Versatile Wooden Planter

I decided to make one of these planters after seeing a picture of a commercially made one in a Lee Valley Catalog, I figured that I would have enough wood stored on my "www.instructables.com/id/Backyard-Project-Wood/" Wood Rack, on it I found Tongue and Groove Cedar boards, and the spruce 2 x 4's and 2 x 6's, to make it with.

After seeing the planter and with the dimensions given in the ad I figured that it would be easy enough to work out the other dimensions. So I made a couple of quick sketches and worked out the other measurements.

The planter dimensions are approx. 31 inches high x 40 inches wide and 18 inches deep.

A dozen 1 x 6 x 4 foot T & G Cedar boards

Two 2 x 4 x 4 foot spruce

One 2 x 6 x 4 foot spruce

Wood Glue

1 inch, 2 inch and 3 inch wood screws

Four 3 1/2 inch x 3/8 inch Stove bolts with nut, washers and lock washers

A small role of landscaping fabric the roll I bought was 5 meters by 1 meter and I used about half of it for the liner.

Tools:

Table Saw

Cordless drill

Square

Drill bits

Screw driver bits

Tape Measure

Corded Drill

Permanent marker, pencil, Yellow Paper

Hand saw

On 9 of the Cedar boards I ripped off the the Tongue and Groove using the table saw, the other 3 I just ripped off the Groove.

I wrote on the yellow paper the sizes of the pieces I needed and what part they were for.

NOTE! Some of the pieces used had their lengths changed during construction, they needed to be longer.

Luckily I had spare boards to make up for the short fall. I would suggest that the trim boards that go around the outside of the planter be measured for once the planter is put together.

I cut to length the pieces needed and labeled them for present use and to allow others to make their own.

As I was building it today I took pictures of every step, when I went to download them there was no pictures of my construction. I have never had this happen before and haven't been able to figure out what went wrong.

I went outside and took pictures of the finished planter with a different camera, so you can see how it turned out.

When I was assembling the front of the bin I used some of the cut off grooved pieces so there would be the proper spacing between the boards. Using some left over pieces that were cut off and then ripped in half, these were used to fasten the front, back and side panels together.

The legs and cross pieces were fastened together with the stove bolts and then attached to the the sides of the completed bin, the bottom of the planter (2 x 6) rests on the top side of the cross pieces of the leg assembly.

Finally I lined it with the landscaping fabric, the fabric is held in place with the Trim boards that are attached around the outside of the planter.

If anyone needs more information on the construction just write a comment and I'll try to help.

I think it turned out quite good. The reason I liked this design comes from the advertisement description of it.

The front of the planter is shallow, good for plants with short roots like lettuce, the planter gets deeper toward the back so you could have medium deep roots and really deep roots all it the same planter.

Because it is made mostly of Cedar it's light and rot resistant, It's easy to put on a deck or a balcony and you can have a variety of plants or flowers in one compact easy to work on planter.

An added bonus is where the Trim side boards attach to the leg assembly this creates a narrow space where you can put small gardening tools when you aren't using them (see picture).