The Progressive Farmer Garden Bench
Garden benches are a dime a dozen. But we believe we've come up with something different—a bench of both high quality and function.

We worked with a Chicago-based furniture designer and builder in the crafting of this bench. You can see his imagination at work in the simple, decorative, bent-metal piece attached to the center of the pegboard hand-tool center. (Truth be told, the piece is actually cut from a garden trellis purchased at a local home-supply store.) You can easily find your own piece to give the bench a unique touch.

This heavy-duty garden bench is all cedar, with enough room to spread out your plants, pots and supplies. It's 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and, for comfort, the work surface stands 38 inches off the ground.

The bench is defined by storage.

At the top there are cubbyholes for not-often-used gardening supplies.

Below, two pieces of pegboard are cleanly framed to stiffen the normally flimsy material and hide the rough edges of cut pegboard.

Move down to the work surface. The cedar planks resist damage from the weather. They also withstand dirt, water and other materials used in potting plants.

Three drawers are attached to the underside of the work surface. They're designed to hold soil, gravel or other bulk gardening materials. The drawers are made from plastic storage containers set down into wooden frames. We recommend using heavy-duty drawer slides that will hold the drawers heavy with potting supplies.

The bottom shelf, raised just off the floor, keeps bulk gardening supplies dry.

GARDEN BENCH PROJECT PLAN click to download free plans.