Planters for Balconies, Roof Decks, and Restaurants

Selecting Planter Liners

Selecting planter liners with the features your project requires will save you time, money, and effort.

DeepStream's rugged waterproof recycled LLDPE food safe plastic liners tapered design, with advanced drainage, makes them easy plant and economical to ship: click for detailed info and prices. — DeepStream’s rugged waterproof recycled LLDPE food safe plastic liners tapered design, with advanced drainage, makes them easy plant and economical to ship.

Major considerations when selecting planter liners are the shape of the planter, the material the liner is constructed with, the location of drain(s), and size relative to your landscaping requirements.

Selecting planter liners with a shape tapering to a smaller base makes for repotting slip-out easy and if they stack then you save money shipping.
Rugged commercial grade 3/16″ walls from UV-stable, 100% pre-consumer recycled low-density polyethylene, or polypropylene are both flexible and food-safe, they will last decades in the sun and unburden landfills as they are recyclable materials.
Side wall, not bottom drain, aids drainage. Is the drain threaded for proper drainage systems accessories if required by your locations.
There is a water reservoir below the drain for the tap root while providing a place for “fines” or clay to settle to prevent drain blockage.
Liner depth is determined by the requirement of the plants you have selected.

DeepStream stock planter liner hanging by 3 straps show the strength of these Landscape Architect Grade liners. — DeepStream Landscape Architect grade stock planter liners have advanced drainage, incredible strength, are easy to replant, and economical to ship.

DeepStream's tapered liner with advanced drainage and the components of the 3-part drain pad with Bio-Barrier to prevent root blockage: click for drain pad details — DeepStream’s tapered liner with advanced drainage and the components of the 3-part drain pad with Bio-Barrier to prevent root blockage

An important consideration to successful landscaping in planters is starting with the right soil mixture and drainage for your plants.

You want your container to drain well while retaining moisture but not hold water. Do not use “dirt” or any material with clay which will block drains. Perlite is a good light weight additive if your trying to improve quick drainage, Vermiculite if your trying to retain moisture. Very course sand, like commercially available “paver base” if you need weight to prevent toppling in high winds but not fine “beach” or “mortar” sand as they will immediately block your drains. Remember many plants have specific soil PH needs.
Geo-textile fabric and drain board to provide filtration and space over drain.
BioBarrier (TM) with a plastic-embedded non-systemic herbicide, with a lower toxicity than table salt or aspirin, that creates a 2″ thick root deflection zone around the drainage material by preventing root cell tip division. The product, guaranteed effective for 15 years, has been used as a weed control system for more than 35 years in agriculture to prevent weed growth between row crops. Drainage pads are placed over the drain hole.
To prevent clogging you need to slow the water so that the fines in the planting medium settle to the bottom and not onto the filter medium. When selecting planter liners pick one with sidewall drainage, not on the bottom. This is an integral part of the drainage system as it allows the “fines” to settle to the bottom below the sidewall drain. Traditional pea gravel is too large and the water will flow rapidly to the drain and clog it with fines. Fine sand will flow too slow and form an impenetrable layer clogging with fines. There is no need to put rocks or gravel in the bottom of a plastic pot, it only raises the water table.

It is best to use a 2 to 4 inch thick covering of very clean, very coarse sand of between 1 and 2 mm particle size mounded over the drain filter. For reference, the wire of a medium paper clip is 1 mm. We have had good results here in Florida with “rubber mulch”, but then we can get 6″ of rain in one day.

Paver Base or similar mediums slow water flow improving planter drainage

“Paver Base” is an acceptable readily available alternative from most large home improvement stores and will work in our planter liners with a side drain as the well below it provides a place for fines to settle. Rubber mulch may also work for you.

Direct Links to helpful tips and information on planter liners, irrigation, and drainage for planters and container gardening:

Planter Drainage: Modern Solutions

Irrigation is Critical for Container Gardening

Spring Conditioning Planter Liners

Custom Restaurant Patio and Sidewalk Café Planters and Fixtures

Custom restaurant patio and sidewalk café planters and fixture are an operating and marketing strategy that builds your brand while cooling the earth.

