Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: savbo on January 03, 2012, 12:23
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A project for this year is to organise my 2 potting benches, in the greenhouses at home and on the plot. What do people think makes for the perfect bench?
My starter for 10...
- compost tray with sides and a high back, to make filling pots and shovelling up compost easy. I'm going to make mine from a sheet of Dibond (aluminium/plastic composite they use for signmaking) that I've come across
- shelves to hand for most commonly-used pot sizes, seed trays, dibbers, tampers, and labels
- a bucket below for spent compost, and another for compostables
- an old towel for cleaning my hands!
- a watering can always full so it can warm up a bit
- a radio...
sav
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A stool to sit on
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sounds lovely. I'd need the cat to be able to get in and out too. Aaaaah, if only I had the space for one. I' d love to be there, listening to the cricket on the radio, doing my potting on..........
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space for the mug of tea...and perhaps a packet of biccies...
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A bucket each for grit and perlite.
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A little jam jar containing labels and a marker pen :blink:
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An electronic bleeper would be helpful to warn me every time I'm about to bump my stupid head on the stupid roof (shorter legs would also work but might be a bit expensive and/or painful!) :wacko:
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Because our greenhouse is rather small, I use one of these.
As the greenhouse fills up, it can be removed from the bench top to create a little more space for seedlings.
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I use one of those as well Gwiz, jolly useful.
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Gwiz, where's that one from if you don't mind me asking? I could get that for my birthday and save the Dibond for something else. Or throw it away...
sav
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greenfingers.com (other websites are available, etc) are currently doing it on special for £9.99. It might be cheaper elsewhere.
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That particular one is from two west and Elliot.
There will be a link to them on this website.
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Thanks Gwiz and Plum - identical photos on both sites but cheaper on one...
I've seen another online but it had a corrugated base which seems a bad design to me...
now - should I buy one or two?
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Buy two and send me the second :blink:
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I bought one of these about 2 years ago and I find it ideal, especially the side where you can store things like dibbers, trowel etc.. :)
http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-care-watering/growing/growing_pots___saucers/-specificproducttype-potting_benches/Sankey-Multipurpose-Handy-Bench-Green-W-520-x-L-600mm-9436522
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Gwiz, where's that one from if you don't mind me asking? I could get that for my birthday and save the Dibond for something else. Or throw it away...
sav
Buy ! I made mine out of MDF, varnished it once, then bolted it to an old Jones sewing machine table, I get to play with the foot treadle now the kids have got older, they used to hang on and pump it like mad & I used to pretend to pot faster lol
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I noticed Monty has a nice wooden potting bench, think it was in plywood....with all his pots in shelves around him...
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I bought one of these about 2 years ago and I find it ideal, especially the side where you can store things like dibbers, trowel etc.. :)
http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-care-watering/growing/growing_pots___saucers/-specificproducttype-potting_benches/Sankey-Multipurpose-Handy-Bench-Green-W-520-x-L-600mm-9436522
hmmm - this is one with a corrugated bottom - that doesn't make scooping up the last of the compost tricky?
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I have an old stainless steel sink with draining board in a piece of work top, its sits between two benches. I fill the sink with compost for potting.
I keep sand in a bucket for mixing with compost for cuttings.
Also have a piece of slate to cut material for cuttings on, a sharp blade in a plastic tub to keep it dry, an old cup to fill with water to dip cutting base before going into rooting powder.
A jam jar with marker pens and labels cut from plastic bottles. :happy:
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hmmm - this is one with a corrugated bottom - that doesn't make scooping up the last of the compost tricky?
The one I have has a flat bottom and very easy to scoop out every bit of compost, maybe they have changed their design??
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Gwiz, where's that one from if you don't mind me asking? I could get that for my birthday and save the Dibond for something else. Or throw it away...
sav
Buy ! I made mine out of MDF, varnished it once, then bolted it to an old Jones sewing machine table, I get to play with the foot treadle now the kids have got older, they used to hang on and pump it like mad & I used to pretend to pot faster lol
That conjures up a wonderful picture & made me laugh out loud. :D
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so I've bought 2 Stewart potting trays with shelves for £8 each, looking forward to starting to use them!
Hmmm a digital radio next :)
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Haven't got a digital for the greenhouse, but we bought an excellent value wind up radio from tesco for about a tenner.
Glad you've got your potting benches sorted. :)
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+1 on the wind-up radio... brilliant for the greenhouse/potting shed!