My family and I were very pleased with our garden’s output this year. But we did notice one problem as we tended our plot: The tools were too far away, probably 150 feet from our growing space. As anyone who grows food knows, this can mean lots of walking back and forth to fetch tools as needs arise. The solution? I’m going to build a garden shed.
The structure won’t be anything fancy. An 8-by-12-foot shelter should suffice to hold our soil, tools, hoses and other garden necessities.
This need for a garden shed wasn’t a surprise, and we’d already begun preparations for it. Thus far, this mainly means leveling a predetermined area with soil from our home build. But now it’s time to rough dimensions on our building site.
Read more: Should you buy or build a garden shed?
Square Things Up
For starters, we know we need the shed to be square with our existing outbuilding. As that outbuilding was built to also be square with our house, I know that, if I determine placement based on this building, it will also be squared up with the house.
(Is this necessary? No, but I think things just look nicer when all the lines are parallel to each other.)
How will I do this? Well, first I gather up a few simple tools:
- string
- four stakes
- a hammer
I tie the string to the third post of my four-post outbuilding porch, then walk to the future shed pad, stretching the string as I go. Once I’ve reached the point where my back post will go, I can drive a stake and tie the string to it.
So long as the string is just touching the first and second post on my outbuilding, I can be certain my line is parallel to the outbuilding.
Then I can measure the length of my intended garden shed (in my case, 8 feet) and drive a second stake to establish the inner corner. Measuring 12 feet from each of these stakes, I can drive two more stakes 8 feet apart to rough in the back corners of my garden shed.
Check out the video to see this plan in action, and stay tuned for future videos of this garden shed build.
