Wooden storage boxes are made of wood. Sounds so obvious it’s daft, doesn’t it. Then why aren’t they common currency in every garden throughout the land? British gardeners persist in storing their outdoor essentials in hideous plastic contraptions – or, worse, some kind of metal object that only has to look at an April “shower” for its hinges to rust shut and swallow everything inside it forever.
Let’s look at metal storage options first. These have to be about the silliest things ever to end up in a garden in a country where 364 out of every 365 days sees rain fall somewhere. Doesn’t matter what kind of metal it is – anodised, galvanised, laced with Kryptonite: metal can’t hack the English climate. Why do you think we need garden storage in the first place? To protect our tools. Which are all made of metal. Wooden storage boxes can be treated with proper weatherproofing – tarred, like the deck of a ship, if necessary: and that actually keeps those tools safe from the elements. Metal ones, made of the same material gardeners are trying to protect, stand, to lacerate a popular phrase, a gnat’s chance in a thunderstorm.
So. Wooden storage boxes win by a knockout. Next up: plastic. Plastic is weatherproof; it’s cheap; and it’s in greatly common use through the length and breadth of the British Isles. Mostly thanks to the post-war economy drives of the 1950s, where all the metal had been turned into bombs and all the wood had been blown up. The thing about plastic, though – like most stuff from 1950s Britain – is this. It’s uglier than sin, and it smells awful when it gets hot. Especially if it’s just been wet. Wooden storage boxes score over the widely used cheap alternative of plastic in several important ways: one, wooden storage boxes look nice; two, wooden storage boxes smell nice (ever been in an old shed? It smells divine); and three, they’re far more versatile in terms of space. A plastic container has to go where it fits. A wooden one can be shaped to fit anywhere.
We live in a bit of a rubbish age, financially and visually. Financially, we can’t afford to move anymore because houses either cost so much they might as well be made of gold, or banks have lost so much they won’t lend anyone any cash. Visually, everything is designed to be indoors – all black plastic and silver metal. Gardens, which are about the only havens we have left (and if we can’t move anymore, we might as well make the most of them), look ridiculous filled with modern materials. Wooden storage boxes offer the perfect solution. They’re good looking and they’re cheap. Making the most of them could bring your haven back to life.
