potting shed creations

By Terri Schmidt, Co-op volunteer writer

Potting Shed Creations has wonderful gifts for your friends and loved ones for Valentine’s Day or any other day of the year. They have created a full line of plant and seed-related gift kits. The gifts are creative and the packaging is beautiful—they will bring joy to your special someone. Check out their display shelf at the Co-op.

Owners Ann and Peter Killen both grew up in Wisconsin. Ann earned a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration. Peter has undergrad degrees in both English and Psychology, as well as a masters in Clinical Psychology. In 1998, Ann created a well-organized seed saving kit in their home. When they sent a prototype to the largest English garden company they could think of, to their surprise the company called and wanted everything they had in stock but in reality they only had one. After many long nights making more kits, they met the deadline and Potting Shed was born.

As the business grew, they moved to the old Pullman Garden Center building on the Moscow-Pullman Highway, but before long more space was needed. After looking unsuccessfully for a place in Moscow, they found an opportunity which had opened up in Troy. In 2005, the couple purchased the old elementary school in Troy. Ann said, “The people in Troy were so generous and welcoming.” Around that time, Peter left his job and began working at the business full-time. The former school offers the space needed, with offices upstairs and production and shipping downstairs.

Potting Shed Creations offers 144 products, including scatter gardens, gardens in a bag, pocket gardens, gardens in a pail, seed starts, and bulbs. Many of their products are unusual, such as “Dog Grass,” “Pocket Garden for Wine Lovers,” “Native Bee Bottle,” “Succulent Vertical Terrarium,” and a “Stone Soup” kit. Their ten employees put all the kits together by hand and everything is done in-house from illustration and writing to printing. When hiring, Ann and Peter look for people who have good attention to detail. The company’s philosophy is “People make better products than machines.” Ann said, “Our most complicated machines are a glue gun and a grommet machine.”

The business gets their flower, vegetable and herb seeds from professional seed growers in the United States and around the world. The vegetable and herb seed are organic, and all the seed is open-pollinated, non-GMO. Potting Shed uses OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) listed growing components in all their gardens.

I love the exquisite artistry of Potting Shed packaging. All are truly works of art. Ann puts her experience as a graphic designer to good use. She says the work is a group effort. Ann will present an idea or design and get input from the employees. They work hard on research and include well-thought-out, easy to follow directions with their products. Communicating well with their customers is important to them, and they stand by everything they make.

An interesting side of Potting Shed is their custom work. This began with a seed kit for Kendall-Jackson wine estate and gardens in California. The company asked if they could design a garden kit using the vineyard’s tomato seeds. After that successful experience, the company began offering designs for corporations, special events, weddings, fundraising, and more. For example, Anthropologie’s garden company, Terrain, wanted a specific scatter garden for bees with their logo and a certain color of ribbon, and Potting Shed designed and made it for them.

Potting Shed Creation’s only local retail outlet is the Moscow Food Co-op. They also have a full line of products available online. Most of their sales are wholesale. They make products for large companies, like Barnes & Noble, but mainly for boutiques, mom and pop gift shops, art galleries, museums, book and kitchen shops. Peter said they used to sell worldwide, but the rules for shipping seeds internationally got complicated so now they keep sales limited to the U.S. and Canada.

The company has a lovely purpose statement: “Potting Shed is a design company inspired by nature, reclaimed objects, a love of food, science, and modern culture, with a simple focus—to design and make, by hand, genuine products for everyday living.”

To see their products and learn more about Potting Shed Creations, come visit the Co-op or check out their Instagram: www.instagram.com/pottingshedcreations and website: https://pottingshedcreations.com.