How I Set Up My Garden's Potting Table

What's Working for Me

how I set up my potting table

TJ got me a potting table for Mother’s Day last year, and I instantly went to the Internet for tips from someone about how they set theirs up, and what was helpful and what wasn’t, and all the things we now expect to learn from strangers giving their thoughts away for free…

I didn’t find it, somehow. Maybe it’s out there? What even are the algorithms in these AI days?

Anyway, I fumbled my way through it on my own, and I’m quite happy with where I’ve landed. So I decided to be that person on the Internet giving away my thoughts. Take these free thoughts for what they’re worth!

What Is a Potting Table?

Or bench… sometimes people call it a potting “bench,” but I can’t see how it’s a bench in American English. It’s a table specifically designed to make potting plants simple and easy. It’s at a comfortable height, designed with cracks between the boards so you can sweep soil through to tidy it up. You can keep your supplies on it.

Where Should I Locate a Potting Table?

I recommend three things when it comes to placement:

1. Near a natural route from a door in your house that you use regularly.
   I placed mine right off my back porch.

2. Near a water spigot.
   The whole point of a potting table is to make potting and tending seedlings easy. It’s not easy if you have to cart water from somewhere else. I bought a splitter so that I could use the hose or water directly from the spigot.

   

3. In light or dappled shade.
   I have found it helpful to not have a potting table in full sun. For one, it makes it more comfortable for ME when I’m working at it. But two, this makes it really useful as a spot to place seedlings you are “hardening off” after starting indoors, or small plants you transplanted to a pot that need some time to settle in. Generally, a nice soft environment like this has been perfect for me.

What Should I Stock in a Potting Table?

Here’s what I have:

• A large watering can and a small watering can that can be left outside in the elements

• Water-tight bins for soil, amendments and tools (gloves, spades, hori hori, hand saw, pruners, etc.)

• Miscellaneous pots in a variety of sizes and materials

• A small hand broom for brushing off soil and leaves

• A trug

How Do I Get the Most Out of a Potting Table?

Use it! Mine instantly became the starting point of any time I spend in the garden. I typically keep my most-used tools in the pocket of a garden smock or apron on a hook by the door, and I still do that. But now I find myself going to the potting station as a first move, dropping off my water bottle there, and grabbing any other tools I need to have on me.

A few more specific ways I use it:

• To harden off seedlings: I often start my seeds outside, but if I happen to start some inside, moving them to the potting table to harden off gives them a nice dappled shade, and an easy place for me to regularly check their moisture.

• To protect protect plants from cold weather: When the temperatures turned cold this fall, I set all my pots on the potting table or on the ground at the base. I was able to easily drape a sheet over the lot when a deep freeze was in the forecast.

• To repot houseplants: When they outgrow their containers or need some fresh soil, I bring them out to the potting table and can easily take care of it. It’s amazing how having a bin with a lid for easy scooping of soil makes it feel like less of a hassle than pulling out a big bag from the garage.

• To stash purchased plants until ready to plant out: How often have I bought plants and weeks go by before I’m ready to put them in the ground? This gives me a place to keep them where I don’t forget about them and keep them watered.

• To start native seeds: One of the best ways to start native seeds is to sprinkle them in a pot and then just leave them alone. I shared more about how to do that here. I keep some going on my potting table all the time. They would look like empty pots out in the kitchen garden before the seeds sprout, but here on the table I remember what they are and it doesn’t bother me that they look empty.

• To propagate from cuttings: Same as above. Propagating from cuttings requires you to keep pots with cuttings in them moist. They don’t exactly look decorative a lot of the time. The potting table is the perfect place for them.

I will also note that my potting table has a “dry sink,” and to be honest, I’m not really sure what to use it for. Please leave a comment if you have one and use it! And, I’d love for you to comment with other ways that you use your potting table or little things you’ve learned about what you like to have handy in it.