A Place To Pot
For honest-to-goodness gardeners, the potting bench is where it’s at. It’s where great gardeners are created and where they practice their craft. It’s where plants are born, nurtured and moved along until they’re ready to go out into the garden or onto the patio.
If you’re tired of squatting on the driveway or patio to pot things up, you really need a potting bench, one tall enough so that you don’t have to stoop and sturdy enough to hold a hefty pot full of wet soil.
You could lay a few boards across stacks of concrete blocks, buy a ready-made bench or build this one, but every gardener needs a potting bench, just as a carpenter needs a workbench.
On my bench, I pile the potting soil in one corner of a three-sided bin on top and keep bat guano, bone meal and other fertilizers nearby. There’s room for flats, dibbles, labels, trowels and other tools on either side of the bin.
Stockpile soil mixes, amendments and miscellaneous pots underneath. Pin calendars, planting charts and notes about when to sow those sweet pea seeds to the back.
Hang a light overhead so you can pot and play after work. Better yet, put the bench in a potting shed. There, everything’s out of the weather, including bags of fertilizer, boxes filled with dormant bulbs and packets of seed. A shed measuring about 7 by 8 feet would be just right, holding everything from the bench to the lawn mower.
Imagine your bench under a window in the shed, rain tapping on the roof while you pot up some daffodils for the patio, the rich soil darkly glowing in the soft gray light coming through the panes, the air damp and cool, scented with soil. Someday.
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For now, you can build the bench, probably in a weekend. If you’re not handy, give this article to someone who is and remind him or her of that anniversary or birthday just around the corner.
The design you see here is based on a woodworking bench that I built 20 years ago from old plans. It’s still as sturdy as it was the day I tightened the last bolt.
Screws and bolts are one of reasons these benches are so strong and wobble-free. As the wood shrinks with time, you can tighten them. There are no nails to loosen. This is especially important outdoors because wood dries and shrinks quickly.
Those wide 1-by-12s on the sides and ends are equally important; their width stiffens the structure so it doesn’t jiggle. Don’t skimp here. If you want to save money, replace the rather expensive ($4 a foot) 2-by-12s on top with exterior plywood or some other surface. The top can always be replaced if it wears out, but you want a very beefy frame supporting it.
The heart of the bench is the three-sided bin that keeps potting soil in place. No more sweeping up spilled mix. Keep some soil pushed into one corner so you’re always ready to pot.
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There is a lip on the bench so you can brush unused soil back into the bags. Keep most of the soil in bags under the bench so it doesn’t dry out. You could put boards across the leg supports to make shelves, but it’s probably better to keep the heavy bags on the ground underneath, along with extra pots.
My bench is 3 feet tall; others might find this too lofty, although kitchen counters are typically 3 feet. If you want a lower bench, shorten the legs.
I used good redwood from a lumberyard to build the bench because it’s easy to work with (it cuts like warm butter) and, more important, because any splinters are small and not as potentially dangerous as they are on the stronger but less expensive Douglas fir. (That’s why redwood is used for decking.)
It’s really a simple project, especially for someone with a radial arm saw. I used a power circular saw and drill, but it could even be built with a handsaw and old-fashioned brace and bit. Just remember the adage: “Measure twice and cut once.”
Our bench cost about $100 to build out of clear construction redwood.
If you can’t build the bench and can’t talk anyone else into taking on the project, there are potting benches you can buy, some through the mail, though none is as big and sturdy as ours.
The most functional is a galvanized steel stand with sides to hold the potting mix. It’s English, costs about $60 and is available from Langenbach (Department L64100, P.O. Box 1420, Lawndale, CA 90260-6320, [800] 362-1991).
More romantic but not as practical because there are no sides to contain the soil (though there are lots of shelves) are two wooden benches, an especially sturdy cedar one for about $245 from the Natural Gardening Co. (217 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo, CA 94960, [707] 766-9303) and one for about $175 from Gardener’s Eden (P.O. Box 7307, San Francisco, CA 94120-7307, [800] 822-9600).
