Shed O'Fun

Not many people get excited about sheds. The name alone denotes a garden outbuilding that is functional and rarely a thing of beauty and a space to spend time in, apart from when you store and retrieve ones garden implements. There are loads of exceptions out there of course but for a majority the aforementioned descriptions holds true.

But I'm glad to say that the shed we have been actively building since mid August is one we're both very excited with. The structure will still be and look functional, tucked away within the working area so will not be very visible (you'll get a glimpse of it as you walk past the koi pond towards the koi filter house) but the bit we're both most excited with is that it is potentially a space we'll spend lots of time in especially during the winter months.

The jungle veranda - nice during the warmer months but too exposed during the winter plus it is used for plant storage. Same with space beyond the patio doors (curtains are removed in the winter to let as much light in)

A sort of a 'man cave', that's what it will be.

Man cave? Don't we have one already? Funny enough no despite all the existing garden structures we have. Sure we can spend some time in them during the warmer months (like the jungle veranda) but rarely during the colder months. Those spaces are usually utilised for plant storage during the winter and are usually both too crowded and uncomfortable to hang out in at that period.

I found that the larger of our two greenhouses is actually a nice place to sit in and hang out during the summer when it had more free space as most if its winter residents were outside

I suppose our home really is a very comfy man cave already so there was no need to have one to start with. But a space to hang out in, separate from the house still isn't such a bad idea to have and sounds fun. We had been looking at ready made sheds such as these at Shedstore but with the pond partly built and wanting to build to the maximum the space would allow we opted to make our own.

It started out first as an allocated space for a quarantine pond which we started to build early last year but stalled as we prioritised our house renovation and sorting out the garden after the fire. When we finally resumed the work last August it quickly dawned on us that this quarantine pond will be much more than just that. That the shed we'll build over it is a potential space to spend time in during the colder months.

Thinking about it, this enclosed space:

Will have a mini koi pond.

Will be insulated and gently heated during the winter.

Will have space overwinter some plants.

Should have enough space left for a small table and a couple of folding chairs.

An enclosed space with a koi pond and plants in it, some of our top favourite things! We can both hang out in it and I'm sure the cats can join us too, even better!

A man cave, a shed o'fun!

The pond will hold about 2,800 litres of water, we want to make sure it is very well filtered. As a result we have spent quite a lot of time planning the filtration and choosing between options.

Our current plan - which may still change is to use a combination of a home-made vortex filter with K1 filter media in it - this will provide biological filtration as well as also encouraging solid waste to fall out of suspension to be drained away from the bottom of the vortex. There are lots of ways of making these home made filters, but having seen one at a fellow member of our Koi Club we will use a water butt as the vortex and then house the media within a smaller canister inside.

In addition to the large DIY filter we will use an Oase Filtomatic 6000, this is a new self cleaning filter with built in UVC. The filter itself will be pump fed with a gravity back into the pond. These filters are suggested for ponds larger than this one will be, so with the combination of the vortex and Oase filter we expect to keep the water in pretty good condition. With any luck we will have the pond up and running before too much longer!

But before that, a little refresher on our preparation for the area last year

So here it was first, foundations for the quarantine pond being built in the merry month of May 2013

Ballast and concrete for base poured in

Alas, with space a premium this border had to be sacrificed. Sorry Forest Pansy but the bamboos should be fine

In building the shed over the quarantine pond we have recycled a few items like:

Remember our decked area, adjacent to the house and just outside our back doors?

That area is now the sun room. We saved most of the deck boards and will now be the flooring inside the shed

We also reused most of the clear corrugated plastic roofing that was on the rain shelters. These panels have been stored away for years as we don't use rain shelters anymore.

As the clear roofing above indicates, sections of this shed will be translucent to let in as much natural light as possible. But there will be air gaps which will act as insulation and improve heat retention.

Anyway, rather than make this post too long and photo intensive I'll feature the various stages of this little but fun project of ours in separate installments (perhaps two or three more). Most of the main structure is now done except for the door which will be a day on itself to do.

Oh and our project manager...

Mark :-)

Posted in: exotic blog , exotic garden , exotic garden blog , Shed