AusBonsai

G'day all, I have been dreaming of what my personal Bonsai House ( home nursery ), would look like if I were financial enough to build it, I am presently designing a plan for this and will post it one day when I have finished, fortunately enough at one time I was given the opportunity to design and construct such a house for a gentleman, given the guidelines of what he wanted, this is what we came up with. not my Cup of Tea actually.

NOW, I thought if anyone was interested in showing us their own Bonsai House OR what their Ideal design would be if they could afford to build one, or maybe one of us was rich enough to have already done so, then, it would be good if they " you " would like to post some photos, if you so desired to share with us. Just getting slightly away within the subject, " WHY " on earth do we always display our Bonsai on low benches ( average 90 cm off the ground ), especially at Shows, "When" Bonsai are best viewed at "Eye Level", I recall donkeys years ago when Lindsay Bebb had his original nursery off Beaudesert Road, that he displayed some of his smaller Bonsai at eye level and it looked GREAT, anyway if you are interested in posting please feel free to do so, cheers.
James

Hey James,

I like that setup tho the steel is a bit hard on the eye. At present most of my trees sit on timber pallets 30cm off the ground with some on a bench at the more usual 90cm & another bench that is about 45cm high, The real big pieces are sitting just off the ground. I also have a small shade house (shadecloth on roof & western side) with similarly poor height benching 90cm & 40cm. As you also state, none is ideal for viewing but was a cheap (free), easy and convenient way to not only get my trees off the ground but recycle a waste product.

I have drawn rough plans for 2 long display benchs (larger one native, smaller exotic with some native spill over) to run down one side of my yard, simple pan roof 1.2m wide 1.7m high at rear & 1.9m at front with a lower & upper shelf along the back edge. It faces northeast and will provide full sun to everything for the majority of the day during winter and protection from the hot summer sun after about 10.30-11am. The back(northwest side) will also be covered with shade cloth to the line of the upper shelf. I am in the process of scrounging materials for its construction and they will in turn determine its final actual design based on the above plan.

I have been giving alot of thought to bench height, width etc, my main objective is to provide adequate suitable growing space for the varying sizes & also species in my ever growing collection and have decided one at 1.4m (30cm wide) & another at 80cm(75cm w). By getting my trees up off the single layer pallets onto benches at different heights provides me with more room. 2 shelves of bench & all that free ground space again... hhmmm room for more trees. The real big stuff will remain on there low stands until the garden is finished & then will be moved onto permanent staging within the landscape. Large size bonsai always look something special when they merge into a garden as if part of the whole. Unless you are standing in front of it you wouldnt know was in a pot.

I have a couple of eye level display spots for showing individual trees including a few spots inside I like to have a tree for a few days.

Matt

g'day matt, sounds like a good plan, don't know about the 1.4 mtr but, depends on the height of your tree because at 1.4 mtrs you would be looking at the pot mainly and say if the tree was 30 to 40 cm high you would not get the full view of it to the apex, you would be looking up, I suppose that depends how tall you are also, but you have to consider your visitors when they want to look at your collection too, I would myself be thinking of around 1.2 to 1.3 mtr for the high shelf, also another thing is that when we get old and have some arthritis, the lower the bench, the harder it is to bend and pick up or put down heavy pots, thanks for your input, cheers mate.
James

Bugger! Had to re-type this post - the wireless dropped out.

We rent an old farm house sitting in the middle of 100 acres of flat land. The most sheltered side is the east side of the house with two plum trees, a blackwood, a sycamore and some other big shrubby tree which combined, provide a neat little sheltered area. I rotate the plants around the garden, accordinging to the seasons.

I spent $150 at a nursery closing down sale and scored a metal trolley and two old plant stands. Each stand has three shelves and is about 2 metres long. Bonsai and general pots are all placed there to protect them from being knocked over by the dogs. I also scored two old plastic medication trolleys that were being thrown out at work. A couple of old fence palings cut to size make for adjustable shelving and voila, a relocatable bonsai stand and seedling housing.

We're band-aiding our way for the time being, working towards moving up to our farm which hopefully will be in a 6-8 months. I've bought hoops to set up an igloo on our farm but have to wait for the earthworks to prepare the site.