Photography by Hodges Usry

A Martinez couple built a “pandemic potting shed” themselves to fulfill a vision and to pass the time during quarantine.

In the 13 years that Martinez residents Phyllis and Rob Collier have lived in their Watervale home, they have made several additions to the property. They built a master bedroom downstairs and a detached garage that serves as a workshop for Rob and a gym for Phyllis. They also planted a garden on the side yard.

Despite all of these home improvements, there was still one project that Phyllis, who calls herself and her husband “yard nuts,” always wanted to pursue.

“I’ve always wanted a shed to have a place to keep my gardening supplies and to do my potting,” she says.

The Colliers love to antique, so anytime Phyllis found a treasure at a quaint little shop, she would buy it and save it for future use in the shed. For instance, when she found two long antique shutters, each with a diamond-shaped cutout, she knew they would be part of the shed.

“I had them stored away. Rob knows not to question if I have a vision for something,” she says. “I knew the shed was something I wanted to do eventually.”

Putting in the Work
The time to build the shed finally arrived last March when everyone was quarantined because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Phyllis and Rob, an internal medicine physician at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and a former builder, got to work, and their “Pandemic Potting Shed” started to bloom.

“He drew it and came up with the concept,” says Phyllis. “I told him what I wanted.”

Finishing the project in September, it took them about six months to complete the 8-foot square shed.

“When the weather was nice, we worked on it every day,” Phyllis says.

Rob framed the building, and after his back went out, Phyllis dug the footings.

They used old brick that Phyllis found on Facebook Marketplace for the floor, which they laid themselves. They had the 1-foot-by-6-foot treated pine siding custom-made, and sometimes patience was required to complete their labor of love. They had to wait for the floor to dry after they laid the brick, and it took four months for the specially ordered siding to arrive.

Phyllis found the porch light for the shed at an antique store in Warner Robbins. “It looked like there was no way to reuse it,” she says.

The shed also includes a metal roof and awning windows. Phyllis found the windows and door, which was missing a glass pane, at a local antique shop. She also painted the antique shutters moss green, and they flank either side of the door.

“I wanted everything for the shed to be old,” Phyllis says.

She got strands of grapevine from a friend in Millen who makes grapevine wreaths, and she wrapped the vine around the eaves of the front porch. “I can put lilac in it, or confederate jasmine can grow up into it,” says Phyllis.

The shed is enclosed under a treehouse that the Colliers built for their eight grandchildren several years ago, and the ladder to the treehouse is inside the shed.

“I learned a lot. I had never laid a brick before,” says Phyllis. “We’re avid cross fitters, but I got a good workout when we built the shed.”

‘Winging It’
In the shed, Phyllis keeps lots of clay pots, an old antique bench and indoor plants. Rustic heart pine shelving provides additional storage space, and the shed also has power and running water.

“Sometimes I just go in the shed and hang out,” Phyllis says.

The Colliers have three raised beds in the yard, and they plant annuals and perennials. Phyllis especially loves daffodils and tulips, and she does most of her gardening in the spring and the fall. They grow some vegetables including tomatoes, cucumber and squash as well.

“I’m not a master gardener,” says Phyllis. “I’m just winging it.”

One of these days, the Colliers hope to get to their next project – adding an outdoor living space off of the sunroom. In the meantime, they can enjoy their new potting shed and appreciate the therapeutic qualities the building process had for them.

“I had energy that I couldn’t channel because we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything,” Phyllis says. “It was fun to see the progress and think, ‘Wow! I did that myself.’”

By Sarah James

Georgia’s garden expert, Walter Reeves, offers a week-by-week guide to gardening in May

Week One

Treat azaleas for lace bugs
Treat for azalea lace bugs if you’ve had problems in the past. Insecticidal soap, horticultural oil and synthetic insecticide chemicals all work well, sprayed under the leaves.

Check trees for beetles
Look for tiny “toothpicks” on the trunk of your Japanese maple, Kwansan cherry and other small landscape trees. The Asian ambrosia beetle is spreading death-dealing fungus inside the trunk.

Plant summer flowers
Plant coleus, geraniums, petunias and vinca for summer-long color in your landscape.

Level your lawn
Fill the ruts and low spots in your lawn with a 1:1 mixture of sand and topsoil. Sweep with a broom afterwards to expose growing grass blades.

Week Two

Ward off caterpillars
Apply Bacillus thuringiensis to cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower to ward off cabbage looper caterpillar damage as these plants mature.

Trim crape myrtle sprouts
Snip off sprouts from the base and lower trunk of crape myrtles that are being trained to grow in an upright tree form.

Remove dead limbs
Remove leafless limbs from shade trees. If they don’t have leaves by now, they won’t be coming back.

Divide your irises
Dig, divide and transplant your crowded irises to a better location, if needed, after they bloom.

Prune azaleas
Prune early flowering azaleas now that they have finished blooming. Remove tall sprouts at their base, inside the shrub.

Week Three

Prune rhododendrons
Pinch out the growing tips of rhododendron limbs now that flowers are gone. You’ll get many more flowers next year.

Plant herbs for mealtime flavor
Plant rosemary, basil, oregano, dill and other herbs to use in time for some tasty summer meals.

Mulch tomatoes
Place a newspaper mulch 10 sheets thick under tomato plants to prevent leaf diseases. Cover with any organic mulch.

Plant more vegetables
Plant corn, squash, beans and peas now that the soil is quite warm. Make another planting of corn in two weeks.

Make an automatic waterer
Drill a one-eighth-inch hole in the cap of a two-liter soft drink bottle. Fill the bottle, cap it and upend it in the soil of your patio plants to slowly water them during the day.

Week Four

Control fire ants
Control fire ants by lightly scattering a bait over your lawn. Forty-eight hours later, use an insecticide on any large mounds you can see. Repeat in September.

Water your plants
Plants need an inch of water per week. What’s an inch of water? If rainfall or irrigation fills an empty soup can to a depth of one inch, that’s just what plants need.

Help your houseplants
Don’t put rocks in the bottom of houseplant pots. They actually decrease drainage and aeration for the plant roots.

Water at night
The best time to water is between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. This allows the grass to dry before nightfall the next day and prevents disease.

Used by permission, walterreeves.com. Garden expert, writer, radio and television host Walter Reeves hosted Georgia Public Television’s “Your Southern Garden,” DIY Network’s “Garden Sense” and “The Lawn and Garden Show with Walter Reeves” on Atlanta’s WSB radio.