Wish for a charming garden gate that could hide storage or just add quaintness to your yard? Here’s how a reclaimed wooden gate and a front porch step was added to a shed for instant enhancement!

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Reclaimed wooden gate and front porch step for a garden shed

 

Every season, I like to add new, interesting features to the rustic garden shed located in my backyard.

This little garden shed has long been a favorite focal point! Last summer, DIY window box planters really added a nice way to feature more flowers!

In fact, I’ve done so many additions to the garden shed over the years, HERE’S a post that showcases 20+ easy garden shed additions anyone can add to their own!

But as with everything else, if you don’t keep things up, features can deteriorate quickly… and this summer has proven to be no different.

Not only are the snow skis still on from the winter shed HERE…

Garden storage area before

 

The weeds have come back in full force. Welcome to the boneyard!

This hidden storage area is located behind the garden shed. In the spring, it was completely clean. But leave it for a few months, and the area becomes riddled with tall weeds.

I’ve always wanted to come up with a more permanent solution, so until that day, let’s move onto a more manageable challenge for a moment…

If you look closely, there’s a pallet positioned in front of the back shed door acting as a very inefficient step, thanks to all those weeds!

Pallets seem to work well in front of the garden shed serving as a main front porch though!

I guess the key is weeding. Heh.

A disappearing pallet front step

 

The lone pallet was never the perfect front porch step anyway, but it served the purpose until something better came along.

And today was the day! In more ways than one.

First, I landed two reclaimed wood gates thinking if I installed one in this area, it would offer privacy by hiding the weeds behind the shed. Which it did!

However, the gate was barely installed when a neighbour was giving away this wooden front step built from landscape ties. The durability seemed intact!

So lugging it across the yard on a dolly, I was hoping it may work as a new and improved front porch step for the garden shed… if I buried a portion of it to achieve the right level. It was worth a shot for free, right?!

Adding a hefty new front porch step

 

A pre-made step made with landscape ties was gifted to me. It had a top and sides. I felt, why not use this? It’s as sturdy as all get-out, and it was prebuilt so may as well see if it will work. And it did. Fabulously I might add!

1. Position the step in conjunction to where you wish for it to be installed.
2. Dig a trench space to sit the legs for each side.
3. Small gravel could be placed in the holes prior for better drainage and longevity if desired. I didn’t do this step.
4. Lower the step, and reposition / dig more until it sits level.
5. Fill in with soil so just the top is exposed.

It’s a nice looking step isn’t it? And chimes in perfectly with a rustic shed.

First, I positioned the step in alignment to the back door.

Digging to fit the step

 

Then deep ruts were dug on on both sides so the step legs had somewhere to lower into, which would allow the door to clear the steps.

The digging was a little trickier since this area is fairly root bound thanks to that big sumac tree overhead!

Which led me to thoughts of:

• Getting tired: Why didn’t I wait until my son was home to help with this? HE doesn’t get winded!
• More tired: I like pallets. What was the problem again?!
• Dead tired: I know what the problem is. Finding new stuff!

Ah well. I’ve yet to regret a better improvement, even if it takes a little elbow grease. Especially when the price starts at zero.

The buried front porch step

 

Then after shifting the step until it fit, the holes were filled with dirt to secure the step.

Voila! The step is now officially buried in the dirt, providing the perfect-sized and super sturdy front porch step that resembles a wooden doormat!

Weeding the garden storage area

 

But after all that digging, one thing lead to another. I was already digging up a good portion of the area  lifting weeds, so I kept going!

There were so many large weeds, they ended up filling my entire, largest sized green cart! That’s a lot of weeds.

How to forever-weed

 

I was asked on social media how I weeded, so this is the method I try and use. Although this round, I didn’t attempt to remove all the roots. This was meant more as a quick clean up.

1. Water soil well if it’s very dry and hard.
2. Dig a large garden shovel into the soil, then push it back to loosen the weed.
3. Pull out entire weed with roots intact if possible.
4. Compost weeds to your city’s green bin recycling if you have it.
5. One can compost from home, but it’s said to not add actual weeds to your compost bin, as they will reseed if you use the compost on your garden.

