The Potting Shed

To some it might be coined the "basement." Except basements conjure images of moldy shag carpet, Absent windows, cobwebs, and decoration collection reservoirs. 

My basement, the one that used to be the original kitchen to the 1811 Pennsylvania Georgian home we bought almost 15 years ago, it's the most honest and genuine piece of real history the home still holds dear.

It is cool, quiet, and cozy. It has lived many lives, been forgotten for most of the last hundred years and now is the place that inspires the Tasha Tudor designer I grew up reading, dreaming and reveling into becoming. 

The floor is poured concrete. Exceptional for collecting water run off when all the outdoor seasonally sunning plants are brought inside to over winter. 

The ceilings are the original beams that hold up the living room, library and den above. The wiring and veins of the house are on display. I love the raw real feel of this room. 

No drafts thanks to insulated storm windows offering foot wide ledges for the cats to perch upon.

Two old rough workbenches keep the containers and pots at easy access. They are weathered and flank industrial to primitive.

When you have natural accent pieces used only for seasonal decorating the potting shed offers year around enjoyment and endless display opportunities. I use the huge pine cones as much in the non-snowing months as I do in the evergreen months. When they are this spectacular who wants to hide them in a closed box?

Apple crate keep tubers from over crowding, and an 8 foot long 4 paneled bench keeps the commercial potting gear hidden.

Litter boxes and dog proof cat feeding station are kept with fresh flowers all year long. Why shouldn't their table be formal too?

An old large barn door on short beams keeps the snow bird plants off the floor and under the grow lights. It also serves as a plentiful work surface for flower arranging in Summer.

We placed an old milk glass light over the old soapstone double sink. A deep sink helps clean big terracotta pots and very dirty hands.

The dahlias are cut and arranged every weekend. Nothing beats glamour like dinner plate blooms to brighten an old fortress.

The potting shed opens to the small back yard. The house is built on a bank overlooking a large pond.

I hope these inspire you to carve out a hidden piece of your home that needs a new life and a creative purpose.

As always, thanks to my pups Frippie, Storm and Charlie for modeling.

Please visit my other blog Diary Of A Real-Life Veterinarian. kmdvm.blogspot.com

Winter Flower Gardening. Potting and Plant Farmhouse Style

Getting inspired to get through Winter has been the primary motivation for many years when living in the land of snow, ice and below freezing temperatures. The best way I have come up with curtailing the misery of being deprived sunshine and greener days is to move inside and create my own lush oasis. For an old stone farmhouse it calls for creativity, vision, and meeting the needs of the soul while honoring the bones of the exoskeleton.

This year we turned the old basement, which was once the heart of the home, the kitchen, now wrinkled with wires and pipes to supply the main living areas above, with grow-lights and endless indoor possibilities to fuel new life and excise new life a few months earlier than nature would allow.

The nights come upon us early. I love the magical ambiance of this room at night. The lights are Edison bulbs, the over counter lights re-purposed industrial mercury glass we rescued and re-homed from a building in downtown Baltimore.

An old double soapstone sink we found many years ago in a salvage yard. It finally has a new place as the plant wash tub basin. It is deep, soft and unsurpassed in utility and beauty. Why can't an old stone house be all of that? It was in its origins.

Because everything we do has a bit of whimsy, a sarcastic veterinary charm, and always an animal.

The Halloween friends keep the plants company and the field critters reminded that cats live here.

The cat food bar...

The caged rat thinks twice about stealing the cat food.

Every kitchen needs a candy bar, and every potting area needs a bulb bar.. pick your favorites; hyacinth, tulip, paper white, amaryllis. Pick a pot, and let the imagination and anticipation run.

We also go on walks to collect the embellishments of moss, twigs with interesting bark, mushrooms, or new seedlings too fragile to be left outside over winter.

And, of course, Wren. This is her domain. She is a jungle cat at heart.. a tropical, warm, pampered jungle cat.. but fierce (in her own mind) none the less.

Daytime visit;

Outside is kept clean and buttoned up for Spring to revive it.

But a bit of company never hurts as an incentive to the days the birds will be back to start their new families once again.

Today,, winter approaches..