Greenhouse setup

No photos, as I no longer have a greenhouse, but I’ve had several different types of benches in different structures over the years.

I made tiered benches using pressure treated stair stringers and 2x4’s. Worked well, but there was the opportunity to accidentally push plants off the shelves under the bench, but that can be remedied by placing barriers on the back edge. Looking from the end of the greenhouse, they were in a “\ /\ /“ arrangement, with two aisles. I later covered the tiers with hardware cloth, reducing spillage and allowing a bit better drainage for the pots.

I replaced those with larger flat benches, again made of pressure treated lumber, but using plastic Dura Bench panels for the platforms. 1x6’s surrounded each bench. I liked them better, but I needed 3 aisles to be able to access both sides of the two long benches.

The final evolutionary progression, was removing the legs from those benches, and placing them on a pipe frame with rolling pipes, giving me the ability to add a third bench and having a single “movable” aisle. If you can rig such a “rolling bench”, it’ll give you the most bench area.

I watered from overhead, as well. To avoid water draining down onto other plants on the floor, I used thin, rigid plastic panels under the benches, to deflect it, but let’s face facts - there will be splashing from one plant to another, unless you space them out quite sparsely on the benches, and I know that’s not going to happen.

Ome of the most interesting “bench” options I have ever seen was in a commercial greenhouse outside of Pittsburgh. There were zigzag rows of posts set in the ground, running the length of the structure. Relatively fine-mesh woven wire fencing was run down the length, and each plant had a hook in the pot and was hung on the fences. Not only did it give her 40% more length than a linear setup, but she had pots on both sides, which could be watered on a single pass.