DIY Wall-Mounted Garden Nursery Racks

For a gardener who has an ever increasing number of seedlings to grow, a garden seedling nursery rack proves to be a space saver and practical staging and storage area. The garden nursery rack provides the gardener plenty of space for seedlings, seedling trays, pots, tools and so on.

The open type, made with wire mesh steel matting, allows easy drainage when watering the plants on the rack. For gardeners growing seedlings individually in garden seedling trays, the open type allows picking of seedling plugs without lifting the tray.

This article discusses a homemade garden nursery rack that can be mounted on any concrete wall or fence structures. The materials used are readily available at hardware and construction supplies stores. The garden nursery racks pictured in this article come in 2 widths: 8 inches and 12 inches.


Homemade Garden Nursery Seedling Racks

Materials

These are the materials for the basic parts. Steel matting not shown.


  • 9mm Rebar (reinforcing bar) - 76 inches, 4 pcs.
  • Shelf brackets - 6" x 8", 4 pcs (for the 8-inch wide rack)
  • Shelf brackets - 10" x 12", 4 pcs (for the 12-inch wide rack)
  • G.I. Metal wire - #18
  • Steel matting - 36 squares long and 3 squares wide (for the 8-inch wide rack)
  • Steel matting - 36 squares long and 5 squares wide (for the 12-inch wide rack)

Other Materials:


  • Metal screws with expansion shields or raw plugs - #6, 24 pcs.
  • Oil-based paint (not shown)
  • 2-Part Epoxy Clay
  • Tie wires or twist-ties





Tools

Power tools:


  • Angle grinder with cutting disc for cutting rebars and steel matting.
  • Power drill with 1/4" drill bit for drilling screw holes for brackets.

Alternative tools for cutting:


  • Bolt Cutter for cutting steel matting.
  • Hacksaw for cutting steel matting and rebards.

Other tools:


  • Carpenter's Level - For keeping brackets aligned horizontally.
  • Wire Cutter - For cutting G.I. wire.
  • Pliers - For bending and forming G.I. wire.
  • Pencil - For marking drill points and guide lines.
  • Phillips-type Screwdriver - For fastening brackets to the wall with metal screws.
  • Paintbrush - For finishing the nursery garden rack.
  • Measuring Tape - For measuring distances between brackets.

Procedure

The garden nursery racks are all 76 inches long. For brevity and simplicity of discussion, steps 1 to 10 in the procedure will cover only the 12-inch wide rack which uses a steel matting width of 5 squares. The 8-inch rack is built similarly but with a narrower width of steel matting (3 squares)
  1. Prepaint all 4 brackets, 2 rebars and pre-cut steel matting with an oil-based paint. Oil-based paint is weather tough and durable. Pre-painting the brackets, rebars and steel matting is better than painting when everything is already assembled and mounted. This is because it's easy to miss a spot.

  2. Mark 4 points horizontally on the wall where the 4 support brackets of the rack will be positioned. The 4 points on the imaginary horizontal line are 24 inches away from each other. A distance longer than 24 inches may cause the rebar to sag when seedlings and plants are set on it. Ensure the line is horizontal line by using a carpenter's level.




  3. With a power drill, drill all the screw holes for the 4 brackets on the 4 marked points. Each bracket will usually have 3 screw holes. Here's a tip to drill holes with correct depth. Insert the expansion shields in the drilled holes and screw in the metal screws with a Phillips-type screwdriver as shown below.


  4. Paint the newly set metal screws with the oil-based paint for extra protection. Use a piece of wire, rather than a brush as shown below.


  5. Place the 1st rebar on top of the 4 mounted brackets and position it towards the rear of the bracket near the wall. Attach the rebar to the bracket's rear 2 holes by using pair of pliers to wind a piece of metal wire. Do this for the 4 brackets.


  6. Plug bracket's rear two holes where the wire went through with clay epoxy. Clay epoxy helps keep out water which may result in rusting. Do this for the 4 brackets.


  7. Place the 2nd rebar on top of the 4 mounted brackets and position it towards the front. Attach the rebar to the bracket's front hole by using pair of pliers to wind a piece of metal wire.




    Do this for the 4 brackets. As with the 1st rebar, plug the front hole of the 4 brackets to prevent rusting.


  8. The 2 rebars properly positioned and attached to the 4 brackets. Also shown are the dimensions mentioned above.

  9. Place the pre-cut steel matting on top of the 2 rebars. Notice the steel matting have already been prepainted.


  10. With a piece of metal wire and a pair of pliers, attach the parts of the steel matting to the rebars. This will keep the steel matting down and flat on the garden nursery rack.


  11. Do steps 1 to 10 above for the second garden nursery rack.




    Shown below are the 1st and the 2nd racks completely assembled, installed and repainted to match the color of the wall.

  12. Right-side view of the 2 garden nursery racks which are 18 inches vertically apart.


  13. Here are the 2 garden nursery racks, holding pots, seedlings and plants in all sorts of garden containers.



Tips and Warnings
  • There may be cases where pieces of hardware are cut short and need to be joined. Here's a tip on how to join parts of the garden nursery rack.

  • Prepaint as much hardware as possible. It's easy to miss spots if painting is done when everything is installed. Cover all hardware with paint or clay epoxy to help prevent rusting.

Celebrating the success of the newly installed nursery garden racks.


The above photo also shows hanging baskets in a row. Here's how to build a wall-mounted garden rod for multiple hanging baskets. It is a modification of the DIY hanging basket bracket for individual pots.



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