Wrought-iron railing plant shelf

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Wrought Iron Railing Plant Shelf
The wrought iron railing on my back porch keeps anyone from accidentally falling off the two foot drop and twisting an ankle or otherwise hurting themselves. I'm just sorry I don't have gates at the two steps leading off and on the porch to keep the Javelina from peeking in the sliding glass door to torment the cat or help them self to the potted plants growing there.

It's a fairly long stretch of railing and I needed a place to put a few plants and at the same time keep them out of the reach of some of the local wildlife. I also wanted a plant shelf that would fit the specific plant and its container and be easily moved at the same time. It wasn't too difficult to come up with a simple design that provided the plant shelves I wanted.

Two of my Portulacaria afra in their containers sitting on the shelf secured to the to rail of a wrought iron fence.
The bottom side of the railing shelf shows the secured two by twos with a little larger than the railing width between.
Sanded and urethaned top side of the shelf.

I purchased a six foot piece of seven inch wide pine and cut it into ten inch lengths. I had scrap two by two furring strips that I also cut in to ten inch lengths. Then it was just a matter of attaching them to the seven inch wide pine leaving a gap just larger than the width of the top rail of the wrought iron fence. After sanding and painting with a couple coats of water soluble urethane to repel moisture, I could slip the finished shelf over the top rail and it would stay in place. Construction of the shelves couldn't get too much simpler than that, so I made five of the same size, and one a bit smaller.

I placed my potted containers on the platforms and then secured them in place with a piece of twine so that a sudden gust of wind or a quail landing on one of the plants wouldn't knock the container off the shelf. If I wanted to move the plant and shelf it was easy to cut the string, move, then secure with a new piece of string.

A smaller shelf holding a round container.
Securely held in place with a piece of twine, the container won't fall off in a wind storm.
Clay pot with plant secured to the shelf and railing.

Easy to build, easy to move, easy to use shelves for the wrought iron railing. If I were to use larger containers for plant display I could make longer and wider shelves to fit my needs. (2010)

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