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A herb garden around your garden shed will make it look more homely and you’ll also have a ready supply of fresh herbs when you’re cooking.

Growing herbs is one of the easiest jobs in your garden. You can grow them in pots but they prefer growing in the ground so they can spread out – some will grow to 4 – 6’. Most prefer to grow in full sun, but that doesn’t mean the sun beating down on them all day every day – exposure of around 4 hours a day (morning or afternoon) will make your herbs happy.

Preparing the area is the most important part of this exercise. Dig up the garden bed to loosen it – this allow roots to spread and water to drain. Add about an inch of compost to the bed and dig it through.

Plant your herbs allowing 1 foot square for chives, dill and parsley, 2 foot square for basil, thyme and tarragon and 3 feet for rosemary, sage, mint and marjoram.

Keep a close eye on your herb garden to make sure you are watering enough. Use mulch to prevent evaporation and soil wetting agents to conserve water. If the soil gets very dry, you may need to water more often, but more is not better – don’t over water.

In just a few weeks you could be cooking with home grown herbs.

We Australians take great pride in our heritage and the humble shed is part of that. The outback dunny has all but disappeared, but the shed lives on and goes from strength to strength.

Early settlers stored tools or rum in their sheds. These were no ordinary sheds – they were well built and some still exist today.
Every self-respecting Aussie bloke wants his own shed. Whether small or large, a place to visit occasionally or even to “live” in, the Aussie shed is a tradition that will last forever – we hope!

But women are starting to venture out there! Not necessarily to take away his private retreat – but to improve it. To remind him to keep it clean; to help him choose curtains for the window. After all (she thinks!) how much fun can you have in a shed without a few creature comforts?

From the male point of view, it’s the final bastion of male domination and worthy of protecting from female invasion. The shed is a place for blokes to be blokes and bond (without any touchy feely stuff). To scratch their…well anywhere they want to scratch. It’s a place where they can talk about cars and be understood without having to explain – again. Where they don’t have to think about or deal with emotion. It’s a place to build and fix things and have the satisfaction of knowing that they can do anything, at least until they leave their shed…

Where this backyard battle will end is anyone’s guess.

Working alone in the backyard shed can be very satisfying, but you always have company of some sort, whether you want it or not – ants and spiders.

Regular spraying for insects will help to keep them under control. Most spiders are harmless, but there are a few in Australia species that can cause serious problems and even death.

When working outdoors wear gloves and always check underneath things such as pots and outdoor furniture before grabbing them with your hand. Dark protected areas under chairs, tables and any outdoor surface are attractive dwellings for spiders.

Outdoor lighting attracts insects and where there are insects, there are spiders – notice how they like to have webs around the front door light. Change your bulb to a sodium lamp as bugs are not attracted to this type of lighting and the area will not be as enticing to spiders.

Ants easily adapt to changing environments, so once you eliminate them in one area of your shed, they will pop again elsewhere.

Follow the trail of ants to locate their nest. Have you noticed how they seem to following the same route – they leave a scent so that they can find their way back to the nest. Select bait from your hardware store and place it near the pathway. The ants will take the bait back to the colony and spread it around.

Those little mounds of soil in the cracks between your pavers are nest entrances. Flooding the nest with boiling water is also an effective way of dealing with ants.

No matter how tightly you secure your shed, wasps seem to make their way in and build their nests. They’re ugly and they can sting repeatedly if disturbed.
Wasps do serve a purpose in pollinating plants and removing other pests that can be destructive to your plants, but we don’t necessarily want to share the shed with them.

Wasps like to establish their nests in spring and make their nest by ingesting wood to create a paper-like substance to build the walls. They will remain in residence until autumn.

If you find a nest that has been abandoned, leave it alone – once abandoned, wasps will not return.

Pesticides and insecticides are readily available at any hardware store and can be sprayed on the entrance of the wasp nest. When you do this, make sure there are no children or animals in the area as the wasps will be understandably angry. Another alternative is to burn the nest, using a torch or lit stick set fire to the nest, being careful not to allow the fire to spread to any surrounding wooden structures. Ensure the area underneath has no dry grass and leaves that can catch fire.
Keep a hose handy just in case.

If the nest has managed to grow to a large size without you noticing it, consider calling in a professional. A full nest in peak season can contain up to 10,000 wasps – and if they’re unhappy about the eviction notice, that’s a lot of angry wasps to contend with!

The backyard shed has traditionally been the domain of the male of the house. It is such an important part of their world that they have even named a group after it “Men and Their Sheds”.

Television shows centred around backyard goings on have proven popular over recent years. Shows like Burke’s backyard and Backyard Blitz have been informing us who to look after our gardens, while shows like Home Improvement with “Tim the Toolman” show us what not to do with tools!

While women need to talk out their problems, a man needs his space to think and they certainly make full use of their sheds, spending hours in there “thinking”.

According to the Brisbane Courier Mail (04/09/2009) many “sheddies” have had second thoughts about buying new tools to use in their sheds due to the global financial crises but some have taken advantage of the government’s economic stimulus package to update their equipment – which in turn saves stretched household budgets by enabling those jobs around the house to get done for a little less.

Many men install fridges, TVs and stereos in their sheds and when their mates come around they often retreat to the shed, leaving the women and children to themselves in the main house.

Backyards and sheds are an essential part of the Australian lifestyle and provide a valuable contribution to our entertainment needs, household finances and even relationships.

