The Merry Garden Potting Bench was made from cedar and has a shelf under the main potting area as well as a small shelf on top of the bench. The main surface area of the potting bench has a grate area where you pot the plants and a spot to put a container for catching the excess soil underneath. There’s a little room for storage under the right side of the main potting area.
It took me about an hour to put the bench together with the help of my 5 year old daughter (and my mom). You’ll need a second set of hand on occasion to help hold pieces together while you screw them in place. The only tool you need is a Phillips head screw driver. All the necessary parts were in the package and I had no issues with screw holes lining up. Everything was aligned just right to easily put the potting bench together.
The Merry Garden potting bench came with 5 screw in hooks and this is where my main criticism of the bench would be. The location where you screw them in has very little clearance which might make it hard to hang some things on the hooks. You can easily hang things that have hooks on them but will have a slightly harder time hanging things that are solid loops and not hooks.
It would also be nice if the back of the potting bench had a grid to hang additional things. Mom’s previous potting bench had a grid that she used frequently. We’ll see if we can rig up a solution to add that to the potting bench.
The bench needs sealed even though it is made of cedar. Sealing periodically will help ease the damage caused by the sun over the years.
Over all I think it’s a good potting bench for the price. I definitely see some areas where a handy gardener could update a bench like this with some crafty modifications!
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