Hi Everyone! I would love to hear from you if you plan to do something similar in your garden... please leave a comment here! 🌳🌲🍁🌿 Or if you already have bonsai benches, I'd love to see pics 😍👍🏻
Hello Dave! Well I have a similar project but with additional difficulty that is a large terrace by the sea 🌊 our enemy the wind shows his ugly face occasionally. Do you want me to share my idea? Happy new year!!! 🎊
@@isidroalbertgarcia2396 hi! Yes would love to hear your plans. My parents live by the sea in south Wales, and the wind there is so bad that they don't even consider outdoor bonsai. Cheers!
Thank you, Dave!! Great idea! I will do something similar for my trees. I will incorporate a structure for the shadow, it will allow me to remove it during winter.
@@leonorpereira2612 thanks! my structure for the shade mesh is very rudimentary- it's not the pergola that I had originally planned. But it's sufficiently strong to hold a 4-metre shade net, using hooks at both ends. And as you said, it's easy enough to remove in winter and replace in summer.
Ok I’ve FINALLY gotten around to watching this. Totally blown away. You’ve outdone yourself David! I actually love the striated side of the decking facing up...gives such a cool look. Mind that wind!!
Cheers C! These are decking planks and I wanted the striations to retain some water without letting the pot sit in a pool of water. So glad they look cool too! It's survived a couple of days of strong wind so far, but nothing yet as bad as that storm in September 🤞🏻
Thanks Nigel! Sometimes we have to put in a bit of hard work.. although this was a tiny job compared to your plant room! congrats on finishing that before the heavy snow!
Very nice. Easy, simple, and looks great. Yes, I see where there is room for expansion, including smaller width versions, and definitely individual ones for your pride-n-joy ones.
Thanks Jeff! That was my thought, and I can tell you I will be trying to convince my wife over the next 12 months that this bonsai garden needs to take over a much larger portion of the lawn! Of course I don't put all these negotiations into the videos 😂
Nice video. Just for future reference when cutting wood always grab hold of the piece you’re gonna use, the piece you don’t need let it fall off to the ground.
Saw one youtube video where liquid nails is applied on those cinder blocks for stability. I would definitely follow this setup in the coming weeks and may also include an overhead shade from the sun.
Liquid nails sounds like a good tip. Yep since I made these benches this I added a frame to hold a 4-metre 50% shade sheet in summer. The frame stays all year but has hooks on it to easily attach ot remove the shade sheet.
Great project!! I built some last year re using old pallets. Pro tip: hammer drills/masonry bits will drill right through wood. Don't waste time marking your holes. Put the plank down and just drill straight through. Use tapcons and no need for anchors.
Luckily my bonsai garden is tucked around the side of the house so the kids don't generally kick their footballs and tennis balls over this way. But who knows.....
Thanks- that's great to hear! One thing now a few years on, I need at least two more benches... i have a load of developing trees sitting on wooden planks on the grass. Maybe I should have planned 4 benches from day 1!
Great video and attention to detail. Your son has mad skills juggling. I wish I practiced more skill drills when I was younger. Now its only trees and bad knees for me. 😂🍺🍺
Cheers Jered! I'm totally with you on the trees and bad knees! My son has indeed great skills but so does everyone else here his age so no future Messi here unfortunately. He's good enough to keep the ball way from the bonsai garden but not good enough to avoid continually losing it over the fence... 🍻🍻
Thanks! Yes Excellent idea, I didn't think of sealing the blocks too. Or just white exterior paint would maybe do the trick? Perhaps I'll do that in a few years when I feel they are dirty enough....
@@BlueSkyBonsaiYou can do both, if you like the current rougher look you can use some clear sealer and keep the color and look, otherwise indeed some white exterior paint will also do the trick!
