I have had the idea of a garden wash station in the back of my head for a few years now! 100% not necessary, but definitely makes life a lot easier. I am BUSY during gardening season. Tending, harvesting and preserving everything I grow. I already do not have enough time to keep my home perfect this time of year. The last thing I need to be doing is dragging in more mess. Lets deal with it outside!
My thought was, a MULTIPURPOSE, simple space to rinse dirt and bugs off my veggies before taking them into my home. To trim off the excess bits outdoors and throw into the chicken run, instead of doing it in the house and bringing it back outside later. A place to arrange all my little bouquets for the farmstand. A place to pot up new seeds and plants. And, a place to dry/cure items for storage! And best of all - I get to do all this in my favorite, sunny, outdoor space!
So, let me keep this very simple.
These are the items I used, but build yours to suit!
3 - 2x4x8
1 - 2x4x10
2- 4x4x8 ( If your hardware store has 6 ft 4x4's - get those instead ! The smallest ours had was 8, which left me with 2 ft of waste on each)
* All wood should be pressure treated !
Enough hardware cloth to cover a 96"x27" area. ( This is generally galvanized and resistant to rust! )
An old sink!
Staples and construction screws
Wire nippers
You will also need a staple gun, chop saw and a drill!
This would be a view of the stand from the top ( bare with my picture...I didn't make any plans for this project but usually if I do its a doodle on a scrap piece of paper that I end up losing!) :
So, 2 of the 2x4x8 I left untouched because that's how long the table is. The other 2x4x8 I cut into 4, 2 foot sections. I place those in between the 8 footers - one at each end and the other 2 about 20 inches apart each from the right side. This made the table 27 inches deep. I had everything laid out on an 8 foot folding table to work on, and screwed all that in place.
Next, I cut down my 4x4's. I needed 4, 3 foot pieces. 3 feet is how tall I wanted my stand - You may want yours lower or taller. With the table top partially built, I set 1 4x4 leg in each corner ( So I'm building the table upside down at this point) and sunk in screws from outside of the 2x4, into the 4x4s.
Once all 4 legs were secure, I flipped the washstand off my table onto its legs.
I have 1 2x4x10 left. . So, first I cut 1 more 2 ft section. I secured it on the other side of the 4x4 legs from the left. At this point i just kind of set the the left lip of my sink on top of that last 2x4 section we secured, and with a pen, measured where my other 2 pieces would need to sit under the lip of my sink at the back and right!( The two highlighted in red in the drawing above). So the other side was obviously 2 ft the same as the right. And the back support ending up being 29.5".
Once I knew that this would work I screwed everything in place. I rolled out my hardware cloth over the top of my table and started on one end working my way to the other, fastening everything securely with a staple gun. I just covered everything and then went back in and cut out the hole in the space where the sink sits. I went along all the edges of the hardware cloth with a hammer and made sure they were hammered down nice and flat so there wasn't going to be any sharp edges. You may even want to add some trim to cover the edges - I did not.
That is pretty much it! After the initial construction, I simply dropped in my sink. If you grab a used sink that does not include drain plugs I highly suggest picking some up (they are all a pretty standard size) I had to get some for my sink.
At first I just had my double sink draining into a large tote tub and scooped water out of there for watering plants. Since then, I have added in a piece of Y shaped drainage tubing. It connects both sink drains into one and then funnels everything directly into my watering can!
I LOVE this little multipurpose gardening table. It is early August and I have already gotten SO much use out of it so far this year! What do ya'll think? What would you add or do differently?
Happy gardening : )
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