The Potting Shed

The Potting Shed — a quiet, offline journal for the patient hand. Every plant on the bench gets a brass tag, a watering schedule, and a page of its own. Every drink you pour is a line in the log; every fortnight kept green is a small celebration printed in the margin.

WHAT IT IS

The Potting Shed is a houseplant care journal in the spirit of a Victorian gardener's seed-catalog ledger. Deep moss-green paper, cream-coloured ink, oxidised brass plant tags, terracotta pot stripes, sage-leaf accents. No social feed. No streak monsters. No notifications nagging you in the supermarket. You open the shed, you check who is thirsty, you fill the watering can, you put the lid back on.

THE SHED PAGE

The home screen opens like a seed-catalog frontispiece. A small italic strapline at the top — "a record of all things kept green" — sits above the wordmark "The Potting Shed" in heavy serif, flanked by a tiny sage-leaf ornament. Below it, in a brass-coloured monospace, the year and edition.

Then a full-width terracotta-coloured action bar that reads "water a plant — make the rounds". This is your one quick way in. No menus. Tap, pick a plant from the list, type the millilitres, pour. The bar's circular plus-mark sits inside a small brass ring on the left, like a metal stamp on a watering tin.

THE DRAUGHT

Under the action bar, three small statistics in a single row: how many plants are due today, how many waterings you have already done, and the total millilitres poured. Numbers in serif; labels in mono caps. Quiet. Measured.

DUE FOR A DRINK

The next section lists every plant whose watering interval has come due. Each plant is a brass-tagged row with a hanging-tag ornament on the left, a terracotta stripe on the far edge, the plant's common name in serif, the latin name italicised below, the location and category in mono caps, and on the right — a serif "DUE" or "X days late" tag in drafting red.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

The same row layout for plants that will need water in the next three days. Amber tags on the side, calmer tone. Long-press to pour now; tap to open the plant's full history.

THE WEEK, IN WATERINGS

A seven-cell strip across the page shows, for each day of the past week, how many care events you logged that day. Today is highlighted in terracotta; the other days fade. Tiny day initials and date numbers above the bars; a count below.

RESTING IN THE CATALOGUE

Plants that don't need anything right now sit at the bottom, in the same brass-tag layout but with a calmer sage-coloured "in X days" status on the right.

THE COLOPHON

At the very bottom of the scroll, a single fine rule and two lines of italic serif and mono: the name of the shed, the year, your lifetime millilitres poured, and the total number of care events you have logged.

THE BENCH

Two dock buttons at the foot of the screen — "II GREENHOUSE REGISTER" and "III POTTING BENCH" — take you to the full plant register (every plant ranked by health and largest watering ever) and the bench (add a new plant, edit care notes, change units, or clear the bench and begin a new season).

WHAT IT DOES NOT DO

— It does not connect to the internet.
— It does not share your data.
— It does not gamify your watering.
— It does not buzz at you in the middle of a meeting.

WHAT IT KEEPS

— Every watering, feeding, repot, and note, with date and millilitres.
— A "days since last drink" reading for every plant on the bench.
— A "due in X days" projection based on each plant's recommended interval.
— Your current streak of care days and the milestones earned: three days still green, a week of good watering, a fortnight not a wilt, a month of morning rounds, a full year in the shed.

ENCRYPTION

Your shed log stays on your device, behind a key held in the secure keystore. The shed door is yours alone.

EDITION I — ANNO MMXXVI

Printed for the gardeners' guild. Vol. I, page 14 of L.