Thanks mate! You know I made a big deal about the gravel, but I think it's a really important part of this, not only how it looks I think it makes a clean visual separation from the rest of the garden. Maybe you can video your work in spring?! In any case hope you'll put some pics o flickr 👍🏻🍺
@@BlueSkyBonsai I like the gravel, it’s really convenient for plucking out the seedling from your trees, an the weeds. I’ll probably take some photos, don’t think the world is ready for my thick Yorkshire accent 😂🍺✌️
@@askgbk yep, also Peter Chan says pea-gravel is excellent for accelerating the growth of developing trees in large pots, to stand them on the gravel for a couple of years so the roots grow out of the pot. We shall see!! Don't worry about the Yorkshire accent, people love it! I was worried about my weird ex-pat accent and I cringe at the sound of my voice but in the end you just get on with it! Turns out people are more interested in the content than the presenter (I think so anyway 🤪😂)
Wouah ! It's wonderfull!! Great job ! Me estás dando un montón de ideas..... precisamente quería hacer unos.cambios en mi jardín. Muchas Gracias. Daludos desde Francia.
Muchas gracias! Si tengo un consejo es que los setos molestan mucho detrás de los bancos, sería mejor tener valla de madera detrás. Suerte con los cambios en tu jardín!
Ahh I love it!!! He finished benches look great and hopefully not the trees will be better protected. (Although footballs are defo a danger. I’ve had a few incidents with them lol)
Cheers Ian! Yep i really hope the trees will suffer less on that side now. This morning we had the first frost of the year, the pots had some ice on the soil which didnt usually happen on the patio. But no probs, they're all trees born outdoors, they can cope! and no serious wind yet.. time will tell. The football, hope they weren't serious incidents!? Any broken pots?
@@katedodd79 thanks a lot! I'm super happy with it except for one thing ... ... ... . It's going to need an expansion pretty soon and I'm unlikely to get that approved by the boss 😉
I'm in the process of planning my benches and I plan to do them like yours. Any pro and cons to yours after living with them for awhile? Thanks they look great.
Thanks Carol! One possible change would be to move the blocks closer to each other so the ends of the benches hang over the sides by about 6 inches ( 15cm ). Although I think they look better with the blocks right at the end like I have them, the downside is the water runs down the sides of the blocks and after a year I could see green algae where the water runs down. Another potential advantage of moving the blocks closer together is the wood is less likely to bow in the middle. Although that has not been a problem with mine, if you use thinner planks they will bow under the weight of the bonsai, pots, etc. Another thing, I have just added a third shelf at the front just 20cm above ground, with a narrow plank for small pots. Hope that helps!
Great job, I plan on doing something similar next spring. Also, been watching you videos and enjoying then, saw you were at 999 subscribers so I had to subscribe and make it 1,000
WOWWWW Thank you so much! That makes you subscriber number 1000!!! I am honoured! Good luck with your job in spring! Keep in touch, let us know how it goes 😊👍🏻
Hi Bonsai Piper, thanks--great question! Yes I do plan to do it, I have several important video ideas in my motebook but unfortunately not enough time to do them all at the moment! Hopefully in the new year ... Merry Christmas too!
I bought one of these, it's strong enough to suck up the leaves but not strong enough to suck up the gravel. www.amazon.es/Einhell-Aspirador-soplador-el%C3%A9ctrico-regulador-velocidad/dp/B01HSFBT1I
Thanks Mikey, that weed mat is porous, it's designed to let water through but no plant life. I should have said that in the video!! Thanks for pointing it out 😊👍🏻
Awesome video, the end result looks great! I was just wondering, what kind of block material are you using and what are the dimensions? Greetings from The Netherlands!
Thanks iPheek! That side of the house faces east, so they get all the morning light. Probably about 6 hours of direct sun, maybe +or- an hour. In summer when it gets really hot and dry they are now on the better side of the house because they're in the shade in the hot afternoon and evening hours. 🌳👍🏻
They are floor decking planks, pine yes. They're good because of the grooves in them. Got them from "Leroy Merlin" which is an international hardware store chain, at least in France and Spain. Hope you can find some suitable planks!
