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Flower cart
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A potting bench you can roll right into the garden
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By John Sillaots, photos by Bert Klassen, illustration by Len Churchill
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Designed with ample space for gardening tools and soil, this wheeled potting bench moves around the garden with you
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With the good weather back, and sounds of the outdoors wafting in through the open windows, most of us are spending more time in our gardens. And getting the yard ready for planting is a ritual in itself. Cleaning out the garden shed, setting up planters, amending soil in garden beds… well, you get the picture.
This brings me to my flower cart project. Most gardeners don't enjoy the luxury of a garden shed with a potting bench, and that's too bad. When working with young transplants, the damaging effects of sun and wind can really take a toll. This cart, when used as a rolling potting bench is a great asset in this regard. It allows you to take your potting bench out into the garden, right where work needs to be done. Loaded with a bin of soil, watering can, fertilizer, plant pots and hand tools, you can minimize the time spent moving transplants from pot to garden. And the umbrella makes the work easier on you, too. Plants aren't the only thing that whither in the blazing sun. The tilting umbrella offers a variety of angles to shade areas you'll be working at and provides protection for yourself from the heat and burning rays of the direct sun. The cart has a 36" working height, which is the same as a standard kitchen countertop. But changing this is easy. Just add or subtract from the leg lengths in the materials list.
At the end of the day you'll no doubt want to show off your gardening handiwork, and the cart can help there, too. Remove all the gardening supplies and place two plastic bins in the box, both filled with ice. In one place cold drinks, and in the other set the snacks so they stay nice and cool. Put things like glasses, utensils and wine in the troughs at each end.
Smart Cart
Start work with the handles. Using a jigsaw or bandsaw, cut out the profile at both ends of the handles, as shown in the plans, then use a random orbit sander or spokeshave to create the round handle grips. You'll find it easiest to build the cart's frame within the handles as they sit on your workbench. Prepare the front legs, leg cross supports and leg cross brace now, but before you cut the wheel legs, think about wheels for a minute. If you'll be using anything other than 24" wheels, you'll need to adjust the length of the wheel legs so the cart stands flat at rest. But if your garden is rough or large, consider the terrain-taming value of mountain bike wheels, instead. The wide, inflatable tires make it much easier to roll along with minimal effort. You'll have to rig up an appropriate axle system that differs from the one I used, but it's worth considering in some cases.
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