I use to compost (see how HERE), and I admit having natural garden fertilizer or a manure mix on hand all the time did come in very handy back in the day? But I found rodents became an issue. So for now I green cart the weeds so the city recycles it for me.

I’d like to get into composting again, along with trying a rain barrel and perhaps more flowerbeds like I use to HERE, but it’s a much bigger commitment. The deal I have with myself is, if I can keep up what I have, I can have more. So let’s hope!

And then it was done! It’s quite a nice large area once cleaned up, which can provide plenty of outdoor garden equipment storage when needed.

I do have some visions on what I’d like to do to this space as it’s nicely tucked under a big shade tree facing a park out back:

Visions on the future of this garden space

 

• Add a few shade loving perennials along the borders
• Put down landscape fabric and bark mulch for a cleaner and more permanent ground cover
• Some garden stepping stones from the gate to the step
• Maybe tuck in a garden chair to enjoy the shady spot
• (and add board siding to the rest of the shed like THIS!)

What would you do with this space? Your opinions are welcome!

The attached wooden gate

 

Then close the wooden gate and everything is nicely hidden behind those beefy slats! How lucky did I get?

HERE’S a few garden gates on Amazon to check out!

The top of the gate is a perfect height too! It hides just enough without being too tricky to peek over.

How to install a ready-made gate

 

1. Choose a gate width that works for your space. (I got very lucky!)
2. Remove the original gate hinges.
3. Test how the gate swings open.
4. Reposition, and attach the hinges back onto the gate frame with screws.
5. Set something under the bottom of the gate with the amount of ground clearance you desire.
6. Attach the other side of the hinges to your post or structure. In my case, the shed.
7. Test the swinging, that it clears the ground, and you have a way to keep the gate closed. I pushed a bent pipe into the ground and swivel it as needed.

Adding wooden fence gate latches works if you have a fence post to attach it to! But I don’t so I’ll leave that part out.

Gates aren’t hard to make if you don’t find one though. You can do a search on garden gates online to find a style that works for you, then build to suit.

Or try THIS easy rustic wood garden garden gate I made a couple summers ago.

That reclaimed garden gate could not have been a more perfect fit though, don’t you agree?!

And when needed, the entire side opens up wide enough for easy access to most anything.

However for today, thanks to a simple gate and wooden steps, the garden shed is looking much more complete!

Plus… now if the weeds grow big again, who’s to know? (other than myself)

These pickets have quite a unique shape that hides the space behind it well too.

Ahhh. The wooden gate of my dreams.

Why small increments in projects win the race

 

Just goes to show, just as Rome wasn’t built overnight, nor are the constant and evolving improvements to this garden shed story.

But when you happen to land small pieces that become important parts of a larger story, they are worth celebrating and sharing too!

I often wait until larger reveals to blog about what I’m up to. But I think a better plan is to share the in-between smaller stuff too. I certainly don’t work like a TV show where everything’s done in an hour. It often takes an entire season or even a year to complete something because when you repurpose, you wait to see what you can find first.

Waiting takes longer, but the results are so gratifying… and more affordable too!

So please don’t feel too discouraged when you see a project that appears to transpire quickly. I can guarantee you, LOTS more hard work and hours than what is shown went into it.

Progress is the true reward to those who decide roll up their sleeves and do what you can WHEN you can.

As I say to myself, as long as the needle is moving forward and not backwards, you’re doing awesome!

Now about those weeds in the window box planters? I’ll work on that next.

And finally add some string lights, perhaps larger flowerbeds…. and on it goes.

This little outside space will most definitely be continued….

More garden shed design ideas:

 

How to build a simple garden gate from scrap wood

20+ easy garden shed ideas to add to your own!

How the garden shed started

Save the Shed series: when the original shed deteriorated and was rebuilt back even better