@@RupeshVarghese if you can't find them in pine, what about something like this: www.homedepot.com/b/Lumber-Composites-Decking-Deck-Boards-Composite-Decking-Boards/N-5yc1vZc5mb
@@BlueSkyBonsai I was thinking about those too, but a regular board is around $8, it would be so much more expensive. I want to put two blocks in the front and have a lower shelf too, so it would just not make sense to spend 3x per board. I'll have to settle for non grooved planks.
Personally I don’t like the curved line of the gravel patch but that’s just a difference in taste. Very clean and elegant job but the gravel is too white and won’t remain so for long. Also the “weed barrier” is more to avoid the gravel sinking in the ground than suppressing weeds. With time debris (dust, leaves, grass blades) will accumulate among the gravel and that will be the perfect growing bed for weed seeds. However it’s a small space so you’ll be able to keep it weed free and decent looking with regular raking. Some sort of edging between the gravel and the lawn (like a mowing strip made of bricks) would make maintenance easier. Sorry if I sound over critical but you invite comments and I shared some observations from my experience.
Thanks for expressing your opinions! Yep it's clear that the gravel will cause some maintenance to keep clean, and for sure it won't stay perfectly white. But I'm happy with it... for now!
Hi Everyone! I would love to hear from you if you plan to do something similar in your garden... please leave a comment here! 🌳🌲🍁🌿
Or if you already have bonsai benches, I'd love to see pics 😍👍🏻
Hello Dave! Well I have a similar project but with additional difficulty that is a large terrace by the sea 🌊 our enemy the wind shows his ugly face occasionally. Do you want me to share my idea?
Happy new year!!! 🎊
@@isidroalbertgarcia2396 hi! Yes would love to hear your plans. My parents live by the sea in south Wales, and the wind there is so bad that they don't even consider outdoor bonsai. Cheers!
Thank you, Dave!! Great idea! I will do something similar for my trees. I will incorporate a structure for the shadow, it will allow me to remove it during winter.
@@leonorpereira2612 thanks! my structure for the shade mesh is very rudimentary- it's not the pergola that I had originally planned. But it's sufficiently strong to hold a 4-metre shade net, using hooks at both ends. And as you said, it's easy enough to remove in winter and replace in summer.
Ok I’ve FINALLY gotten around to watching this. Totally blown away. You’ve outdone yourself David! I actually love the striated side of the decking facing up...gives such a cool look. Mind that wind!!
Cheers C! These are decking planks and I wanted the striations to retain some water without letting the pot sit in a pool of water. So glad they look cool too!
It's survived a couple of days of strong wind so far, but nothing yet as bad as that storm in September 🤞🏻
Great job, they look fantastic!
Thanks Nigel! Sometimes we have to put in a bit of hard work.. although this was a tiny job compared to your plant room! congrats on finishing that before the heavy snow!
Very nice. Easy, simple, and looks great. Yes, I see where there is room for expansion, including smaller width versions, and definitely individual ones for your pride-n-joy ones.
Thanks Jeff! That was my thought, and I can tell you I will be trying to convince my wife over the next 12 months that this bonsai garden needs to take over a much larger portion of the lawn! Of course I don't put all these negotiations into the videos 😂
Pinching this plan! Looks great!
You're welcome to! thanks 😊
Nice video. Just for future reference when cutting wood always grab hold of the piece you’re gonna use, the piece you don’t need let it fall off to the ground.
Thanks! Good tip!
Very nice job!!!
I am so jealous! Anytime you wanna come build one in my backyard feel free! Thanks for the video :)
Thanks again! Wow you're really working back through all my videos .. kudos to you for your perseverance!
Saw one youtube video where liquid nails is applied on those cinder blocks for stability. I would definitely follow this setup in the coming weeks and may also include an overhead shade from the sun.
Liquid nails sounds like a good tip.
Yep since I made these benches this I added a frame to hold a 4-metre 50% shade sheet in summer. The frame stays all year but has hooks on it to easily attach ot remove the shade sheet.
Looks fabulous, thanks for all of the details on building it! Your son is quite talented!
