How to Create a Rustic Patio for Your Resin Rockers

What can you do when you want to bring home resin rockers, but you have no patio for them? I can think of many reasons why resin rockers are appealing. They bring a whole new level of relaxation to outdoor time. There’s something irresistibly soothing about their motion. Plus, they’re durable, and they clean off easily. With little or no maintenance, resin rockers can last for years.

Plans to buy resin rockers can seem silly if you have nowhere to place them. But there are several ways to build your own rustic patio.

Pour a concrete pad and stamp it with a stone or brick design. Do a little research and see which builders in your area have the necessary tools to complete this job for you.

You can also build your own rustic patio for your resin rockers from old-fashioned stone. Check with excavations and construction sites to see if they have any stone available. Some of them will even let you have the stones for free if you are willing to haul them away. Of course, these stones need to be of moderate size for your patio. Dig a shallow area out of your lawn, and fit the stones together, puzzle-style, as closely as possible.

You can follow a similar process but obtain a more even surface with other materials, such as old bricks or discarded railroad ties, as long as you can obtain enough pieces. Remember, the space to fit a few resin rockers doesn’t have to span the whole width of your house.

How to Prepare Your Own Potting Soil for a Planter Bench Set

A planter bench set brings together two staples of the rustic garden into one fixture—benches and planters. In a planter bench set, wooden box planters form the connecting pieces between plank benches. Many sets allow you to add multiple benches. Some have attached arbors or trellises. I’ve seen sets both that sit straight and that fit corners.


Preparing your own potting soil for your planter bench set is possible, but only for those who think ahead. For myself, I’d rather just buy the potting soil, but occasionally I enjoy trying such projects just for the experience.



You begin by mixing the soil with the correct amount of ingredients, such as sand, humus, manure, or peat. To discover a good mix, conduct research on the plants you wish to grow.

After you have mixed the soil, you can sterilize it. Sterilization kills harmful bacteria and culls out weeds. Place a tarp on the ground in a sunny location. Shovel the soil onto the tarp. Leave it alone for a month. Then flip the soil and leave it for an additional month in the sun.

Don’t worry if you feel you’re getting a late start to your preparations for a planter bench set. Last year, we waited until the very end of the season. The greenhouses were preparing to close their doors until the following year. We bought all our flowers for half off or more, and they lasted throughout the remainder of the summer and all through the fall.

Assembling Garden Bridge Kits

A garden bridge kit is something like a puzzle. I really enjoy the satisfaction I receive when I have completed a puzzle. A garden bridge kit contains all the pre-cut wood pieces and hardware for a complete garden bridge. It also contains assembly instructions, so this puzzle doesn’t have to frustrate you. In fact, a lot of the garden bridge kits I’ve seen are estimated as requiring an assembly of 2 to 3 hours. So a garden bridge makes a nice project for an afternoon or weekend.

Here are a few practices I’ve found to be helpful in completing similar assembly projects. I think if you try these out, you’ll find that your garden bridge assembly flows smoothly.

Before I begin, I often try to identify all the parts and verify that my kit includes the correct number of each part. It’s much easier to identify at this stage if a part is missing than when the garden bridge is half assembled, and you may have mixed up a couple pieces.

You may also find it helpful, after you’ve verified you have the correct parts, to lay out the parts necessary for each step. Then, as you assemble the garden bridge, you can flow right from one step into the next.

I prefer to complete assembly projects either sitting or standing. So I make sure that I have a surface such as a work bench or sawhorses, or I bring in a chair so I can assemble small pieces in my lap comfortably. I finding squatting and kneeling uncomfortable, so I take time to create a comfortable work environment. This preparation takes extra time at the beginning but allows the rest of the project to flow smoothly.

The Multifunction Cedar Potting Table

A cedar potting table is a nice piece of outdoor furniture because it can work well in several different roles. My favorite pieces of furniture are the ones with multiple functions because I can get more work out of less space. Especially in a small house or apartment like mine, space is at a premium.

For those gardening gurus out there, a cedar potting table can be a necessary luxury. Once you own one, you might wonder how you ever survived before. A cedar potting table provides work space, storage shelves, sometimes an inset potting basin, and often other storage tools such as drawers or hooks.

If that’s not enough, there are also other ways to use a cedar potting table. Wipe off the work space, or cover it with a plastic tablecloth, and you have an instant buffet table for outdoor parties and barbecues.

