The Garden Bench

The humble bench has a place in every garden.

With the constant proliferation of garden accessories, it is easy to stray from the basics in pursuit of the exotic. But don’t overlook the most popular and well established regulars among, them the garden bench.

Whether you have a roof garden or wide open spaces of lawn, the garden bench immediately has a presence that single seats can’t provide. What type you choose is a matter of taste but a good tip is to remember that your bench can combine practicality with being an ornamental garden feature.

A good example is the teak bench featured in our Superstore that’s based on the design of benches in Monet’s garden at Giverny, France. It can be as much of an ornamental feature in your garden as a piece of sculpture.

If you have the space, a good tip is to site your bench at a distance from the house so it becomes both an eye-catching feature in the overall picture of your garden and an enticement to walk out - a destination that you reach to sit down and look back.

The classic picnic table combines bench and eating table in one compact unit. You can pick one up very reasonably, such as the pine number currently on special offer in the Greenfingers Superstore. This can be stained in any shade of many classic woods or the brighter colours favoured by some These are quite brilliant for children, and although basic, happily sit on any patio or lawn overcoming that annoying need to lug tables and chairs around before you can sit down to lunch. They tend to be basic in design (and suitably low in price) but are sturdy as well as being mobile. Like all good functional items, it has the potential to be easily transformed into something more decorative: in the centre of the table is a hole for the pole of a colourful parasol or umbrella. Roll on summer.

Articles reprinted with premission from Greenfingers.com