My homemade planter

[Chomerly]

Hi all,

This is my first contribution to the site, in relation to giving something back for the help and advice i receive, so

hopefully i can help those of you looking to save a fair few quid.

I will say that you can quite easily change the dimensions and measurements of this planter if you wish.
The idea is to get a sense of your needs for your planting requirements.
Its no good building a monster of a planter if you have no real practical use for one, or the wood for a planter of such a size.
Especially if you have nowhere big enough to place it.
Equally, there are no rules to the size of your own planter so if you want one that's bigger, then go ahead.
Smaller, that's fine too.
Its your time, effort and money (if applicable) so you do as you wish.


Firstly, there are a few tools and accessories required for this job.

A hammer
Measuring tape
A pencil or scribing pen
A drill
A screw or drill driver
A good pack of screws (various sizes)
A bottle of PVA wood glue
A hand saw or a chop saw (much easier and less time consuming)
A pair of gloves (if you have them)
A pair of protective eye-wear (your eyes are important)

The next thing you will need is wood. And lots of it.
Its worth noting that the materials i've used personally, have mostly come from recycling what's out there. And i

highly recommend recycling where it is practical to do so.
It saves you money and saves the cutting down of more trees when it isn't necessary.
Especially with old buildings being demolished to make way for new.
Could you imagine getting heaps of old floor boards and joists to make your garden furniture and planters?
The possibilities are endless when it comes to recycling.

I have a friend who works as a driver for a roofing company and he got me a load of pallets.
Some were massive and i have kept two of those to use as a base for my greenhouse when i assemble it.
It was a lot of time and work to break the pallets apart but once done, you should have some good quality timber that can be reused in projects, just like this, or stored for later use.
Some of the timber i've gotten from breaking the pallets down could be used to make a rustic looking outdoor table or a sturdy bench.
Seriously. The quality of a lot of the timber would set you back a fortune from places like B&Q.
Outside of the pallets, i also had some sawn kiln which i've had for a couple of years.
I decided to use some of it in this project which i'll show you later.

When you have finished your planter, some of you may wish to give it a lick of paint or a nice wood stain.
Painting or staining is a personal decision.
Personally, i'm inclined to let mine weather and see what natural colours it can bring out of the wood.
If you do stain or paint it then i suggest that you use some kind of plastic sheeting around the inside walls and then putting your lining on top of that.
The reason for this is that there are some paints and stains that could be toxic to your plants and kill them off as the moisture from watering may find its way into the soil from the wood.
Read the labels on the containers before you use any stains or paints so you know for sure whether its safe for your needs.

End of part 1.

[Chomerly]

Part 2



Ok, now to the good bit.

First off, assuming you are going to be using recycled timber, we need to make sure that we check our wood for nails and other foreign objects that are liable to cause damage to our tools or us.
Once that is done we can begin sorting out our measurements and making the appropriate cuts.

My first measurements and cuts were for the legs, which also act as support for boards to fix to.
The measurements of the legs are 75mm x 90mm and they were cut into 530mm lengths.



Next we need to get our boards and cut them down to the required sizes.
I used 6 20mm x 55mm boards. Three of them were 2400mm in length and they ended up getting cut down into 6 lengths of 1180mm.
These will form the side walls of the planter.
The other 3 will be cut down into 570mm lengths and will form the end walls.

When done you should end up with something like this for the side walls.



(don't worry about the split wood. It'll be used and still look good after its done)

And this for the end walls.




End of part 2

[Chomerly]

Part 3


We now have to start assembling this lot together.
I started out by placing the boards for the side walls together and making sure they all fitted in line with the legs.
Once lined up i screwed them down and then for each board, i removed the screws so i could glue it down before screwing it down again.
I did this for each board one at a time, gluing and screwing as i went along until that side was complete.
Once done you should end up with something similar to this.





(Notice how i still managed to use the split board in the first of these to pictures?)