During the winter, when you can’t do outdoor gardening, bring the cedar potting table into your garage or storage shed and use it to organize winter supplies, such as ice melt, shovels, and extra gloves and scarves.

I want to get the most out of my furniture, and I’m sure you do, too. I think owning a cedar potting table is an excellent way to achieve this goal.

Make Your Own Privacy Screen for an Outdoor Swing

When you buy an outdoor swing, you want to enjoy it as much as possible. Sometimes that means increasing your sense of privacy when you relax. For a more rustic feel, you can make your own privacy screen.

Reclaim some old, tall shutters. Check your basement or attic. If you know that you don’t have any material like this, visit some yard sales or estate auctions. You never know what you will find in one of these places. Sometimes places that sell salvage wood and recycled building materials offer odd bits and pieces. If you know of such a place near you, check there for privacy screen materials. You don’t necessarily need matching shutters. Throw several different styles together for an eclectic mix.

Once you have found the shutters, spruce them up with some fresh paint. Attach them to each other with several sets of hinges.

To set up the privacy screen around your outdoor swing, bend the pieces at the hinges. Move one to the left, the next shutter to the right. In this way, you’ll create a staggered base so the privacy screen will stand up on its own. Now, enjoy your outdoor swing with your favorite someone.

Using or Storing Leftover Paint

You’ve just finished an outdoor painting project, and the can is still half full. It would be a shame to waste this perfectly good leftover paint.

Consider completing a small project with the leftover paint. If you used half the can on the first project, the leftover paint should cover any project that is smaller than the first one. If you painted a side table, maybe an ottoman would make a good second project. Or a sideboard that sits atop a metal frame.

You can also store leftover paint for future touchups. If you store it properly, paint can keep for several years. Close the lid tightly and store the can away from extreme temperatures. You can even stretch plastic wrap over the top before you tack the lid on to provide a better seal for the leftover paint.


Temperature maintenance is very important. Your leftover paint is flammable; don’t create a hazard by storing it close to a heat source. On the flip side, freezing is bad for water-based paints. Exposure to freezing conditions can cause these leftover paints to degrade quickly. So choose a storage location that will maintain a fairly moderate temperature year-round.

Check with your local waste disposal authorities before disposing leftover paint, as it’s considered a hazardous material.

Your Adirondack Chair Takes on the Distressed Look

An Adirondack chair often provides a rustic feel to an outdoor area. After all, these chairs were originally designed for outdoor use. Take the rustic design even further with the distressed look.

Lightly sand your Adirondack chair and wipe it with a clean cloth to remove dust. Prime, if you wish. Paint the entire chair with a dark shade of flat paint. After allowing the final coat to dry completely, sand again. This time, you will sand only selected areas—the ones that normally show wear first. Focus on the armrests, edges, and feet. Sand lightly, and always stroke in the direction of the wood’s grain. Remove only a little paint as you sand.

To finish, wipe the chair down again with a clean cloth. Apply a clear sealant suitable for outdoor furniture. This top coat should preserve your work and maintain the distressed look you have achieved with your Adirondack chair. Avoid glossy sealants because these will look too new for a more rustic garden design.

Allow the sealant to dry fully before you expose the Adirondack chair to the elements or attempt to use it. You can use the same distressed-look technique to coordinate other pieces of outdoor furniture, including tables, ottomans, and benches.

How a Potting Table Aids Organization

You find many reasons to incorporate a potting table into your patio area. One of these reasons may be to improve your organization. If so, you should keep your eyes out for extra features that can offer the most storage solutions.

Almost every potting table incorporates shelves into its design. Look for shelves in a variety of widths. Wide, sturdy shelves can hold heavier items, such as bags of soil. Smaller shelves help you organize gardening tools, seed packets, and so on.

Other storage features that vary by model include hooks and drawers. Hooks provide easy storage solutions for everything from aprons and gloves to trowels and other hand tools. Not every potting table contains drawers, but these can be a handy aid to organization. A junk drawer for your patio? Yes, indeed. Add a few small plastic bins or a desk organizer, and you’ve got a safe place to stow jewelry while you garden. You can also store other small items, such as garden pictures you’ve ripped from magazines.

If you’re tired of hunting for scattered supplies in a garage or shed, think about a potting table. Organization really is possible with the help of a potting table. Once you’ve organized everything, the hard work is done. You just have to put each item back in its place when you’re done working. Or, maybe you need to train everyone else in the house to return the items they borrow . . .