Thanks so much! Yes I thought you might enjoy my son's football skills, I just wish he would only do that instead of kicking the ball so hard 😂👍🏻
Great project!! I built some last year re using old pallets.
Pro tip: hammer drills/masonry bits will drill right through wood. Don't waste time marking your holes. Put the plank down and just drill straight through. Use tapcons and no need for anchors.
Thanks for the tip! 👍
Just found your channel! Really enjoyed watching your garden benches come together! Hope they’re still serving you well!
Thanks Justin! Yes the benches are still going strong. Need more though 🙃
New video due tomorrow... hope you enjoy it!
Good job! You’ve been very thorough and your hard work has paid off.
Thanks Toby! 😊👍🏻
Wow cool idea I must wait until my kids are bigger now I must be careful the kids are playing in the Garden
Luckily my bonsai garden is tucked around the side of the house so the kids don't generally kick their footballs and tennis balls over this way. But who knows.....
thanks for sharing
Looks fantastic
Thanks! 😊
Looks amazing indeed. This’s a great idea thanks
Thanks - glad you like it! Problem is, I need more of them already...
We love bonsai trees, and I find out my self, too, there’s always a new bonsai waiting for me
Quality content and production, cheers
Thanks so much! 🌳👍🏻
looks great
Cheers Ben!
Excellent job. Beautifullllll.
Thhhhhhanks so much Pedro! 😊👍🏻
Bravo 1 .. luv it simple and looks really nice
Thanks so much!
Great Work. It's ispired me!
Thanks- that's great to hear! One thing now a few years on, I need at least two more benches... i have a load of developing trees sitting on wooden planks on the grass. Maybe I should have planned 4 benches from day 1!
Great video and attention to detail. Your son has mad skills juggling. I wish I practiced more skill drills when I was younger. Now its only trees and bad knees for me. 😂🍺🍺
Cheers Jered! I'm totally with you on the trees and bad knees! My son has indeed great skills but so does everyone else here his age so no future Messi here unfortunately. He's good enough to keep the ball way from the bonsai garden but not good enough to avoid continually losing it over the fence... 🍻🍻
@@BlueSkyBonsai lol...dont tell him that!
Looks great.. Gonna do something for mine too..
Thanks so much! Good luck with yours!
Nice work, might use the idea (partly) for my own bench. Perhaps you can coat the blocks with some sealant so they will not get dirty that easily?
Thanks! Yes Excellent idea, I didn't think of sealing the blocks too. Or just white exterior paint would maybe do the trick? Perhaps I'll do that in a few years when I feel they are dirty enough....
@@BlueSkyBonsaiYou can do both, if you like the current rougher look you can use some clear sealer and keep the color and look, otherwise indeed some white exterior paint will also do the trick!
@@WillyVLD great advice- thanks!
Woowww...amazing.
Good job my friend❤️❤️❤️
Thanks so much 😊👍🏻
Good work. Nicely done. Like it.
Thanks Devdatta Desai for your kind words. 😊👍🏻
Nicely done 👍 I’ll take some of your method / ideas to my bench build project 😀
Thanks, I hope it helps!!! 😁👍🏻
Beautiful
Thanks so much! 😊
Fantastic job buddy, these videos are really enjoyable. You’ve inspired me to crate something in my garden this spring ✌️😎
Thanks mate! You know I made a big deal about the gravel, but I think it's a really important part of this, not only how it looks I think it makes a clean visual separation from the rest of the garden. Maybe you can video your work in spring?! In any case hope you'll put some pics o flickr 👍🏻🍺
@@BlueSkyBonsai I like the gravel, it’s really convenient for plucking out the seedling from your trees, an the weeds.
I’ll probably take some photos, don’t think the world is ready for my thick Yorkshire accent 😂🍺✌️
@@askgbk yep, also Peter Chan says pea-gravel is excellent for accelerating the growth of developing trees in large pots, to stand them on the gravel for a couple of years so the roots grow out of the pot. We shall see!!
