Photo credit: Real Simple magazine

Real Simple, one of my favorite magazines for its practical and semi-spiritual content, suggests in this month's issue (there is make-up on the cover) that getting organized isn't just something you do in closets. You do it in the garden, too.

The magazine published this wonderful picture of a very colorful, very clean, very organized potting table and lots of very perfect gardening tools and accessories.

It could make a gardener cry.

But here are the suggestions that go with the pretty picture in the May issue:

1. Shelf. Hang a galvanized-metal shelf ($129, Peddlers Home Design, 205-877-3030) on the back of the house or the side of a shed to store extra pots. Spray the unit with clear Rust-Oleum and it can stay outside year-round.

2. Potting bench. This indoor-outdoor garden center ($200, amazon.com) folds up and features two roomy shelves, plus a trellised back for hanging tools and twine. It’s made of fir, a hardy wood that withstands winter weather.

3. Bushel baskets. Keep them on hand for fresh-picked produce and weeds ($6 each, michaels.com for locations).

4. Pots. Bags of potting soil and fertilizer can tip over easily (and they’re not much to look at, either). Instead, pour the soil into rarely used pots, or try these blue Imusa enamel vessels ($28 each, amazon.com).

5. Hose organizer. You can’t attach a wall-mounted hose organizer to a brick house or one with fragile shingles. The steel Hose Butler ($35, merrifieldgardencenter.com) sticks in the ground and can be easily repositioned.

6. Buckets. These galvanized-metal English Keepers ($39 to $59 each, smithandhawken.com) have locking lids so squirrels can’t get at birdseed.