That’s our story anyway, and we’re sticking to it!

A concrete foundation is certainly more permanent, but you may want to move your shed or take it with you if you’re in a rental property.

If you decide on a timber foundation, choose a treated timber so that it’s not easily damaged by rot from moisture and is not attractive to white ants. Depending on the size of your shed, start by laying 2 or more skids – this is to keep the base off the damp ground. These should be 4×4 or 6×6. If you can, use bricks or blocks underneath the skids to give your shed even greater protection from the damp ground.

Lay your joists (2×4 or 2×6) at intervals of approximately 25”. Using ¾” tongue and groove ply board, nail to each joist with 2 nails in each board. Do this before the floor has been exposed to the weather as it gets harder over time.

If you decide to have a concrete foundation, make sure you choose the correct location for your shed because you’ll be stuck with it! Don’t place it in a low point in the yard where water can pool and flood your shed.

You can hire a mixer and make the concrete up yourself which can be a bit of fun, or have premixed concrete delivered and poured, then all you have to do is level it.

Before you pour your concrete – do you need a ramp to access your shed? Just consider trying to lift your mower over the lip every time, or moving storage boxes and furniture in and out – just something to think about.

If you have an existing shed and you don’t use all of it, you can turn that space into some extra cash.

Are there units nearby where people might be pushed for space? Someone near you may be looking for some storage space, but wants to have things close by. You could rent out the entire shed in the case of unused furniture.

Sometimes people downsize but can’t bear to throw anything away, or children leave home but don’t take their stuff. A local shop owner may need some extra space for a large freezer but doesn’t have the room on the shop premises.

These days, people are coming up with lots of ways to make money and some do it selling product, but storage can be a problem for them. They’ll need something with handy access and protected from the weather.

Of course, you will need to make sure that your shed is leak proof and has regular pest control, and that you aren’t breaking any laws or regulations!

Don’t forget the garage or carport either, especially if you live close to a big city where parking is difficult to find, and expensive. Somebody may be very happy to pay for a regular parking space!

Your new Colorbond shed requires little maintenance. In most cases just a regular wash with water will suffice. If you get regular rain then you don’t need to do anything, but for those panels that are not reached by the rain or in drought areas, you would be wise just to give your shed a bit of a hose down every six months or so. Typically, areas that will need some attention from you will be your shed door (s) and under eaves and gutters.

If you live in a coastal area, even a number of streets away the marine salt can still affect any metal, so a more frequent regular hose down will help to prolong the life of your shed.

If a simple hosing does not clean off all the dirt, for example bird droppings, wash the panels with a solution of warm water with pure soap and nonabrasive kitchen detergent. Gently apply with a soft cloth or sponge to prevent shiny spots. Rinse thoroughly to remove all detergent.

NEVER use abrasive or solvent-type cleaners such as turps, petrol, kero or paint thinners.

Minor scratches are best left alone – touching up can make it look worse than it actually is. When, in a few years time you consider repainting your shed, after a good clean (as above) paint directly over it with 2 coats of a good quality water-based exterior acrylic paint.

What is it about blokes and sheds? Is it the opportunity to get away from the family? Perhaps it’s the chance for a little solitude. Or is it the prospect of tinkering with gadgets or pulling apart items and putting them back together”albeit sometimes in a slightly different arrangement?

Let’s face it, some blokes spend a lot of time in the garden shed, often with very little to show for it when they finally re-enter the outside world. Something’s going on in there! Is a garden shed really a suburban cave? And what’s a girl to do while he’s in there? She should get her own shed of course!

Now if you’re wondering just what a girl can do in a garden shed, here are a couple of ideas:

• Turn your shed into a studio of creative activity. Do you enjoy painting, writing, scrap booking, restoring old furniture or making anything at all? Get a decent sized shed, add a light and some furniture and hey presto – creative studio!
• If you’re into gardening, turn even a small shed into a little potting area where you can separate clumping plants, plant cuttings or pot up new items.

There’s a shed size to suit just about any activity you want to do in your back yard. A 3 metre x 3 metre Premier garden shed is only $499. If you’re going to share in the shed experience you could even consider sharing the shed with him – the 5.96 metre x 3 metres Highlander has two doors!

There have been some interesting things found in garden sheds over the years. Not just in Australia but all over the world. From rare oil paintings to hand grenades and even an amplifier believed to have been used by the Beatles.

Just in the past few weeks, law enforcement officers in Michigan USA found a methamphetamine lab in one chap’s garden shed. Police in Texas had an even bigger week – they found some kids locked in one garden shed behind a childcare centre and an old body in another one behind a Texas funeral home.

In Florida in 2007 – according to unverified and possibly completely untrue reports on Internet blogs – a man turned in a 1.2 metre missile launcher during a “kicks for guns” campaign. The program was exchanging shoes for firearms and the fellow wanted a pair for his daughter. Seems he found the missile launcher in an old shed he was dismantling. Yeah, right!

Now all of this fits very nicely with a study done on men and sheds. A story (originally published on www.news.com.au and republished online by The Courier Mail) reports that the study found men between the ages of 30-76 are likely to spend about 3.5 years of their life in their shed. But what’s really interesting is that the poll found that 40% of them lie about what they’re doing in there!

What will you be doing in your shed? Don’t worry – we’re too afraid to ask!