DIY Raised Planter Box

May 12, 2020

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If you’re like me you have a small backyard covered in concert with only a few options to plant a garden. Planter beds are the go-to for people with limited space or just want more control. In this post, I will show you how I built some simple garden boxes.

Below are some supplies and tools but feel free to make this to your own requirements. This isnt a tutorial but more a baseline to help you get started.

Supplies & Tools

Cedar Fence Boards 6ft – (7) boards per garden box
Screws
2×4 wood 6ft – (4)
Painters Plastic
Circular Saw
Nail Gun
Drill
Wood Glue

First step
I cut all the tops off the cedar fence, this is unnecessary but will give you a cleaner look. I wanted these planter boxes to be as big as possible so mine are almost the full length of the 6ft fence board.

Step Two
I attached the cedar boards to the 2×4 legs, starting with the top board. These will be used as the Front and Back of the garden box. I chose to use only 2 boards, which I think is plenty but you could certainly go 3 deep for more room.

Step Three
Now that you have your front and back assembled, the sides are easy to attach. Cut to the desired size and attach it to the 2×4 legs. Its taking shape fast!

Step Four
Support. These cedar fence boards are pretty flimsy and I decided to add some support. First I cut two small pieces of scrap wood for both the front and back and used the nail gun to connect them. Then I got some leftover 2×4 boards, cut them to size, and screwed them into the middle. This added a lot more support and will prevent bowing of the board once filled with soil.

Starting to come together….. I also ended up adding more support boards on the sides, between the legs. This was a big help for connecting the bottom of the planter box.

Steph 5
Adding the bottom. I found this to be the most difficult. There really didn’t seem to be a perfect way of doing it so I grabbed extra fence boards and connected them to my center and side supports. Now since I’m adding plastic liner this didn’t need to be perfect but I wanted enough gaps so that I could cut the plastic for drainage.

Lined the inside with painters plastic and used staples to hold it in place. The main purpose of this was to maintain the wood so that it wouldn’t get to wet and rot over time.

Thats it!! Turned out good for my first planter boxes.