Don't worry about the Yorkshire accent, people love it! I was worried about my weird ex-pat accent and I cringe at the sound of my voice but in the end you just get on with it! Turns out people are more interested in the content than the presenter (I think so anyway 🤪😂)
Nice job, they're looking really nice 👌👍
Thanks J! They look nice but already too small! 😂
Thanks For Sharing!
Thanks mate!
Wouah ! It's wonderfull!! Great job ! Me estás dando un montón de ideas..... precisamente quería hacer unos.cambios en mi jardín. Muchas Gracias.
Daludos desde Francia.
Muchas gracias! Si tengo un consejo es que los setos molestan mucho detrás de los bancos, sería mejor tener valla de madera detrás. Suerte con los cambios en tu jardín!
Ahh I love it!!! He finished benches look great and hopefully not the trees will be better protected. (Although footballs are defo a danger. I’ve had a few incidents with them lol)
Cheers Ian! Yep i really hope the trees will suffer less on that side now. This morning we had the first frost of the year, the pots had some ice on the soil which didnt usually happen on the patio. But no probs, they're all trees born outdoors, they can cope! and no serious wind yet.. time will tell.
The football, hope they weren't serious incidents!? Any broken pots?
Great work 👍👍👍👍
Thanks! 👍🏻🌳
Woot! I was looking forward to this 😜
Uh-oh, I hope it's not disappointing! 😊
@@BlueSkyBonsai - WOW, awesome job Dave, you must be pleased with it?
@@katedodd79 thanks a lot! I'm super happy with it except for one thing ...
...
...
.
It's going to need an expansion pretty soon and I'm unlikely to get that approved by the boss 😉
Dedication Dave, looks great, will have to get you working on sites with me, I need another good carpenter.
Cheers man that means a lot!
Although, I didn't show all the mistakes I made hahaha 😂
I'm in the process of planning my benches and I plan to do them like yours. Any pro and cons to yours after living with them for awhile? Thanks they look great.
Thanks Carol!
One possible change would be to move the blocks closer to each other so the ends of the benches hang over the sides by about 6 inches ( 15cm ).
Although I think they look better with the blocks right at the end like I have them, the downside is the water runs down the sides of the blocks and after a year I could see green algae where the water runs down.
Another potential advantage of moving the blocks closer together is the wood is less likely to bow in the middle. Although that has not been a problem with mine, if you use thinner planks they will bow under the weight of the bonsai, pots, etc.
Another thing, I have just added a third shelf at the front just 20cm above ground, with a narrow plank for small pots. Hope that helps!
Superb 👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you! 😊👍🏻
Any chance of you popping round the corner to mine and throwing this together? cheers Dave :)
haha I'd love to, but.. . I promised a friend I'd help her fold maps (or something) 😆🍻👍
Inspiring 👍🏻
Thanks! 😊👍
Great job, I plan on doing something similar next spring. Also, been watching you videos and enjoying then, saw you were at 999 subscribers so I had to subscribe and make it 1,000
WOWWWW Thank you so much! That makes you subscriber number 1000!!! I am honoured! Good luck with your job in spring! Keep in touch, let us know how it goes 😊👍🏻
Entirely too precise sir - my plants consider themselves lucky to be placed upon the odd laundry detergent tub or stack of bricks😂 nice work!
Thanks Joel! I'm sure yours look great 🌳👍🏻
Hi Dave,
Do you plan to to make a video about the calendar cycle of evergreens and semi evergreens like you did with deciduous trees?
Merry Christmas!
Hi Bonsai Piper, thanks--great question! Yes I do plan to do it, I have several important video ideas in my motebook but unfortunately not enough time to do them all at the moment! Hopefully in the new year ... Merry Christmas too!
The first like is from me.
Thank you my friend!
I posted too soon. Nice skills at the end there
That's my oldest son, his skills are good but he kicks the ball so hard that even a deflection could knock a few pots off the bench! 🤪 cheers👍🏻
Nice!
Thanks!
