Creating A Workshop Space in Your Garden

Whether you have a hobby you truly love, are trying to update and improve your home and its contents, or are considering embarking on an exciting new career working for yourself, having a workshop space in your garden can be invaluable. A workshop can allow you to make and mend in a way that is often not really possible with the space limitations of most of our homes.

If you are planning a workshop garden building, there are many decisions to be made – not just about where to put a workshop, how big it should be and its exactly design and specifications but also about how to integrate your workshop into your garden through planting schemes, orientation and clever design features. A utility space should be beautiful as well as useful and practical.

Once you have established whether you are allowed to build a garden building where you would like one, you will obviously have to choose your materials and design. Think about more than just practicalities – will it fit in well with your garden and the surrounding 'borrowed' landscape? Natural materials will often meld in well, though sometimes planting will be needed to 'root' the structure in place. Think about planting trees and shrubs around your garden building as soon as it goes in, so the man made structure begins its work of disappearing into the natural surroundings.

Another way to tie the workshop garden building into its surroundings is to consider a green roof, planted with low maintenance plants, native wild flowers or even vegetables. Just make sure to consider the strength of the roof when you make your plans and ensure it is going to be strong enough to meet your requirements. Another thing to think about on the roof of any building that you place in your garden is solar panels.

If the site is suitable, solar panels, a small wind turbine or another form of renewable energy could provide the power you will need for lighting, possibly also for heating and tools. Think carefully about what you will be using your workshop for and how much power you will need – if possible, see if you can meet those needs with renewable sources of electricity.

Power, sockets and lights are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to planning the inside of your garden workshop. Gardening is a skill that goes hand in hand with a wide range of other skills and projects. Whatever your plans, it is a good idea to build some flexibility into the project, so you can take up new and different projects without too much of an upheaval.