is much different gardening in Wilmington, North Carolina than in Keene Valley, New York, where we lived when we were first married.  He likes learning.  He said nothing about the end result:  buckets of yellow pear tomatoes that he picked, and sat on the counter, and never ate, or lettuce gone to seed, or radishes so pithy they would break a tooth.

For all the talk about how besotted we are with instant gratification, which some interpret to mean “results,” I would tend to agree with my friend and co-hort, Jayme, owner of aHa Modern Living, a cool online garden store.  For us, many of my generation, who work long hours, at often unfulfilling jobs, and on a treadmill to keep up with our parents, rising housing prices and non-existent health care, the EXPERIENCE is the product, just as Kelly Noris said.  We don’t want instant tomatoes, we want to be instantly captivated by the EXPERIENCE of growing tomatoes, or lettuce, or potatoes.  Within that experience, there is room for learning the process, enjoying interesting gardening products, reading cool books and researching online.

Don’t Freak Out!

If you despair that you’ll never interest your child in gardening, or you can’t understand why your niece is more interested in boys than plants, or you won’t even ask your granddaughter to go cherry picking with you because you think she’ll say no, think again.  Think about how to present the gardening activity as an adventure, instead of a chore.  Entertainment instead of work.  Come at it from the standpoint of something interesting to do, rather than something nice to get.  Then, you’ll get results.

So Is It The Dog or The Garden?

If your furry friend is digging his way to China it is possible you will never stop his digging completely. But many people have dogs and beautiful gardens. So you do not really have to choose.

This is a great opportunity for you to train your dog at home, in the garden. This is not the kind of behavior that will be dealt with in puppy or obedience classes.

The same way you have rules for inside the house, you can have rules for the garden. You can teach him where to redirect his energy and can properly train your dog to dig in one area rather than in your gardenias. You can also have some off limits areas in the garden.

Your course of action is going to depend on why is your dog digging the garden.

Let ’s First look at Why is Your Dog Digging?

• Gardening soil smell, feel and taste good to a dog taste bugs and it is fun.
• He wants to bury a bone or a toy and the garden has nice and loose soil, it is easy to dig and fun.
• It is a hot summer day and digging a hole to curl up is a great way to stay cool down.
• Your dog is a terrier and this is what terriers are bred for: dig up rodents and critters.
• You have a puppy or a young dog that is not getting enough exercise. This is a way to release energy and have fun.
• Your dog spend to much time alone in the garden and has found a way to keep himself entertained

Here Are Some Solutions to Keep Your Garden Holes Free and Have a Happy Dog

Give Him His Own Puppy – Dog Play Pit

If your dog is just being playing and having fun, you can train him to play in a designated area of the garden.

1 – Set a place aside in your yard that will be puppy digging heaven. Try to choose a portion of your yard that is shaded in the summer and offers protection from cold winds in the winter. The size will vary with the size of your garden and your dog.

2 – Next, dig a bit and add some sand in for drainage – remember you want a digging pit not a mud bath! Try to make this fun for your pup by allowing him to join in creating his new play area.

3 – Now, how do you get him to actually dig in the pit?
Take some of his favorite toys and tasty treats and bury them. Make a fuss so that he knows what you’re doing. Call your puppy over (if he’s not there already), and help him dig them up. When he understands that you want him to dig there, praise him and tell him “dig in your pit, dig in your pit.”

He’s being rewarded instantly the moment he digs up a treat and eats it. When he finds a toy, play a game of fetch or tug of war with him, then bury it again. Encourage him to dig it up again, while repeating “dig in your pit.”

Put him inside for a few minutes while you bury some more treats and toys. Let him out and say “dig in your pit.” Praise him if he goes there, and play with him if he digs up a toy.

