11 Oct Spruce up your backyard with a shed and some landscaping

The warmer weather is here all over the country and there’s a good chance you’ll want to spend your weekends and leisure time outside over the coming months.

Maybe it’s the perfect time to add a shed and/or cubby house to your backyard?

As we’ve said in a few of our previous posts, getting a functional and attractive garden shed is the ideal way to declutter your house and garden.

But it can be so much more.

It can be a focal point for relaxing and entertaining friends.

It can be a dedicated, customised work space where you can be in your element, allowing you to be more productive.

Or it can be a place for potting (and pottering) and provide a perfect position for presenting your prized plants!

What’s around your shed?

If gardening is your thing – or, at least, one of them – you should give a bit of thought to how a garden shed can not only be practical but also enhance the way you present your outdoor space.

In other words, the structure can and should complement the flora – and vice versa.

We’ve done a little digging (get it?) and found some examples of how people have landscaped around their sheds.

Maybe you can find some inspiration.

Is this a pair of sheds with a garden around or a garden with a pair of sheds in the middle? Either way, it’s quite a clever idea to have a slightly smaller potting shed as an annex to a larger storage shed. And it certainly looks like it’s meant to be in that garden.

There’s a few ideas here, and they’ve managed to get them all working together. A hanging plant fits neatly on one corner with the big hydrangea diagonally opposite almost hiding the entire right-side wall. Window boxes certainly don’t suit every shed or every garden setting, but they can add some colour fairly easily.

This is a great idea for adding a bit of interest around a shed that’s just sitting in the middle of an expanse of lawn – especially, as in this case, if it’s slightly raised. It looks much more ‘bedded down’ with the rocks and a bit of mulch around it, and a couple of plants at the front corners makes it more welcoming, too.

A nice, neat approach is bricking off a garden bed in front and around the sides of your shed. This look, with slightly taller plants close to the shed and lower-profile, more colourful ones in front, is a great example of how a shed can look like it belongs rather than just having been plonked down in a spare spot.

This shed owner has used a couple of neat tricks. The trellis is in a good spot to soften the most prominent corner. And that’s not a window. The shed wall is solid, but she’s found an old window frame and put mirrored glass in the panes, reflecting the garden!

How you landscape around your shed is limited only by your imagination (and maybe your budget!). There are lots of plants that sit nicely alongside an outdoor structure and we’re spoilt for choice in Australia with different shapes and colours.

So, why not start by picking a shed from the Stilla range, and then have a think about what sort of plants, rocks, paths, planters, and other features can help your shed look right at home in your backyard.