The exterior of your restaurant and the visible restaurant patio and sidewalk planters and café fixtures give your customer thier first impression. It is critical that with a quick glance your potential customers receive a marketing message consistent with your commitment to a quality experience in dining and ambiance.

sidewalk cafe fixture large rectangular wood planter — Large Rectangular Wood Sidewalk Cafe Planter

DeepStream designs and manufactures top quality custom planters, bins, waiters stations, and valet parking stands that are perfect to meet the needs of restaurants in delineating an exterior space to the same exacting standard as the interior of your establishment. Our Custom Restaurant Patio and Sidewalk Cafe Planters and Fixtures are engineered custom planters, are designed and constructed using the principles of Sustainable Design, backed by a Lifetime Structural Warranty along with a unique Core Replacement Program, will help you maintain our products for decades.

This is especially important for businesses in an urban environment where you cannot afford the time, money, disruption, mess, damage, and inconvenience required to replace carpenter-built wood planters again and again as they tear themselves apart in just a few years.

Custom Wood Garden Planters are available as both stand-alone planters and money-saving multi-section planters in natural 3/4″ thick tongue-and groove solid tropical wood and recycled plastic lumber, with and without DeepStream’s exclusive Zephyr aluminum bands between the planks. DeepStream’s proprietary aluminum leg extrusion allows the addition of trellises, glass windbreaks and other forms of screening.

sidewalk cafe fixture Large Rectangular Wood Planters with glass windbreaks provide comfortable year-round seating at this busy commuter rail station Wine Bar-Bistro

Restaurant fixtures large rectangular wood restaurant patio planters with glass windbreak — Large Rectangular Wood restaurant patio planters with glass windbreak

Deepstream's Trademark Mariner wood planter leg — Deepstream’s Trademark Mariner wood planter leg

sidewalk cafe fixture Large Rectangular Wood Planters with glass windbreaks Large Wood Planter glass windbreak — Large Wood Planter glass windbreak

Restaurant patio fixture planter with glass windbreak — Large Wood Planter glass windbreak

Tall Wood Garden Planters create a casual outdoor restaurant, under sunny bright blue tropical skies with overlapping white umbrellas. — A casual upscale restaurant on a tropical island uses tall movable Wood Garden Planters on wheels to create a wall showcasing the open kitchen while directing traffic to creating a calm outdoor dining space under overlapping white umbrellas.

DeepStream can supply any size of food safe plastic planter liner

When space is at a premium, DeepStream’s Custom Restaurant Patio and Sidewalk Café Planters tailor food safe plastic planters and planter liners to your needs. They are available as narrow as 12″ and 18″ wide with a separate plastic liner insert with state-of-the-art drainage inside an outer box façade to ensure maximum durability as the planting medium never touches the wood and the harshest sun does not bake the root ball which causes unsightly plantings.

DeepStream rugged waterproof recycled LLDPE food safe plastic liners with advanced drainage and easy to replant tapered design.

Large Square Wood Planter with Plastic Liner for Trees

DeepStream’s custom wood planters are an investment in the appearance of your property, and also in sustainable design. The structural aluminum frame and separate planter liner allow them to last for decades. We sell our wood planters direct to customers, eliminating the distributor markup. This allows us to use the best materials and American craftsmanship which, combined with our plastic liner-inside-a-planter-box design, means that our planters will last for generations, providing the lowest cost of ownership over time while lowering the impact on the earth’s resources.

Every planter sold by DeepStream generates 50 trees planted in return by the non-profit Trees For the Future.

Custom Restaurant Patio and Sidewalk Cafe Planters and Fixtures — Long, lightweight, wood multi-section planters are ideal for roof decks

OPUS and Oahu Trash and Recycling Receptacles are companions to our custom Restaurant Planters and Sidewalk Café Planters. They can be made from various materials and mounted with Smoker’s Outpost as shown. Oahu bins have a side-opening door for easy access to the rugged 33-gallon plastic bin inside. The door can be mounted on either side and open to the front or back.