With that done, we need to then add in some supports for the floor.
I used some saw kiln i had lying around for this and its measurements are 47mm x 50mm x 2400mm.
This was cut down to around 1000mm in order to fit snugly in between the planters legs.
You may need to hammer them in place but they will need fixing from the outside with screws.
I used 4 screws (no glue) along the length of the board to which they were to be screwed according to the depth required for my planter.
You can adjust this yourself for whatever you wish to plant.
Once done you will have something like this.



We now have to assemble the end walls.
This was done using a similar process to the side walls.
First line up the boards, screw each of them down, then unscrew each board one at a time glue, that one board down before screwing down again and then repeat for each board on that same side.
You should end up with something like this.



As you can see, i adjusted my floor support according to my requirements.
It may seem like a wast of wood when you consider that i could have just made the planter a tad shorter but at least it allows me to change the depth according to what i may plant in it next year.

End of part 3

[Chomerly]

Part 4


With the planter now standing as it should,



we can then move onto the floor.

I used scrap pieces for this as i had a few left from breaking down the pallets.
This kind of application for scrap cuts or split pieces of wood saves it being thrown in the bin.
If they are very small pieces that have no use then i recommend saving them for a BBQ or for use in the winter for a log burner if you have one.
If not then find someone who does and give it to them as the price of wood for burning is getting expensive.
I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Anyway, take what ever scrap lengths you have and then cut the ends down in order to form the main part of the floor.



All that is needed is some screws. Don't bother with any glue.

I took the floor assembly one step further and added even more scrap wood to make it a little stronger.
Its not that the current floor wasn't strong enough. I just thought it would have been an ideal method to save on waste.



Now that is done we can now line the inside of the planter.
I would recommend at this point, as stated earlier, that you line the inside with plastic sheeting if you intend on painting your planter.
Again, depending on the type of paint used, you could end up poisoning your plants as the moisture may seep back into the soil from the wood.
The plastic sheeting will stop this from happening.

The liner i used for my planter was from a roll of weed fabric that i had lying in my shed.
Its very strong and is perfect for my needs.
It also drains really well so it will be interesting to see the state of it when i empty the planter at the end of the growing season.

Firstly, i created a well and stapled it on each side.
Any excess was folded over and then stapled in place.
Next, i took two pieces to line around the end walls and then i stapled them to the floor.
It only took a few minutes to do this and finished off pretty well i thought.
This is what i ended up with.



Once you have completed the planter to your specifications you can then put it in the place you want in your garden before filling it up with soil.
Once its got soil in it, you will be hard pressed to move it afterwards as this thing easily weighed 35+ kilos without soil.

End of part 4

[Chomerly]

Part 5


Here is a picture of my planter completed and filled with soil.



The plants i have in there are 2 Cayenne pepper plants, 1 tomato plant and 12 cut and grow again lettuces.

I hope i was able to explain the process clearly enough for those of you unsure on how to build your own planter.
And i'm sure there are other ways of doing something like this but i'm no carpenter so i just went with what i know.

At least it has saved me some money.
I reckon something like this would probably be about £100 to by in a shop.

Thanks for looking.

[Peppermint]

One of these is on the list of 'things to do'. We have the pallets but not the time at the moment. Thank you this, it's nice to see the pictures.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Chomerley. Very well explained - now all I need is the confidence to try it

[The Masons]

Great post, looks ace!

[Nicos]

Well done!
Nice, clear instructions too

Thanks for sharing

[Chomerly]

I'm almost done with my next planter.
Its similar to the Vertigrow planter.

Pictures will be up sometime tomorrow.

[Chomerly]

I was going to wait until i had this planter finished but figured i'd show you as it is now.



All that is left to do to it is to put in the floors and then line it.
After that i can just go ahead and put my beetroot and beet leaf plants in there.

I may knock another one up yet as i still have a heap of chilli and bell pepper plants to re pot.

[Chomerly]

Well after a little over a week since planting my various vegetables in my planters, here is a couple of pictures of the progress in each of them now.