potting shed - what is it?

I read this in Jeremy Clarkson's, "I know you got soul" in the chapter on Spitfire:

"After a great deal of fettling and tweaking they got it up to 335 mph, but this was only 5 mph faster than Hawker's much simpler and cheaper Hurricane. So, being British, the engineers took their pipes to the potting shed and realised that the propeller's tips were encountering Mach problems."

The only meaning of "potting shed" I was able to find is "gardener's shed where they keep young plants/seedlings in pots". I do not quite see (or rather I quite don't see :-?) why the engineers should take their pipes to any such place in order to overcome the Mach problems.

Jeremy Clarkson is not talking literally. All of the underlined passage is figurative, and is instantly recognisable and amusing to British men of a certain age....
So, being British, the engineers took their pipes to the potting shed and realised that the propeller's tips were encountering Mach problems."


British men are said to love our garden sheds [potting sheds] as somewhere to get away from our wives; either by ourselves, or with like-minded friends; somewhere to "potter about", doing things that we want to [as opposed to doing things that our wives tell us to]. Also, the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes smoked his pipe whenever he wanted to think his way through a particularly difficult puzzle ["This is a two pipe problem, Watson", he said...]. So, Clarkson is being whimsical and amusing by playing on British stereotypes. He is not actually suggesting that the Mach problem was solved in a potting shed, as opposed to a wind tunnel or laboratory.

And I thought you all had wind tunnels in your garden sheds!

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Originally Posted by SoothingDave

And I thought you all had wind tunnels in your garden sheds!

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I did live in a 10' by 8' shed once for a couple of years. It had electricity, heating, running water, and I was proud of its bedroom, study, toilet and washroom sections. I never did get round to the wind tunnel, though.

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Originally Posted by 5jj

I did live in a 10' by 8' shed once for a couple of years.

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That confession sends a powerful message about the Mrs considering what Grumpy wrote in his post #2 about reasons for men to retire to their potting sheds. :roll:

Gardeners do not keep their seedlings in the potting shed. They would die from lack of light (the seedlings, not the gardeners). The potting shed is used for "potting up" seedlings, that is to say, transplanting them from seed trays into individual pots.

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Originally Posted by bhaisahab

Gardeners do not keep their seedlings in the potting shed. They would die from lack of light (the seedlings, not the gardeners). The potting shed is used for "potting up" seedlings, that is to say, transplanting them from seed trays into individual pots.

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Are potting sheds by definition windowless? My garden shed has two windows - so it is hardly a glass or greenhouse - and I always keep potted up tomato seedlings inside near those windows until it is safe for them outdoors (around 15th May where I live)

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Originally Posted by JarekSteliga

Are potting sheds by definition windowless?

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No

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Originally Posted by JarekSteliga

I always keep potted up tomato seedlings inside near those windows until it is safe for them outdoors (around 15th May where I live)

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Wow - May 15th. That's very specific!

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

Wow - May 15th. That's very specific!

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But is in fact less incredible/silly/incongruous/absurd/startling etc than your, "Wow" implies ;-). Nearly a hundred years worth of statistical analysis points out to 15th May as the last day in a year when outdoor plant life threatening frosts are likely to occur. This rule holds true for Poland, Holland, Slovenia and Germany and is well embeded in both religious and folk tradition. May 15th enjoys its own very special names in the context of gardening, "Zimna Zośka" in Poland, "Ijsheiligen" in Holland and "Eisheiligen" in Germany.

And yes, statistics can be eerily precise. I once conducted an experiment (prompted by my statistics teacher) tossing a coin a hundred times. I counted 50 heads and an equal number of tails, which freaked me out.