Constant bending over, back pain and potting soil all over the patio or greenhouse floor? If you, as a hobby gardener, are familiar with these problems, then you certainly do not yet have a planting table. Because this is an irreplaceable helper when it comes to repotting, planting, pricking out or sowing. You can even use such a practical piece of furniture on the balcony if you have a lot of plants there, or trim your indoor plants on it. In addition to the worktop, it usually has shelves and shelves or a special area for hanging instruments or cloths. Of course you can buy such a table in a specialist shop. But these have their price. If you want to save money and have a bit of manual skills, you can also build a planting table yourself. Today we will tell you how you can do this and what is important.
Working with the plants is just a lot easier with a planting table
Tips for designing the perfect plant table
Whether you’re upcycling a piece of furniture or building a planter table from scratch, here are a few things to keep in mind:
the right height
Make sure the worktop is the correct height.
The planting table should look something like your kitchen counter. Any lower height will cause you to bend over while working. This can lead to chronic, uncomfortable tension and back pain. In addition, a surface that is too high makes it difficult to see what you are doing. You can then not really feel comfortable and have less fun with your garden work.
Elegantly made of wood, the planting table serves as a useful eye-catcher
materials
Choose high-quality and durable wood that can withstand moisture and sunlight for a long time. Red cedar and acacia are best, but pressure treated wood can also work well. Pallets are also a proven and sustainable material for outdoor furniture in general.
Sufficient storage and hanging space
Built-in drawers, shelves, hooks, pegboards, trellises and more provide numerous storage solutions for garden tools and accessories. Just think about which items you use most often and how you want to store them.
Nice and tidy and always available
The right location
Outdoor plant tables should be close to the garden and have plenty of natural light. Place your plant table under a tree or against a wall to provide a little shelter from the elements while you work. Of course you can also set it up in a shed or garage. Try to place the table as close to a window as possible for the best light and air circulation.
More mobility
Add some wheels to your DIY planting table and you can move it around with ease. Outdoor plant tables definitely need to be brought indoors over the winter, so adding 2 or 4 wheels will certainly make the job a lot easier.
Make your garden helper even more practical with wheels
Build a planting table yourself – simple instructions
In this case, we are talking about a practical helper made of pallets. We give you the steps below and you can change them according to your personal needs. The number of pallets you need depends on the size and shape of the plant table. If you can peel off enough boards to make the work surface, you won’t need more than 3 or 4 pallets. A longer palette can be used as a backing.
You basically need:
- 3-4 standard pallets
- 1 longer pallet
- Tongs
- hammer
- nails
- Sandpaper for wood
You can determine the height of the piece of furniture yourself
And this is how it’s done:
- Get enough boards to create the work surface of the planting table. To do this, you should hammer the boards loose from the back and then pry them off.
- Take out all the nails from the boards that you removed. You can then use these again when building the table.
- You will also need about 5 wooden planks (38 x 98 mm) so you should completely disassemble at least 2 pallets.
- Find out how deep you want your workspace to be. Cut the 2 sides at 50cm and then cut back another 2 in the width of your pallet.
- Measure how high you want your planting table to be and cut two of the wooden boards to the desired height.
- Attach a wooden board to the back at the height you want your table to be.
- Add the legs to the 2 smaller side pieces and then attach them to the back piece.
- Cut out your last wooden board and attach it to the front of the DIY planting table.
- Put the part in place and add the boards to create the workspace.
- The final step is to lightly sand any areas that need it and add hooks to hang all of your gardening tools. Finished!
An open shelf at the top is also a great idea
Building a plant table yourself is, as you can already see, not rocket science. You can even make this out of pallets, saving money and resources. We wish you lots of creative joy and good luck!
Upcycling ideas are also absolutely right here
Add some vintage flair to your creation!
An integrated sink provides even more comfort when working at the planting table
