Homemade Potting Bench

Potting benches can be something simple to save your back. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Potting benches can be something simple to save your back. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Potting Bench

Several years ago, I decided I wanted a potting bench on my deck. Something simple, where I could pot plants without hurting my back. A place where I could haul my cut flowers and still enjoy the outdoors while I was getting them arranged in a flower vase. Or two.

Dozens of websites later, I saw a wide range of potting benches from cute cottage style to elaborate, professional-grade florist potting tables. They were lovely. Some were very expensive. And none of them would fit on either my small deck or in my garage, where I wanted to store it for easy access.

Enter my handyman who saw me eyeing this lovely old aged wood plank. What are you going to do with that, he asked. I don’t know, I just like it. It’s old and weathered, like me. I wonder what stories it could tell.

A few days later, I found this very simple potting table waiting for me in my garage. It’s the perfect height to pot plants without bending over. It’s also narrow enough to easily get stored in front of my garage open shelving.

The legs were made out of remnant wood. The only thing we had to buy where the metal brackets that fit underneath to hold the table legs to the top.

If I don’t want to stand, I can now use a stool when I’m working on the bench. And I doubt there is any damage I can cause to the top.

Sometimes simple is better.

Charlotte