Potting Bench Suggestions Please!

Hey everyone,
DH and I were talking the other day about him building me a potting bench and I thought it may be a good idea to talk to some folks who use one regularly...so where better to ask than the Container Gardening Forum?? Well, I hope so anyway! :-)

I have a potting shed, that's shared with every outdoor tool and pot and the tiller and the snowblower and the lawnmower and the...well, you get the idea. I love my shed, but I'd also like to be OUT in the garden.

Last spring I think I planted 52 containers, so I'd be using my bench a lot. Anyone have any pics of theirs and could you tell me what you do and don't like about it? What you wish were different? DH can build pretty much anything from just a pic, so he can make me whatever I'd like...I just need to know what I want!

I'm really excited about this. I'm not sure when he'd be building it, but hopefully so I'd get to use it when I pot things up in May. Oh, sheesh, that's next month already, isn't it? LOL!

Thanks everyone!
Heather

Here's a couple links to ones that I really liked the looks of...

http://www.rd.com/images/tfhimport/2000/JA00_Cedar_Potting_Bench/20000701_Cedar_Potting_Bench_page001img001_size2.jpg
If you click on that pic it gets bigger. I like the soil bin(s) on this one, but I'm thinking no grate on the top of the "counter" part. I can just see myself losing my pencils, cuttings, seeds, and everything else through those grates...until I lose my mind! Maybe just another removable solid counter piece there...or just forgo it all together.

http://images.lowes.com/animate/PottingBench.pdf
I really like the looks of this one. Plain, simple, country. I don't know about those top shelves though. I'm planning on sitting at the bench mostly, so I'd have to consider that.

I'm planning on painting the bench...and the colors to use are a whole other conundrum! LOL!

Thanks,
Heather

I have four photos to show the one my DH made for me. I love it. Basic and simple. I didn't want the soil bin since I use four different potting mixes. The space at the bottom I now have filled with plastic bins to hold so many things. No pots for me right there but they are a few steps away in the garage so they're not in the snows of winter - same for the tools.

This shows when he was in the process of making it.

I took this one to show the bottom area so I could do the plastic bins, which I did.

Then we did over the kitchen and got rid of the granite so this piece was ideal for the top of the potting bench. Little did I know how hot it gets!

The top of a beautiful copper trellis he made came off in a terrible wind storm so I use it as my window over the potting bench and the clematis covers it.

When I'm busy potting up plants I could never consider keeping it as perfect as the ideal photos in your links. It's just a step too far for me but I'm ancient and you're not so get what you want.

Somehow I always assume DG people I don't know are in their 30's and 40's and never imagine they're as old as I am. A bar stool could be used at the potting bench but make sure you have enough knee room. If I ever get it cleaned up and in ideal photographic conditions I'll take another photo.

That clematis covers too much of my copper window so that will have to be cut back and kept cut back. It could be a part time job!

Yes, copper has gone crazy in price. I'm glad I got all I wanted done before that happened!!!

Hi Ladies,

I like the bench in that pic from Lowes. I like the pegs for hanging tools!

I think a good feature on a potting bench (although mine doesn't have it!) is a hole cut in it with a bucket or trash can below so you can swipe things from the surface into the bucket easily.

I took a photo of one like that but it takes two photos to show it, one from the top and one from the bottom to show how her hubby could do it.

View underneath.

I like those pics, that was what I was thinking of when I said no grates, no slots on the counter. I also like the size of the basin they used for the soil. I think too big would get too heavy and there's no way I'd be able to reach the bottom of it. I was thinking two different spots (basins under the counter) to hold soils because a lot of times I work with different soils...like you said you do Pirl, but usually only special mixes for specific plants. I suppose I could do that with just one basin, but having one for my basic soil and another for the special mix I'm using just seems more convenient. I don't know. I guess I'll have to think on that one for a while...

It's always worth thinking about. I know I'd never keep tools as neat and perfectly clean as they show in the links so that was out. Then there are the tools we always need for just one job so having all the tools in a clear plastic container, under the bench, was the answer for me. Having water nearby was a priority for me so we had yet another outdoor spigot put in about 3' from the potting bench.

Yes, yes, yes, the water issue! That's one of my biggest gripes about my potting shed. I have to drag the hose from all the way out front through the whole garden and yard. Then tote everything out of the shed to water it. The potting bench would go right beside a new faucet hook up DH is putting in this spring/summer on our patio...and no more toting pots to water them or dragging hoses around.

My other gripe is that I hate toting all the flowers in and out of the shed. The first year I had the shed I didn't even think about it and I left all the flowers and plants in the shed till I was done. They suffered from a BIG lack of sunshine.

The way things are right now I have 2 or 3 wooden baskets with handles on the front porch and that's where my tools and gloves go. One for the dirty stuff, one to hold ferts and etc, and the last one is used for picking tomatoes and cukes, etc. One year I even planted some Swan River Daisies in one. I hope I find those again someday because they are so useful in the garden and just the perfect size.

Look in thrift shops. I'm sure they're my biggest asset when it comes to knives for dividing perennials (no need to dig and divide when you can do it directly in the ground), vases galore at $1.00 each (when not on sale at 2/$1.00), clothes for my scarecrow, baskets of all kinds, picture frames, etc.

I love the thrift shops too. I don't get to go as much as I used to though. You just never know what you might find for a $1. One Goodwill near here is such a nice store, it's just like a regular dept. store...only smaller. They get clothes in with the store tags still on them. I took my nephew shopping there once...and he thought it was so stupid on the drive up...but once we got in the store he went crazy over all the Tommy stuff and other names. These kids need to learn how to shop!

here is another site that links to potting benches

http://tipnut.com/potting-bench-plans/

Thanks for the link. DH has 3 projects lined up to build for me right now after a trip to Lowe's yesterday so I guess I have some time here to decide what I really want to do. On that one plan I kinda liked how the soil bins slid out...but if I'm going to be sitting I'd also want to be able to get to them through the counter of the bench. I don't see why DH couldn't make it so it worked both ways. I mean, why not make this as complicated as possible for him, right? LOL!

YVW

I've been following this thread to see what you comeup with. Someday I want to have a potting bench also. I do have a potting shed, but it has become a catch all for everything I don't want visitors to see! Also no water.

They do easily become a catch all. We pretty much empty ours out every spring and fall to rearrange things for the next season...and I can't believe how much plain old junk we pull out each time. What's worse is that I often put a lot of that plain old junk back in! Someday I'll learn...or you'll end up seeing me on TV on one of those shows where they come and force you to throw out all your junk.

emptying and hanging some cabinets is on my to do list for this spring. Hopefully I won't put the junk back in!

Yeah, I hear you. My DH calls me a pack rat...but then whenever he needs some crazy thing at 10:00 at night he's soooo glad I have it. Like when the water heater went bonkers at bedtime and he needed a gasket...I had it. It's all junk until it suddenly becomes valuable!

ain't that the truth!

Here is my potting bench. I bought it in a kit last year and DH and I put it together. This pic was taken after I was through planting my containers and it was cleaned up - should of seen it before!! It got a lot of use!! This year I got a garden hutch type shed to put next to it to keep my tools in. Eleanor

This is the hutch - also a kit that we put together!! Eleanor

and this is the inside! Eleanor

That's nice! Where'd you get the kit?

Hi SCNewbie! The hutch came from Lowes - on clearance for less than half the original price ($399 marked down to $159). The potting bench came from Adams All Natural Cedar - an on-line company with free shipping. Eleanor

Cool - thank you!!