The allotment I am taking on allows sheds to be built around the perimeter, my plot is on the perimeter so in theory that means it can be right by my plot.
With the plot being only minutes away from home I am wondering if I need a shed there or not. I definitely don’t need a massive one but some place to store a few tools would be useful. I will keep an eye on ebay to see if anything comes up local to me that is going for a knock down price.
I have seen the small wooden tool stores at £175 in garden centres but that seems way over the top.
So do most people have sheds of some sort or other? Are they really required or are the target for vandals?
(Luckily the allotment site is fairly vandal free and has not been targeted for a while.)
Thanks
Jerry
Having a shed is a good idea - not only to store tools, but also somewhere to have a cuppa out of the rain.
We have a shed, to be erected any time soon, bought thru an ad in the local rag. Our allotment is a fair way from home, so it will save me lugging tools to and fro, will give me somewhere to dodge the rain, not that I mind, but most importantly, will give me somewhere to pee when I get caught short! :o
EJ - that's a good compost activator.
The back of my car acts as my shed, (no EJ, can't pee in it!) Wish I had somewhere on my lottie to store everything tho, as lugging it around in the back of the car makes for annoying trips to the supermarket, no where to put the bags!! And the kids moan that my car stinks! Whats wrong with the smell of manure and some blood fish n bone, I ask ya!! ;D
Manure and BF&B I can cope with, it is the aroma of pelleted chicken manure that takes my breath away :o. I used it on my plot at the weekend, and today when I visited I was sure I could see a smell haze over my plot!!!
Storage on site is definately worth it, when we took over out lottie we were lucky enough to have been left 2 sheds for our use. These were empty bar from 1km of string (well theres a lot any way) a spade, 2 forks, an edger, an axe, and some small handtools. Both sheds are now stacked full, with tools, lawn mower, wheel barrows, trugs, bikes, barbeque, seed trays, potting compost, pots,etcetera, etcetera....
There is no way we could have kept all this in the house.
All you have to remember is if they (nasty rotten vandels) want to get in they will get in. Its an unfortunate downside to life I am afraid to say.
Do as much as you can to deter them but thats all you can do
Storage is really handy but be careful not to leave anything too valuable in there. Ours has been robbed twice and we've only had the allotment one year. Fortunately they've left the wheel barrow both times. The main thing I miss is the old sickle my girlfriends dad gave us. It was so good on the weeds (we only dug 25% the first year). It's actually safer for us to keep the tools we leave in the open rather than in the shed - they left the two hoes we had propped on the back of the shed last time.
However, we're luckier than our neighbour. They took his brand new shed. I don't know if he had anything in it yet as he'd only had it a week.
Good job it wasn't too firmly fixed to the allotment, then, or they'd have taken that too, I expect.
Our sheds are congrete !! hava go lads !!
Hope mine is still there - has got felt on the roof now, all it needs is a padlock on the door which I will put on tonight...
Chap next door to my plot a few years back suffered from gale force winds. It blew one side of his shed right off. He never bothered fixing it but for months, until it eventually fell down, he continued to lock the door!!
I'd give anything to have a shed - well maybe not £175. that seems a lot - must be cheaper ones in local papers or on e-bay....like D.P. I carry stuff around in the boot of my car - got a big laundry basket full of stuff plus other things that 'float' about...however, my lovely lottie neighbour had a key cut for me so I could store my fork in there and 'borrow' any of his tools when I want....however, I'd like one for all the reasons suggested by others but mostly like E.J. says for one very important reason!!!- to stop me having to dash home when 'taken short' :-[
I built my shed from recycled parts when everyone else was preparing their soil but its made a big difference to the way i enjoy my allotment. I have no car but my bike makes a good donkey to lug all the things i need on the half-hour walk to the plot. I now have all my tools where i need them when i need them. And as people say ...a place to change or pee :). Today i took a hose pipe in the rain so it will be there after work when the weather improves. I moved a wheelbarrow in two journeys but i`ll never have to do that again `cus its now in the shed. About security; its built to be stronger than a shed in a garden with no windows, better tools are postcoded, and have my name on in big letters, new rolls of fleece etc are unpacked immediately so they can`t be sold on as new if stolen and tools are splattered with wood preservative again to make them look more battered and less sellable. As i`m new to this most of my stuff is new too. Even with the risk of losing the shed and contents its better to have it for now. The free-ads paper here often has people giving them away or selling them cheap if you can transport them.