This is an amateur demonstration of an easy way to make cedar planter boxes from 1X6 fence boards. Technical design and construction details are shown. Do not use pressure treated wood in direct contact with any planter soil, especially if you plan to grow herbs or vegetables for human consumption.

The weak point of this design is in the base, which will be prone to fungal rot if wet dirt ends up in constant contact with underlying wood. To slow that inevitable process, I will put a layer of stones inside the planter at the bottom, overlaid with landscape fabric so that the soil is kept away from the underlying wood. This will hopefully promote drainage.

Just like belairdirect simplifies your insurance, we simplify life at the cottage by building planter boxes out of fence boards.

Turning your cottage into the ultimate weekend getaway has never been more simple thanks to Adam Holman, as he drums up some easy, quirky and fun DIY projects that you can do next time you’re at the cottage.

Step-by-step instructions & list of materials:
http://blog.belairdirect.com/diy-planter-box

What projects should we make next? Let us know in the comments!

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How to make planter boxes from cedar fence boards

| Vertical Gardens | 40 Comments
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40 Comments

  • Susan D

    Maybe put some cement stepping stones under your boxes to let the boards dry out and discourage attracting termites to the planters and your house.  They look great.

  • Scottish Bonsai

    Looks great for a first time, you should be fine using cedar wood ,larch , or hornbeam, im needing one big single planter for a tree trunk so im half way n my drill just died on me haha! Typical eh 

  • bg147

    Those are not amateurish. Very nice looking and they should last a long time. Recently, I decided to try my hand at window boxes with untreated 1" x 8"s. Very basic stuff. So, I had the great idea to buy some stencils at Hobby Lobby and spray paint birds in black on the white painted boxes. Well, the spray paint found its way under the stencils and created blurry edges. It was bad. I cursed a bit, deciding to sand the black paint off  During the angry sanding process, the birds developed a distressed/weathered look, so, I went with it. They are probably cheesy but I don't care.  I like them and don't claim to be an artist. I always enjoy your videos. It is great to see how you approach projects around the house. planters, the freezer, and hot water tank.

  • Michele W

    Thank you for this video!  I am getting hubby to build 2 of these, both in an L-shape, and he had no idea what I was talking about…..now I can just show him this video.  🙂  Mine will also go on the ground on either side of a sidewalk, but I am not putting a bottom in them — it will be open to the ground.  I am going to put a layer of plastic along the interior walls though, just not on the bottom.  I will have landscape fabric under it.  I have some extra bricks that I will be placing on top the landscape fabric to set the box on.  I am going to use pressure treated pine fence boards since I will be painting these white, so they should hold up awhile.  Great video!

  • spelunkerd

    Thanks for your note, Sajid. Evidently Google won't permit me to respond directly to your question as a thread. For the vertical boards, for initial mounting of most full sized boards, you can see that there are two screws on the top and also two screws on the bottom, not one. In addition, remember that there is horizontal strapping on both the inside and the outside at top, with those nails long enough to go all the way through, pulling the whole group of boards into alignment. Most of those long screws were put in from inside out, so you can't see the screw heads from the outside. At the bottom there is similarly horizontal strapping going into treated 2X4 underneath. All that strapping is holding the boards tight, and to date there has been no meaningful warping at all. As far as the floor boards, a little warping there would be of no consequence, since those boards are completely concealed and they are meant to leak to allow drainage. Those floor boards were also glued to the base. The weight of soil on top will likely hold those down adequately. Ultimately, warping and board movement will happen no matter how many fasteners are used, and the key to the design of any wood structure is to be sure that such movement does not destroy cosmetics or functionality. 

  • spelunkerd

    That's a very good point. When I do this again I plan to pour cement to help separate it from underlying earth. Concrete below will allow better drainage if properly sloped. Of course design is also a balance of interests, and if the viewers' eye is drawn to pressure treated wood below it would interrupt smooth lines. I find pressure treated wood to be ugly and worth concealing, even if it means a shorter life. Cedar is naturally resistant to rot and one could make a case for using only cedar.

  • Kiplin Jacobs

    Spelunkerd,

    In the future, you may want to hollow the bottom out to reduce opportunities for rot. I would not run my fencing/planter sides down to the ground. I'd actually lift them off the ground some so just the pressure treated base (2"x4") will rot and also could be changed out later on. It is my understanding it will take a very long time for the pressure treated bottom to rot out as long as you have some drainage underneath it.

  • spelunkerd

    You can do a lot with a portable 7 1/4" circular saw, a square and a hammer, so don't be discouraged by that. Cedar cuts really fast, so even a hand saw will work. The problem with hand cuts is speed, and cuts are often slightly out of square. Thanks for the feedback.

  • spelunkerd

    Thanks for your reply. When I bought the planer I wondered if I would use it, but I do use it a lot more often than I expected. It's held just like a sander, but it is much faster and you don't need to replace belts. The blades need sharpening once in a while, and you have to watch for tear-out if it takes a bite at right angles to the grain. I suppose polyurethane would work.

  • Scott Ledyard

    I just needed an even simpler flower box, so I didn't follow this exactly, but I found this video quite helpful. I ended up painting the inner sides of my box with a thick coat of polyurethane (using an old can I had on the shelf) and I wonder if this will suffice instead of using the plastic sheeting. Also, would like to see how that portable planer you mentioned works – maybe in a future video? Thx!

  • Tee Giang

    thats a great tip, i had to learn the hard way. I didnt plan it out well and basically design on the fly which is wasteful and time consuming on my first planter box/bench using cheap pine :(. cedar is costly as well.

  • spelunkerd

    Thank you! Products made in volume, like fence boards, are much less expensive than custom lumber. The design trick is to avoid waste, since short boards lead to more end pieces if you don't plan it right.

  • CyborgNinja7

    I wish the video told me exactly how much material I need. I looked at the plan on the website given, but it doesn't tell me exactly. I can deduce it from the video, but I'd rather not.

  • OhThatGuy1234

    You know the difference between us Brits and you Americans its the way we say "herbs" you say "erbs" and we say "herbs" because there's a fucking 'H' in it

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