We love 'she sheds', 'man caves' and horticultural wardrobes

Whether you use it as an extra room or for storing cans of paint, here's how to look after the structure at the end of your garden 

Cuprinol Shed of the Year 2021 Nature's Haven category winner - The Hideaway created by Rosemary Hoult, pictured with her husband.

Greyed out, strangled in Hammer House of Horror shrubs, and up to the sills in damp grass, a neglected timber shed will do what all wooden things do. It will try to return in nutrient-rich splinters to Mother Earth. Rain is trying to get in, moisture in the shed is working its way out, and the building is being slowly, but steadily pulled apart by natural forces. 

Even if you don’t want a she-shed or man-cave (the latter described by my husband as the whole house in the 1950s) it’s a shame to ignore a promising focal feature with pleasing angularity in your otherwise softly billowing planting.