THE HE-BUILT SHE-SHED

We watch three wild turkeys stroll past the shed. “That’s my neighbor’s property,” she says, motioning in the direction of the birds. When Deer is sitting in the shed, she can’t see her own yard or home. This outward orientation is intentional. “Sitting here,” she says, “I can’t see all that needs to be done. I can just be right here—in this little spot that could be anywhere— and breathe in, and breathe out.”

THE PASSION SHED East Sandwich

You have to get up early to join Linda Colgan in her shed. “I like to sit here in the morning, have a cup of coffee, and plan my day,” she says. And a good day for Linda includes some time in the dirt.

En route to Linda’s backyard refuge, I notice a small Eden on the roof of her house. Veggies and herbs, she tells me, fed by a gutter watering system. “I don’t have to worry about bunnies or groundhogs up there,” she explains. We pass a half-moon bed hannon Goheen’s birthday greeting from her husband, Tom Huettner, was an illustrated promise. Happy She-Shed by the Seashore, it read, beneath a sketch of two sheds he planned to build for her. Shannon, a landscape designer who co-owns Second Nature Garden Works with her husband, says they had been talking about an outdoor structure for a while. “I wanted a space of my own,” says Shannon, pointing out that Tom already has a couple of sheds for “his stuff” on their 1-acre wooded property in Dennis Port.

“I love the night,” says Shannon, whose online persona, the Evening Gown Gardener, dons vintage formal wear to dispense planting and growing advice under the cover of darkness. “I love to work at night, and garden at night, and just be outdoors at night. But my backyard is too buggy. I wanted a place where I could be outdoors— but also feel protected.” The answer? A sophisticated screen room, where Shannon plans to sit, think, and listen, especially at night. But what about space for Shannon’s plant tapestries—beautiful framed weavings using natural materials like seaweed, wheat, and eelgrass— or those large-scale garden designs? Walk across the wooden deck to enter her 10-by-12-foot work shed.

This two-shed labor of love is also a lesson in thrift and reuse. The steps to the central deck were recycled from a client who upgraded to stone, and a large bundle of remnant boards from Mid-Cape Home Center ($100) will provide most of the framing. Shannon and Tom found French doors at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, where they are also hunting windows. “I feel incredibly fortunate to be the recipient of not one shed but two,” says Shannon. “I can’t wait to see them!” of rose bushes before we reach our destination: a 12-by-14-foot silvershingled shed, graced with overflowing window boxes and filled with light.

The day before I visited, Linda hosted 80 guests as part of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival. “A lot of people noticed the shed,” she says, showing me the map she handed out to visitors. “One woman told me she had shed envy.” I get it. For me, it’s the perfectly level stone floor—a pattern of muted reds and grays, squares and rectangles. It’s a floor that could be in a Tuscan courtyard, and I want to take it home with me.

“This is the reason for the shed,” she says, directing my attention to a handsome potting bench. The surfaces are pine, bathed in a reddish stain; the supports are glossy green. The bench has a built-in soil tray with a screen. The cubbyholes in the attached hutch hold small pots and tiny treasures. “My son built this and gave it to me as a gift. When I laid eyes on it, I knew I couldn’t let it stay outdoors.”

I turn toward the door, where I see a small array of tools, some on hooks and some leaning against the wall. “My husband’s corner,” Linda says. “That’s as far as I let him in.” She smiles to let me know she’s joking. But this shed is clearly Linda’s space in form and function. Here, she feeds her passion—sifting soil at her handmade potting bench, poring over seed catalogs, sipping coffee, and deciding when it’s safe to move the tomatoes outdoors. So I have to ask: “Just one chair?”

“Yes.” Linda flashes me a conspiratorial grin. “That’s on purpose.”

THE SOCIAL SHED Brewster

When Stephaine Meads began dreaming of her she-shed, she wasn’t seeking solitude. “I love to entertain,” she tells me, as we cross a smooth stone expanse that hugs an elegantly curved swimming pool. Her bulldog, Lulu, tags along. Stephaine nods in the direction of another bulldog, this one cast in cement and standing guard at the edge of the pool. “That’s Lulu II.”

It would be easy to be distracted by this lovely outdoor living space, but ahead the gray clapboard shed beckons. Today the copper whale atop the custom cupola is unmoving, and the French doors beneath the attached pergola are closed, conserving the cool air inside. The family business is heating and cooling, and Stephaine’s 12-by-14-foot poolside retreat is climate-controlled.