had for a while. Pine is okay to use for outdoor applications if it has been treated but only if it’s not going to be used where animals are concerned.
If, for example, you are making a bird table then you wouldn’t want to treat it with wood stain as this will keep the birds away for up to 12 months. With something like this plant shelf, that doesn’t matter. In this case, it may even ensure the plants don’t get pecked! Once completed I would give it a quick coat of wood stain anyway.
For the top section I cut 14 lengths
of the pine battens at 750mm long
and clamped them together using 2 sash clamps.
I then attached them to 3 battens measuring 350mm long, using 40mm general purpose screws. I attached one at each end 50mm in from the edge and also attached one in the middle.
The next job would be to make the feet to raise it up to the height needed.
Last week we assembled a couple of poly tunnels and as one had to be cut down to fit the area we had I ended up with some 50mm x 100mm off cuts. This would make the perfect foot sections.
I cut 6 pieces, 3 for each foot, at 350mm in length. Clamping these together with sash clamps I attached 2 battens to each foot section to hold them together in a similar fashion to the top section.
Making the foot sections out of wide pieces of wood removed the need for four legs and also the job of making the whole thing level. Sometimes getting 4 legs to all be level can be a pain. Anyway, these were then butted up to each end batten on the top section and attached using the same 40mm general purpose screws, driven through the top section and into the top of the feet.
This all seemed like a finished product but I felt that it needed some bracers to ensure the plant pots wouldn’t prove to heavy and collapse the whole thing. I also like to over engineer things so there is absolutely no chance of something falling to pieces!
To solve this I cut two pieces of pine with opposing 45o angles at each end. With these attached to the legs and top section the completed structure will be much sturdier. I simply drilled fixing holes in both the feet and the top section and screwed the bracers in place.
And there you have it, a simple yet effective plant pot plinth. Very alliterative and very simple to make. I have made 2, so far, but I
am sure more will be needed as time goes
by and more plant pots populate the garden.
I may even make some split level ones that incorporate different size pots. In fact, I am now formulating a design in my head of a square plant plinth that will surround a larger pot with smaller ones.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the workshop!