How do you plan to contend with the leaf litter that is going to quickly accumulate and start composting?
I bought one of these, it's strong enough to suck up the leaves but not strong enough to suck up the gravel. www.amazon.es/Einhell-Aspirador-soplador-el%C3%A9ctrico-regulador-velocidad/dp/B01HSFBT1I
If you water them, all you might have water residue on the flooring? since you covered the soil with that carpet for stopping the weeding.
Thanks Mikey, that weed mat is porous, it's designed to let water through but no plant life. I should have said that in the video!! Thanks for pointing it out 😊👍🏻
@@BlueSkyBonsai awesome!
Super👍
Awesome video, the end result looks great! I was just wondering, what kind of block material are you using and what are the dimensions? Greetings from The Netherlands!
Thanks so much! The blocks are cheap garden-wall blocks 20x20x40cm.
10 blocks per bench. HTH
@@BlueSkyBonsai thanks for sharing :)
Nice
Thanks WAD Madhushan!
the imminent danger is real lol thats funny . the kid looks like his a pro tho . also grate job
Thanks Giovanni! Yeah he's really good, better than I ever was. Problem is, how hard he kicks the darn ball... 🤪 cheers 😊👍🏻
I know what you mean haha. 👍🏼
Nice! How much sun do they get?
Thanks iPheek! That side of the house faces east, so they get all the morning light. Probably about 6 hours of direct sun, maybe +or- an hour. In summer when it gets really hot and dry they are now on the better side of the house because they're in the shade in the hot afternoon and evening hours. 🌳👍🏻
@@BlueSkyBonsai sweet! You da man!!! Great work!
@iPheek Cheers! 🌳👍
Is that staircase pine planks? As I can’t find anything that’s 3cm wide. Thanks
They are floor decking planks, pine yes. They're good because of the grooves in them. Got them from "Leroy Merlin" which is an international hardware store chain, at least in France and Spain. Hope you can find some suitable planks!
@@BlueSkyBonsai I ended up using teak as that’s all I could find that was over 30mm thick.
Thanks.
Good
Thanks!
What are the dimensions of those decking boards ?
From memory... 220x17x3 cm.
Or in inches, 87 x 7 x 1 1/4.
And I cut them down to 180cm long. =70".
What are the wood planks called? I mean I've never been able to find wood with grooves on them
Look for treated pine outdoor floor decking. The grooves are supposedly to make the floor non-slip, I think.
@@BlueSkyBonsai it must be a non U.S. thing. I have not had any luck trying to find that here.
@@RupeshVarghese if you can't find them in pine, what about something like this: www.homedepot.com/b/Lumber-Composites-Decking-Deck-Boards-Composite-Decking-Boards/N-5yc1vZc5mb
@@BlueSkyBonsai I was thinking about those too, but a regular board is around $8, it would be so much more expensive. I want to put two blocks in the front and have a lower shelf too, so it would just not make sense to spend 3x per board. I'll have to settle for non grooved planks.
@@RupeshVargheseyou could easily make those grooves using a router table
Personally I don’t like the curved line of the gravel patch but that’s just a difference in taste. Very clean and elegant job but the gravel is too white and won’t remain so for long. Also the “weed barrier” is more to avoid the gravel sinking in the ground than suppressing weeds. With time debris (dust, leaves, grass blades) will accumulate among the gravel and that will be the perfect growing bed for weed seeds. However it’s a small space so you’ll be able to keep it weed free and decent looking with regular raking. Some sort of edging between the gravel and the lawn (like a mowing strip made of bricks) would make maintenance easier.
Sorry if I sound over critical but you invite comments and I shared some observations from my experience.
Thanks for expressing your opinions! Yep it's clear that the gravel will cause some maintenance to keep clean, and for sure it won't stay perfectly white. But I'm happy with it... for now!
I saw your handsaw in frame, and was very worried for a minute
POV video is a bit disconcerting, I have to admit.
awesome video!
Thanks so much Edinborogh! 😊👍🏻