Summer is here, time for gardening

Insert HGTV voice here: “Summer is here and I have a lot more wood to make things out of so why not make some hanging planter boxes. Let’s get started!”

Okay, I’m not even gonna pretend that I’m just winging it, I’ve been looking around google for ideas and tutorials. I didn’t just wake up one sunny morning and thought “had time so why not” — no, I looked at what space we had at home for like two weeks before deciding this was gonna be a great addition to the newly halved mini back porch from the leftover handicap ramp. Check out that post if you want the back story.

I had a hard time finding information about planter boxes like these. There were plenty of tutorials but since I had a specific sized material I’m working with and didn’t want to buy new wood, I wanted to see what the recommended specs were for successful planting. I wanted to know the ideal width, depth, height for the soil, whether or not I needed drain holes. Since I couldn’t find info on those online, I made sure to check out what they had in stock at the nearest big box store and found those plastic planter boxes that were similar in style and they all had evenly spaced holes and about 5-6″ in height and depth so I knew I was close enough. I let go of the idea of it being an exact science and got started.

I had 2×6 for the base and some 2×5 boards from the old ramp for the walls and ends. I also had exterior screws to fasten them. I put them together and my first instinct was to place the walls with the screws set horizontally but there are some flaws in that design. I realized that the soil that goes in them could expand and when that happens, it can push the walls out to the sides including the screws. If I screwed them in from the bottom up, then it would be a stronger joint and prevents the soil from pushing so that’s what I did for the bigger version for the front of the house. I will have to think of a way to reinforce the two smaller ones because I started to see that effect after a couple of weeks of growing kale and basil.

I’ve seen these homemade mounting brackets from various other DIY sites, they’re called french cleats. It’s basically a piece that’s cut lengthwise at a 45º angle and attach one side to the wall and the other to whatever you want to mount. I was just so excited to finally do it myself. It saved me a lot of time and money and ended up with removable boxes. This is a really nice feature for something like this especially in the midwest area where there’s different seasons.

After practicing on the smaller boxes, I made a giant one for the front (Promised the wife that I would). You can see that I applied the improvements I talked about earlier here. The side walls are now attached with screws coming from the bottom of the base instead of the sides. Now I’m waiting until the end of the season to see if that theory held up.