The push flap is solid 5086 Aluminum which can be quickly and easily refinished in place. The plates swivel noiselessly on replaceable Teflon bushings. Hygienic copper push plates and no-touch openings are also available.

All DeepStream bins are made with 100% replaceable parts available through our unique Core Replacement Program. As with all of DeepStream products, at the end of its useful life, all components are recyclable.

Custom Restaurant Fixtures exterior grade cabinetry with drawers and shelves on casters.

Custom Restaurant Fixtures, exterior grade cabinetry with drawers along with a combination trash and recycling receptacle set the tone for this high end restaurants outdoor dining space.

Robust construction techniques are used to create custom Valet Stands, from the simple to the complex.

We urge you to consider making a strong environmental statement, while reducing your maintenance costs, by specifying one of our 5 stock colors of 100% Recycled Plastic Lumber (RPL). RPL is recycled HDPE (high-density polyethylene) from milk jugs and other polyethylene packaging that would normally be destined for landfill. Using recycled plastic lumber can help save the rainforests and slow global warming.

RPL uses no energy or materials to maintain and never needs to be painted or stained. It will not rot, splinter or split. Ultra-violet stabilizers are added to the lumber so colors will look as vibrant decades from now as they do today. DeepStream’s test of custom planters are going on 10 years in the Miami sun and look like new.

Click to DeepStream's website to see more about maintenance free weatherproof recycled plastic lumber Mariner Restaurant Planters — Maintenance Free Recycled Food Safe Plastic Planters are perfect for restaurants as there is no paint or powder coating to fail so they may be pressure cleaned for sanitation and raised planter boxes give pests no place to hide. Lifetime Structural Warranty.

Landscape Architects Help You Avoid Expensive Mistakes!

DeepStream large commercial planters with screen wall and the fight soil mixture grow colorful flowers on this urban roof deck oasis

Using Landscape Architects will save you money as you choose the proper plants for your site specific micro-climate. As you consider the integration of watering, nutrition, PH, soil weight vs depth and drainage it creates a complex matrix of possibilities that can make your head spin.

Roof top planters create a jungle that cools a building saving the penthouse 20% on electricity

Believe me when I say: make a conscious decision not to use a Landscape Architect for larger projects because you WANT to go through the learning process, or because you have already been through the school of hard knocks, not because you want to save money.

While I acknowledge that I’m the type of person who wants to know “everything” and research the “double hell” out of everything I do, there are many things I either don’t have time for or don’t have enough interest in to get down to the really fine details about.

Having said that, probably like you since you’re reading this, when I do the research I want to buy as direct as possible and with DeepStream you are buying factory direct.

Mother nature’s miracle is making overwhelmingly complex systems naturally simple and available. However, an extensive container garden or green roof is a totally artificial environment vs a backyard.

You need to pick the right planting medium for your plants, planters, environment, and drainage conditions. — There are many starting options as you create the right planting medium for your plants, planters, environment, and drainage conditions.

You are trying to mimic nature and chances are that over the long run you won’t save money on larger projects without using the services of a Landscape Architect. I don’t want you kicking yourself later.

As in back-country powder skiing and mountain climbing, you don’t get all the information from a book. It takes years of experience to understand local conditions and seasonal changes to stay alive. The same is true for your plants.

When property owners and customers of DeepStream Designs contact me about large planter projects directly we make a conscious effort to have you at least consider the services of a Landscape Architect.

Landscape Architects large recycled plastic planter for trees — large recycled plastic planter for trees

Believe me, if you have even a medium-size project, the slight mark up Landscape Architects may put on products in addition to their fee is money well invested if you, or your project, are the type that can’t live with expensive and time consuming false starts.

Click here for more information on Landscape Architects