Once I saw a garden sink this winter while browsing my gardening interests I had to have one. It is too easy to find old sinks often free. Mine (yes I have 2) are in but still need permanent hoses run to them via my usual 'Y' hose adapters and some plumbing supplies to attach the hoses.

My first sink was placed in the fenced garden area. This gardening area used to be only for veggies, but is now primarily perennials with a couple of tomato plants, some peas, runner beans, rainbow chard and strawberries tossed into the mix

My second sink was for my potting bench. The bench itself is an old barbecue, that rusted out. It was stripped down to the frame, then I placed a piece of plywood where the grill was. Last night I finally got the drill and scroll saw out and cut a hole to hold the sink. Of couse it looks real tidy because I just got everything painted finally. . Any others out there to show off?

Fantastic!!!! Love the idea of using an old BBQ grill too! I really need some ideas, so I hope others post some pictures.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful garden sink pictures!

Finally finished the work/storage area cover up. Have so much more room to organize my building plant supplies. love the added organization and pace it has provided. Here is how it turned out.potting bench area behind the half wall.
ugly big shed needs a pressure wash.

Three ways in and out for convience.

It's beautiful!!! Such an inspiration! Thanks so much for sharing it!

Dunno why I never clicked around in here before. Look what I was missing - that's awesome! Your pics make me want to get out the paint & make my stuff/area prettier! Maybe the next time I feel like plant shopping? Ha!

DH made this. I love it! The plastic tub can be lifted out as needed, covered or left open to air out. When it's removed, it's easy to sweep the surface out of the 'hole' it sits in, though I'm a pretty messy potter.



Then his boss said he could have this demo carport thing which adds much needed shelter from sun & rain.


Then he snagged a curbside bathroom sink & finagled an attachment for it at the end of the bench. It has a crack in it, but that's fine. It's hooked up to the spigot with a "Y" thing so one can allow the flow to this or not. The hardware store had a thing when I told them we wanted to hook a bathroom sink to a garden hose, just about $2 I think. It adapts the hose to the inflow hole on the sink. It drains into a bucket since I don't use it often or run much water when I do. If emptying the bucket becomes too much of a chore, a pipe could be run to adjacent planting area. If we did that, I'd like to have a "y" valve to still divert drainage into a bucket for when I'm using bleach or soap, sometimes CLR on glass items.



The next sink we find, he said we'll make a bird bath. Being able to let the water out the hole in the bottom (which would also be a hollow pole, holding it up) would be so easy compared to the traditional, heavy kinds that breeds mosquitoes and algae because they're hard to clean/empty. Since it's a little deep, I thought it would look nice with some pretty rocks in there, just to make sure nobody drowns, birds can all get out. I'm also thinking it might need some 'roughing up' or something done so it's not so slippery around the edge/surface. I wonder if it would be possible to 'glue' a layer of sand on there? If anyone has an idea, I'd love to hear it!

Tiffany, love your potting bench. Lucky you to have it covered. I hoping to get mine moved and covered this next summer. Lucky you to have that luxury. I was shocked at how paint makes such a difference on pieces.

Yeah, I love it! You have a really good point, I should paint this thing with some form of urethane. It would last a lot longer! Glad I took that pic when I did. There's a ton of plastic pots crammed under there now. I don't know why, I couldn't possibly tend more than I already have. Next time I go to a swap I'll bring 'em & see if there's any takers.

Being bored during the cold spell, I make me a potting area to go on top of my Wheelbarrow. It lifts right off when I need the haul something.

I like that!

I have some wire shelves that I drop on top of a wheelbarrow. Filling propagation trays is easier if I can pour mix over them and spread it around with excess falling off into the wheelbarrow.

These photos show them set up for screening juniper boughs that I'm trying to chip with an electric lawn mower. I need to sharpen that blade!

Rick,
I had seen your wire screens before, but was not able to see the chicken wire on them. Now I can understand why they are screeners. I also have a compost screener made to go on top of my wheelbarrow. I have not had to use it recently because my compost has reached the stage is so fine it does not need screening. But, I used to use it a whole lot when I never seemed to have enough compost and had to use it way before its present stage.

Seed fork,

Since my pile is always pretty small and much of what I add has tough stems, I'm always screening the woody parts out and returning them to the heap.

Maybe that why animals don't bother it - after the first rain, the outer surface has a lot of twigs and tough stems.

Rick,
If you ever sharpen that lawn mower blade of yours, run those stems though it a few times. I have gotten to where in five minutes I can have my blade off sharpened and back on, or nearly that quick. I keep the socket on the air gun, run the handle of the lawn mower under the back bumper of the SUV, that holds it up at the right angle to just buzz the blade off, quick trip to the shed and grinder and buzz it right back on. I used to sharpen my blade about every two years, now I do it about every month or so. The riding mower is a different story, but for Christmas I got a riding lawn mower jack so I should not have to take the lower deck off any more just to sharpen the blades (has three). You just drive the mower into the stirrups, jack up the mower and that is going to be nice, if things go as planned.

