Hi,

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Gene

In article
,
wrote:

Hi,

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Gene

Nothing you ever do will stop the metal shed from looking like the spare
bedroom for trailer trash, or one gigantic garbage can in your yard. One
way or another, go for the wooden shed. It's frankly not all that hard to
build one from scratch out of salvaged boards. There's often a place at
big industrial plants that sell or even give away for free salvage
material like the big wooden boxes machinery is shipped in. With such wood
you could build a shed for next to free (even downloading free shed plans
off the net) then invest in nothing but the price of cedar shingles to
turn it from a patchwork of recycled wood into something that looks like a
cedar cabin.

But if you want it ready made, shop around. Some of them are amazingly
inexpensive, especially the kits you put together yourself. You'll never
find the best OR the cheapest at Home Depot or Lowes. What a shed is made
of also affects price. Red cedar has gotten expensive, but white cedar,
pine, or spruce can be a lot cheaper, just needing a good preservative
oiling as preservative and bring out the colors and patterns in the wood
nicely, or painting it like a miniature Victorian pink-lady.

When you got what you want, then plant climbing roses on THAT and it'll
always look good. You can landscape around it and make it a feature of a
garden, like a little cottage, instead of an unsightly horror you already
wish vines could hide.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com.html
visit my film reviews webiste:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

On 4/5/2008 8:40 PM, wrote:
Hi,

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Gene

Where do you live. Climate makes a lot of difference.

For year round coverage, try English ivy (Hedera helix).

My curbside mailbox is a plain country box, galvenized steel on a white
PVC post. I have dwarf English ivy (H. helix 'Hahn's') covering it.
Only the door is visible. The post and box are otherwise completely
hidden by the ivy.

For a shed, you might try the full size H. helix. It will take about
three years to cover (one year for the roots to get established and two
years to grow).

You might also consider Bougainvillea or creeping fig (Ficus pumila).
Both grow faster than ivy. The Bougainvillea will look great while it's
in bloom, and its thorns will keep prowlers away.

If you carefully drape chicken wire over the shed, you can cover it with
star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides). It won't cling to the shed
itself but will twine itself on the mesh.

All of these, however, are for climates where there is no freezing
weather and only light night-time frosts in the winter. The ivy and
star jasmine might be a bit more hardy.

Roses -- even climbers -- would have to be attached to the shed or even
to mesh. The others will cover without you having to attach them. If
you get freezing weather in the winter, roses lose their leaves.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

wrote in

oups.com:

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking
metal shed (because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

there is a reason metal sheds are cheaper.

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed
but they just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the
one who works hard.
So, I will get a metal shed

you need to think this through, and listen to your family.
maybe you're the one who works hard, but buying a metal shed
is not working smart.
metal sheds rust. the doors jam because they warp. the roof
will collapse from a minor snowload. they're too hot in the
summer & too cold in the winter.
buy or build a wooden shed. you, and your family will be much
happier for much longer than if you go with a cheap metal shed
that you will need to replace in 3 years (along with anything
stored in it)
i just bought a 10' x 12' shed, with 8x8 beams & a 3'
overhang by the doors, constructed for me, for just over
$2000. it would have been less if i bought it as a kit, but i
needed it in a hurry for a sick animal shelter.
yes, that's more than a metal shed, but it'll still be in use
25 years from now, when a metal shed (and 8 of it's sucessors)
would be a pile of dust.

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look
pretty in winter and summer?

there's no way to make a metal shed "look pretty". they're
ugly & get uglier rapidly.

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out
of my hair too.

until they have to pick out the ruins of everything stored
there when it collapses & you have to listen to a corous of
"we told you so!"

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

get a real shed, or build it yourself. in most places, if it
doesn't have a foundation, it won't be taxed. even your metal
shed will need a cement slab foundation. a wood shed can be a
pole building, without a foundation.
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

GeneCook2 wrote:

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Metal sheds become very hot on warm sunny days, the heat is radiated
and anything you plant in close proximity will cook.

Metal sheds are not necessarilly cheaper than wood. Granted there are
metal out buildings that are well made and will last for many years
but they are also quite costly (ie. Morton Buildings and others of
that type). But with the typical el cheapo hardware store metal shed
you'd be lucky to get five years before it looks like an old rusted
sardine can... they are so poorly made they can barely support
themselves let alone shelving and tools, a few gusts of wind adn they
buckle. Whereas a home made wooden shed is not very expensive and if
some thought is given to choice of materials and construction it can
easily last a lifetime. Providing the labor yourself there is no
reason why you can't have one of those fancy schmancy $3,000 ready
made wood jobs for under a grand and built twice as strong.

Most often cheap is expensive.

In article
,
Sheldon wrote:

GeneCook2 wrote:

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Metal sheds become very hot on warm sunny days, the heat is radiated
and anything you plant in close proximity will cook.

Metal sheds are not necessarilly cheaper than wood. Granted there are
metal out buildings that are well made and will last for many years
but they are also quite costly (ie. Morton Buildings and others of
that type). But with the typical el cheapo hardware store metal shed
you'd be lucky to get five years before it looks like an old rusted
sardine can... they are so poorly made they can barely support
themselves let alone shelving and tools, a few gusts of wind adn they
buckle. Whereas a home made wooden shed is not very expensive and if
some thought is given to choice of materials and construction it can
easily last a lifetime. Providing the labor yourself there is no
reason why you can't have one of those fancy schmancy $3,000 ready
made wood jobs for under a grand and built twice as strong.

Most often cheap is expensive.

Good call.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com.html
visit my film reviews webiste:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

On Apr 6, 12:51 pm, (paghat) wrote:
In article
,



Sheldon wrote:
GeneCook2 wrote:

I am new at gardening and I want to get a new clean looking metal shed
(because cheaper than wood and plastic sheds).

My family want me to buy an expensive kind of barn or shed but they
just spend my money, they don't earn it. I am the one who works hard.

So, I will get a metal shed

But it will not have atmosphere. How can I make it look pretty in
winter and summer?

If it looks good and has atmosphere, my family will get out of my hair
too.

Can I grow something over it or do you have other ideas?

Metal sheds become very hot on warm sunny days, the heat is radiated
and anything you plant in close proximity will cook.

Metal sheds are not necessarilly cheaper than wood. Granted there are
metal out buildings that are well made and will last for many years
but they are also quite costly (ie. Morton Buildings and others of
that type). But with the typical el cheapo hardware store metal shed
you'd be lucky to get five years before it looks like an old rusted
sardine can... they are so poorly made they can barely support
themselves let alone shelving and tools, a few gusts of wind adn they
buckle. Whereas a home made wooden shed is not very expensive and if
some thought is given to choice of materials and construction it can
easily last a lifetime. Providing the labor yourself there is no
reason why you can't have one of those fancy schmancy $3,000 ready
made wood jobs for under a grand and built twice as strong.

Most often cheap is expensive.

Good call.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:http://www.paghat.com.html
visit my film reviews webiste:http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

Thanks to all of you. I saw pics of nice cob sheds on the net but it
might take a long time till they are build.

Best wishes,

Gene