How to Make Your Deck Unique

 How would you like to make your deck stand out from the others? I'm going to show you some ways to make your deck unique. 

In this picture you can see I've dropped a pond into the deck as well as a Japanese Maple. One thing I want to point out if you decide to do something like this. Make certain you build a support stand under the deck to hold whatever you drop down.

In this case it's very important. The pond holds 75 gallons of water. Building a platform not only holds it up but also removes this weight from the floor of the deck.

The same goes for the Japanese Maple. This is a big pot and with the dirt in it, it's heavy. I had wiggle room with the pond liner as it was empty when I dropped it in so I could take my time to manipulate the wood holding it up.

Not so with the Japanese Maple. Drop that down with the support too low and it could fall through the hole and ruin your tree. Also notice I didn't make the pot flush with the floor. I left the top width above the floor so that debris being blown around wouldn't all gather in the pot.

It's not quite dark outside but it's dark enough that the motion sensor light kicked on. I have a red bulb in it. It not only makes the deck look pretty cool but, surprisingly, it seems to keep the mosquitoes away from me when my skin is red from the light.

As you can see in this picture, a stickman is enjoying the ambiance.