>> If you ever sharpen that lawn mower blade of yours

I'm sure it would make a huge difference. Right now, it mainly breaks them into pieces short enough to blow ALL over the place!

It's an electric mower, so I can flip it on its back. I kind of expect the nut to be very frozen and stuck.

I guess if I wear gloves, I don't need to worry about the wrench slipping and slicing fingers off. Right now it's too dull to break skin!

I gave it many passes with an angle grinder, without removing the blade, but didn't make much progress.

I do have a bench grinder, but the wheels have pretty fine grit.

It would be smart to get around to assembling a little 1-2 inch belt sander I bought, remove the blade, and use that to sharpen the blade. I bought it to rough-shape stainless steel knives before sharpening, then found a 180-grit bench stone that works fast enough and generates no heat.

I also have a gadget-y idea for turning the electric mower into a better chipper, until I trip and fall into it head-first.

- turn the mower upside-down, prop it solidly, and aim the exit chute into something porous to catch chips.
- cut the bottom off a 55-gallon trash can so it fits between the housing and the wheels & secure it.

Then I could feed boughs into it slowly, stick-end first, and hopefully shred them small in one pass, and catch the chips in something instead of chasing them all over the yard.

Hey Rick, don't forget to remove the plug before trying to sharpen the blade! Just joking.

I think I'm lucky that I spent some time working in a chemical factory with lots of OSHA oversight (and lots of need for safety awareness).

I didn't "lock out" my mower's power cord, but I did check more than once before putting my hands in the blade's path. And I question the wisdom of my plan for making a chipper with a 30" wide opening that I would have to hover over, to use. A 55 gallon plastic trash can might not be rigid enough to keep me from diving into it after tripping.

My favorite safety story came from a co-worker who felt "a tingle" while moving an electrically-powered hoist-and-dumper. It would lift a 200 pound barrel up from floor level and pour it into a hopper whose rim was about chest high. It had a lot of power. I think it ran off 220 V.

We wore heavy rubber gloves for chemical protection, so any "tingle" that got through that was a Big Deal.

He held up production to call in an electrician who was bored by silly operators who imagined things wrong in HIS area. He waved a volt meter around dismissively and pooh-poohed this operator's imagination. The operator kept pointing to where he felt the tingle even through his gloves, and the electrician kept mocking him.

Finally the bare-handed electrician told the operator he HAD to be wrong, and "I'll SHOW you!". The electrician grabbed the indicated spots with his bare hands ...

.. and arched his back and gritted his teeth and clamped his hands tight from the shock. He would have cooked in place if the other operators hadn't PRIED him loose from the short circuit with a wooden broom handle.

It didn't stop his heart (surprisingly!), but management made the smartest decision of the year and re-assigned him to putting ink into chart recorders. They also replaced the electrical dumper with an air-powered version.

"I TOLD you I felt a tingle!"

We didn't have a potting bench and used to set up a table in the drive way when needed, we also needed to have gardening hand tools easy to get to. so...
Holly went away for 2 days on a Mother's Day weekend. With the help of my son, Jamie and grandson, JR we gathered a bunch of used lumber, left over shingles, stain, and pieces of T-111 barn siding and built her one. A friend even gave us a piece of Corian for a work top. When she arrived home Sunday afternoon, this is what she saw.

Of course having a potting bench meant she needed some place to sit the stuff she potted.
So one day JR was visiting we built her this flats bench from old fencing.

Of course having flats out in the danger of frost, you need a way to move them to the garage. So I built her a cart from old bed frames I'd gathered up, and a pair of lawn mower wheels.

Last fall she acquired a used laundry sink "to clean and disinfect pots and trays"to add to the driveway. Sheesh! she'll probably expect it to have running water.

I just love all the things you have done to make gardening more pleasurable. Projects like that are remarkably rewarding in more ways than one.

Seedfork, It sure is nice having a DH that has an interest in gardening and the ability to build me whatever I can dream up. He has such great ideas, too.

>> Sheesh! she'll probably expect it to have running water. Hilarious!

You could run 1/2" irrigation line out to the bench and tables, with a 2-valve spigot for one garden hose with a sprayer, and one with water breaker rose on a wand.

Imagine all the drippers, misters and fine sprayers you could mount along the flat tables with 1/4" or 1/8" inch spaghetti tubing!

The second valve is for when you run HOT AND cold running water to the bench ;-)

http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...

Actually there is a summer time outdoor faucet right in the wall near by. All he has to do is figure out how to give me hot water, too.