This in home dog training is fun for both you and your dog. He’ll probably learn what “dig in your pit” means in just one afternoon. Continue this day for a few minutes to reinforce it. Every morning bury some toys and treats in the sand box before you go to work. You can bury a toy that you can stuff with food, like a Kong. When he digs it up, that will keep him happily occupied for quite a while.

Exercise … Exercise

When dogs do not get enough exercise and play time, they will find a way to use up their energy. This usually show in the way of destructive behaviors such as digging or chewing up.

If your dog is high energy, make sure walks, play time and socialization are part of the day.

By the way, for most dogs being out in the yard is not sufficient exercise. You have to take your dog out for walks or play with him.

Boredom

If your dog is spending to much time alone in the yard he will find something to amuse himself: digging the garden is one, chewing on the plants is another one or laying in the middle of a flower bed because it feels good is a possibility.

Do not leave your dog alone for a long period of time. Dogs are pack animal and most do not do very well when left by themselves especially puppies.

Know What Your Dog Breed is About

As I said before Terrier are great diggers. So if your dog is a terrier or a terrier cross, digging is part of what he is bred for.

Working dogs such as terrier, shepherd, hounds for example are always looking for something to do. Small or large, they require a lot of stimulation , exercise and training.

You can redirect that energy with extra training activities such as agility, flyball or tracking. When a dog has to use his brain to perform, learn new things, he gets more alert and calmer and stay out of trouble.

Fence or Enclosed Beds and Gardening Area

Sometimes this might be the only solution to keep your dog out of the garden especially with a puppies or an adult dog that require more training.

Your garden is another perfect training ground for your dog to learn the rules of the house. This is the time to apply some basic training, have some fun and play together.

Catherine Potin is the editor of HappyDogConnections.com and offers free online dog training tips and resources from various experts so you too can understand and train your pooch better. From basic dog training to solving behavior issues, you will find solutions to get better result and create a deeper bond with you dog.

Here’s Where I Play Eye Doctor

I went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago so that I could order some surfing sunglasses.  (If you want to read about that, you have to go here.)  When you go to the eye doctor, they flip and slide lenses into place in a giant contraption and then ask you “Is it better now?”  (slide some things around)  “Or now?”  “Is number 7″ (slide some things around) “or number 8 clearer.”  “Can you see with this”  (flip and move and such) “or this?”  By the end of the appointment, it is kind of hard to tell if I’m going to end up with a new prescription that is better or blurrier than my current lenses.  If they dilate my eyes, well, FORGET IT.

Talking to breeders of perennials, breeders of annuals, breeders of bulbs, professional gardeners turned writers and professional writers turned gardeners about their favorite plants/gardens/vistas/styles  was kind of like going to the eye doctor.

Did I prefer this:

Coastal meadow garden at the North Carolina Botanical Garden

Or this?

Herb garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum

Both are sweeping landscapes.  The coastal meadow garden is composed entirely of native plants, sown wildly, so as to mimic nature.  The plants in that garden grow together in the wild, and look as if they belong.  The herb garden plants are all cultivated, and originate from different parts of the world.  They make a good combination, pleasing to the eye, even though the only place you will ever find them growing together is in a garden.  You won’t accidentally stumble upon this combination anywhere in the wild.

How about this:

Dahlia (hybrid, cultivar, or something that's been "tinkered with")

Or this?

Asters and Coreopsis, native plants

I like them all!  It was interesting to sit and listen to a perennial breeder and an annual breeder discuss their preferences.  They admitted they were biased, due to their chosen professions, but thank goodness they both still survive in this world.

No Dark without Light

I spent most of the garden tour time running around snapping pictures of pretty plant combinations.  I almost always gravitate toward contrasts.  In the picture immediately above, the purple is enhanced by the yellow.  The dahlia flower is brighter because it is set against burgundy foliage.  In my mind, the coastal meadow is all the more beautiful when compared to the orderly herb border, and the herbs stand out as individuals when considered with the wild tangle of the native meadow.

What do you think?  Do you like order or chaos in your garden?