Recycled Planter Box

You may remember from July's Unfinished Projects Challenge, that I mentioned a mysterious planter box. Well, here it is, FINALLY all finished. When I went back to find the initial photos of putting it together, they were back in my MAY folder. This is one project that's been too long in the finishing. But now, finally, my little raspberry plant has a safe home, where it can't take over my yard or grow out of control. Hopefully now it will provide us with lots and lots of fresh raspberries.

It's made out of two old pallets that were left behind (or rather, snaffled with the overseer's permission) from our house building. These were the ones that the bricks were on for the house.

And, just in case anyone has a hankering to make one of these, here are some photos and basic instructions.

First, cut both pallets in half. We used the chainsaw for this. You want to end up with a piece (well, two actually, but you'll only use one of them) like this for the base.

And two pieces like this. They will make the sides.

Pull the back board off each side. These will be cut up to make the ends.

Attach first side with these hammer on connector thingies. (I'm really good with technical names.)

Then attach the other side. Then let it sit and weather for 4 months or so. Or, if you're the sort who likes to finish jobs in one go, you can skip this step...

Then cut the boards you pulled off into two pieces (one slightly shorter than the other if you have an angle like ours), and screw or nail them onto each end.

I then moved the planter to it's final place in the front garden, up against the fence, near the compost heap. Of course, it's not finished yet, since it's hardly going to hold soil like this.

I lined the planter box with weedmat on the bottom (left over from making DD's sandpit), and shadecloth on the sides (recycled from DH's parents pergola).

It's attached on the inside using the staple gun. Doesn't look too tidy, but it's about to be covered in soil anyway, so you won't be able to see it. Using pretty much all recycled materials or stuff we had lying around, all up it cost nothing more than the price of a few screws and staples. Can't go wrong there.

Then add your soil and plant your plants! It took quite a bit of soil to fill this up. Half the compost from my compost heap (on the bottom since it's still quite fresh), and about 4 bags of compost/potting mix from the garden store. The raspberry only takes up half of the planter for now, so I'm thinking I'll plant carrots in the other half until it grows a little.