All Seasons Plant Bench
All Seasons Plant Bench
This bench was designed to be my all seasons plant bench for nursery use. Spring, Summer, Fall, and yes our cold nasty Winters of Zone 5b-6a.
I don’t have the area needed to lay out all my plants in nice open rows with space in between. I need to make the most out of what little space I have. If you are in a similar situation, stick around.
I started with covering all the area with black nursery plastic. That helps to keep weeds at bay and makes a clean and neat area.
Ready for the benches
My bench design is 3 feet wide and 8 feet long. I use rolled fencing with 2 inch by 4 inch mesh openings. It is made with 12 gauge wire and comes in 3 foot width.
This size is also easy to reach across. Even my wife can reach pots on the opposite side if needed and she is only a bit more than 5 feet tall. Wider fencing would obviously require wider benches.
You can make the benches as long as you’d like but they’ll need extra legs and supports. I’ll keep it simple for now at this size. The benches are about 2 feet high.
Wood is the key
The key to this whole all seasons plant bench idea is wood. The whole thing is made from wood. Even the legs are made from 4 x 4 wood. This comes in handy later in winter.
My tops are made from 2 x 4 boards screwed together. I make them about 37 inches wide. This allows a little extra width for the fencing added on the top.
That fencing is stapled down in every opening for better tautness. Trust me, the potted plants will make it sag a bit. Cross pieces of 2 x 4 add support.
A 4 x 4 x 8 foot long cut into 4 pieces is used for the legs. Many people opt for concrete blocks stacked up to support their bench tops. That works for the warmer months but not for winter.
Less weeds
With the potted plants sitting about 2 feet up in the air, I believe they miss out on lots of the weed seeds that are being blown about. This is my belief and I see the results. I do very little weeding of my pots during the growing season.
I actually get more weeds in side holes than on top. I do use a pre-emergent herbacide to prevent weeds. My bigger pots that are on the ground do get weeds in them.
Time for the 4th season
After sitting on top of the benches all season, it is now approaching winter. I want my plants on the ground for winter. Ground heat will help protect the plants.
Covering my plants is also desirable. What about covering the benches? We pack our pots as close together as possible underneath the benches.
With a simple support frame, I can cover 2 benches together with one piece of white plastic. For me that means a square of about 14 feet.
Anchoring the plastic
This is where the wood legs come into their own. Sure you can try holding down that plastic with sandbags, cement blocks, big boards, and whatever. I do it an easy way.
Once the plastic is draped over the benches, it is held in place with a simple firring strip screwed to the wood legs. Firring strips are just narrow boards about 2 inches wide. About the cheapest boards available.
Come springtime and time to uncover, all I have to do is remove the screws and boards. The plastic comes off and is folded up. Yes, we reuse our white plastic for several years.
A few years back, on a cold and rainy March day, my friend and mentor, Mike McGroarty, was here shooting some videos for his Youtube audience. One of the videos was shot in my main nursery area. We went over the use of my benches.
The plants are placed back on top of the benches and the all seasons bench for plants continues for another year.
