Living in our new house has been GREAT. Not only is our commute to work five minutes, but our backyard gets sun all day long. We have tried to grow tomatoes and bell peppers in the past but at the old house there just wasn't enough sun. This year we purchased a few blueberry bushes to add to the backyard and decided to build some planter boxes to put them in. I am building three planter boxes, one for each bush.
Materials:
- 5 - 1"x6"x8' pine boards
- 1 - 2"x4"x8' boards
- 84 drywall screws 1 1/4" long
(You could use 2 - 2"x2"x8' boards if they look okay. I can never seem to find any that are not twisted at my local lumber stores.)
Tools:
- Miter Saw (Circular saw would work)
- Table saw (Don't need this if you get 2x2s)
- Drill (if you have two of them it will make things easier)
- Router with 3/8th round over bit (not necessary but recommended)
- Clamps (not necessary but makes things easier)
- Countersink bit
- Tape measure
The first step is to cut the lumber to length. Take four of the 1x6x8 boards and cut each board into four equally sized pieces. Most of the boards I had purchased were a bit over sized and I was able to cut them down to 2' pieces. Some of the boards were not quite as long and came up a bit short on the last piece. Since the saw blade is 1/8" thick and you will be making 3 cuts you would need your boards to be at least 3/8" oversized. I would recommend that you check the length of all boards before cutting.
The next step is to cut the 2x4s to length or the 2x2s if that's what you purchased. The length of the 2x4s needs to be the height of four stacked 1x6 boards which should be approximately 23". If you have 2x2s move on to the next step. If you have 2x4s then you need to also rip them in half. Make sure you have a riving knife or splitter on your table saw if you are ripping 2x4s. They almost always seem to pinch and bind the blade if you don't.
This step is where having two drills will come in handy. I had my countersink bit in one drill and a Phillips bit on the other. Take one of your 2x2 pieces and layout your 1x6 pieces on top. I put a second piece at the other end to keep them flat. Countersink your holes and make sure the drill bit goes all the way through the 1x6 board, we don't want any splits or cracking to take place.
After you countersink your holes it's time to begin assembly.
For this next part my workbench came in handy. I was able to pull the finished side down and work on the next side. I put this side and the next together the same way as the first. Countersink your holes and then screw down the boards.
After you get your sides all put together its time to work on the bottom. I took the remaining four 2x2s and cut them to length to fit in the box and then screwed them in flush with the bottom of the box. Again make sure to countersink your screws, I put three in each board.
For the inside board cut the final 1x6 board down to the right width and the notch the corners. You can do this with a jigsaw, table saw, band saw or hand saw. I countersunk two screws on either end of the boards with some space in between each board to let water drain through.
I don't really feel like a project is finished until I've gotten out the router. I don't know what it is but a round over bit seems to have a magical transformative effect on a project for me. Well anyways, I used a 3/8" round over bit on the inside and outside of the top edge. It came out really well.
Lastly. we planted blueberry bushes in all three planters in our backyard. The blueberry bushes have even sprouted some berries that Stacey said are delicious. In the past we thought we just weren't good at keeping plants alive, but after moving to this house we have determined that we just didn't have the right environment for it in the past.
If you made it all the way down here please leave us a comment and let us know if you like the post, or have any feedback on the planter boxes.
What kind of clamp is that? Looks like a aluminium channel piece of some sort.
ReplyDeleteAnd the planters are awesome!
You are right on the clamps, they are aluminum bar clamps from Harbor Freight. They are good starting clamps, I bought two 3' and two 4' clamps to start out with. They are nice since they are light for their length. Make sure you look the clamps over pretty good before you buy them I did have one that had a broken rivet on the top of the clamp. I was able to use a screw to fix it but it would have been better if it wasn't broken as soon as I got it home.
DeleteThanks for the comment, I think the planters came out pretty awesome as well. The only thing I'm not sure on is how long the pine will last outside in the weather. Its kind of an experiment to see if the cheaper cost of material lasts long enough or if I should have gone with something like cedar.