Some Armstrong nurseries sell a potting bench much like the catalog versions, and it does have sides, although they are not as high as the sides on our bench. It’s about $80.
Gardener’s Supply Co. (128 Intervale Road, Burlington, VT 05401) has a nice 3-foot-long cedar bench with sides to hold soil, plus shelves and drawers, for $165.
Sitting under the eaves in the side yard, or in a potting shed, you’re now ready to fill those flats with potting soil and plant fall’s vegetables or flowers from seed; rescue that root-bound plant, turn it upside down and tap it out of its container, repotting it into something larger; or mix up an especially sandy soil in the bin, take some tip cuttings and try rooting some favorite plants.
Now you’re really gardening.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
LOS ANGELES GARDEN SHOW
Times Garden Editor Robert Smaus will put his potting bench to use at next month’s Los Angeles Garden Show in a daily talk and demonstration, “Secrets of the Potting Shed.”
He will show how to build simple seed-starting flats, soil sieves and other accessories for the bench and how to propagate and pot outdoor plants.
The Garden Show will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 23 to 27 at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Smaus will speak at 10:30 a.m. on weekdays, noon on the weekend.
The show is sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and Robinsons-May. Admission is $8 at the gate; children under 12 will be admitted free.
BEFORE YOU START
Tools needed:
* Screwdriver
* Drill with 1/2-inch bit and countersink
* Hammer and chisel
* Tape measure
* Jigsaw
* Adjustable wrench
* Circular saw (or hand saw) Note: Not to scale
List of materials:
Wood
Two 2-by-12s, 6 feet long
Four 2-by-4s, 3 1/2 feet long
Two 2-by-4s, 2 feet long
Two 1-by-12s, 6 feet long
Two 1-by-12s, 2 feet long
Two 1-by-6s, 2 feet long
Hardware
Eight 3/8-inch-by-4-inch bolts (with nuts and washers)
Thirty-six 1 1/2-inch wood screws (No. 8)
Twenty 3 1/2-inch No. 10 wood screws (No. 10)
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1. BENCH LEGS
Notch cuts: Decide on a comfortable height and then cut legs from 3 1/2-foot 2x4s. 16 inches from the bottom of each leg, make a 3/4-inch deep cut. On the same side, measure 3 1/2 inches from the top end and make a 1 1/2-inch-deep cut.
Create notches: Make vertical cuts from top and bottom to meet up with shallow cuts. Top cut will be 1 1/2 inches in from the side of the 2x4 leg. Bottom cut will be 3/4 of an inch in from the same side and 16 inches long.
Note: If using a circular saw, remove remaining wood with chisel.
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2. LEG BRACES
Brace assembly: After cutting 2x4 and 1x12 braces 20 1/2 inches long, set them into leg notches. Attach top 2x4 braces with 4-inch-long bolts. Attach bottom 1x12 brace using 1 1/2-inch wood screws (No. 8).
Tip: To prevent wood from splitting, predrill holes through the 1x12 and countersink holes in braces.
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3. BENCH BRACES
Back brace and backboard:
Cut 1x12 to 6 feet long. Attach 1x12 to back legs with 1 1/2-inch screws.
Front brace:
Attach 5-foot, 1 1/2-inch-long 1x12 to front of legs with 1 1/2-inch screws.
Tip: A dinner plate can be used as a template to create curve from legs to bench top.
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4. BENCH TOP
Work surface:
Trim 2x12s so they are 6 feet long.
Attach top:
Make sure boards for the top of the bench fit snugly against back brace. Attach 2x12 boards to leg braces with 3 1/2-inch screws (No. 10). Use 1 1/2-inch screws to attach back brace to bench top.
Attach partition:
Attach each 1x6 to bench top from underneath with 3 1/2-inch screws and from back brace with 1 1/2-inch screws.
