Home Truths reporter, Sue Elliott-Nichols flings open the doors of the nation’s garden sheds to discover what’s going on in there …
Sue: To enter a man’s shed is to inhale his private world of oily rags and rusty keys that don’t work - visitors are only tolerated if they don’t stay or sit down. John Cross is an old hand - he's on his 5th shed. It's designed with an eye to the finest detail - size 14ft by 10ft, sporting pictures on the wall, a carefully considered colour scheme ...
John: "I feel relaxed with green. A paraffin lamp would set it off a treat, but my wife won’t let me. This is a baby alarm which we use as an intercom between the shed and the house. My wife contacts me at meal times or when there’s a phone call. I paint my toy soldiers in here - I’ve got thousands. I sit in here quietly painting my private armies. This is mine - this is where I come to be on my own to cogitate. I have special dress code for in here - an ancient pair of jeans with a hole in the knee, a baseball cap and a body warmer."
Sue: What would you feel like if you found your wife in here?
John: "Dumfounded, threatened, worried, frightened, but because we are a good team, I think I’d allow her one corner - just one."
Sue: Sally had a vision of a cosy potting shed, where she could hang her secateurs, listen to the radio and daydream about seedlings. Her partner, Garry, had other ideas... and Sally’s pots have been relegated to a shelf.
Sally: "Tools on the workbench, tools underneath it, golf clubs in corner, spanners on the wall, mountain bike helmet and gloves and goodness knows what else… It's a very male domain. I don’t get much of a look-in."
Sue: The dialpidated state of Phil "Two Sheds" Davies' sheds became too much for his wife, Naomi..."It’s me or the sheds…" she said.
Phil: "So I painted my two sheds a lovely duck-egg blue with Egyptian gold trims round the outside…"
Naomi: "They glinted in the sunlight and they did look lovely - but they’re still full of junk, completely useless and take up half the garden…"
