Come Dine With Me?

By Alternativeeden @markngaz
Mark set me a two part challenge at the weekend, to build him a table with a planting area. Ok, so far so good, the second part was to recycle timber we had in the garden.

Hmmm well I know I do hang onto off cuts or useful buts of wood from projects long gone but do we have enough useful pieces of wood to build a table.

The table top was the easy part, we had several off cuts left over from the decking by the pond, fortunately we had 5 pieces roughly 4 feet long (about 140cm each) and several smaller bits. Ok so thats the table top, but it wouldnt be very impressive if it was just placed on the ground. A hunt in the shed and there was a decent sized bit of 2x4". Ok thats one leg....

Then I remembered we still had quite a lot of wood left from the old deck that is now home to the conservatory - result! enough for the rest of the construction.




A basic frame built from the old deck base.

Using a counter sink on the deck boards so the screws will be flush to the table.

Boards fastened on, its starting to look like a table.

Taking the rough edges off the old timbers.


A shelf was added under the table to support a planting area. This is lined with weed membrane to hold the compost in place. A free draining mix was used. A coat of decking oil was added to help preserve the color of the wood.

Getting planted up and removing the excess membrane.




And ta-da! the finished table, all set for some enjoyable meals on the patio this summer. Both parts of Marks challenge were completed, 100% of the materials used for the table we already had in the garden or shed, all we had to do was add plants.

Gaz