Garden bench - choice of material

Having somewhere comfortable to sit in the garden can make the difference between viewing your green space as a chore, or a haven. Picking the right material for your garden bench gives you the opportunity to stamp your personal style on the garden and to choose something that suits your personality and the way you use your garden. There are many choices:

Plastics and synthetic resin - benches made from plastic tend to come in white or green and do not always have arm rests, which can make them difficult to get out of for older people and difficult to spend much time lounging on. An advantage is that their light weight makes them portable so you can follow the sun (or the shade!) but this also means they may be unstable and tip over. Such benches are usually maintenance free, apart from the occasional wipe with detergent and water – remember not to use an abrasive cleaner, as this might scratch the surface.

Wood - wooden seats are great because they adjust to the ambient temperature, being neither too hot nor too cold to sit on – the downside is that after rain they can stay damp even if wiped down, so covers may be a good buy. Wooden seats are usually too heavy to move around the garden and may attract algae, but light sanding will remove this. It may also be worth relocating the seat to a less damp or less shaded area if this becomes a regular problem. They come in two choices:

Softwoods like pine which are cheaper than hardwood and must be maintained annually when the wood is dry, with a solvent or oil-based wood preservative or durable hardwoods (eg teak and iroko) which can last a lifetime outside without any maintenance, but are generally more expensive. There is also a question mark over how 'environmentally friendly' they are, because the wood for some is not from sustainable sources – it’s worth looking out for sustainable forestry or forest association or WWF labels, to be sure. Hardwoods can be treated with teak oil when the wood is dry and this will help retain the original colour; if left untreated, the timber will weather to a silver colour but its longevity is not affected.

Cast metal – usually cast iron but increasingly also aluminium. They can become red hot in the sun or icy cold in winter, so cushions are generally recommended. Cast-iron seats are very heavy to move around and can become brittle in the winter which means they may shatter if dropped or knocked over! Aluminium seats will tend to bend rather than break if treated in the same way. Pretty garden bench photograph by Byrdiegyrl, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

 

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