Finding contentment without the farm, I embarked on a project to build a planter box last weekend for some tomato plants. I was looking to build it on the cheap and have something that I could easily repeat, at least somewhat in the future. To that end I used a wood palette (that was up for recycle purposes) as a source for the wood. Aside from the minor electricity I used, I was out .99 cents for the small brad nails and have enough left for a second box to be constructed.
My original plan was to use the hammer and crowbar to remove the boards from the palette in a whole piece. However, that proved a bit futile. Largely, the nails were tight and when I put enough pressure to get them loose, I typically broke the thin pine boards used in the construction of the palette. Not to fear, my theory is if you can not deconstruct then you can destroy otherwise with either fire or a saw. Using my circular saw I cut out lengths of rough board that ranged closed to 6″ by a rough 13″. Note: Some of the remaining boards are destined to be uprights for a new shop workbench – check back in a few weeks for progress on that project.
As the ends were not square, the next step was to make them so. Granted, I did not need super square edges for this project, but my feeble attempts at holding the circular saw square were not good enough. A simple square did the trick to lay them out and in the process I marked everything to 12″ lengths as well. While I was marking, the end pieces of the box needed an angle and I decided 1″ inch run over the almost 6″ rise looked good and marked that angle, using as the based the actual width that was nearly 6″.
Next I fired up the table saw and using the eyeballing technique hacked off the various ends to where I had marked. I rushed through this step and probably did not do quiet the job I should have, but I was okay with the results given the rustic look and feel of the boards that I had anyway. A quick line up of the parts showed one minor issue. I had cut for the long sides to fit inside the ends and the slight angle required a small (1/8″ or so) rip cut to be required on the base/bottom piece.
For assembly I debated on wood screws versus small nails. Eventually, though I usually prefer screws for longevity, especially in outside situations, I let price win out on this project. The only expense was the .99 cents for the package of nails, which contained enough nails to actually build two boxes. Hindsight I wonder if I should have used some exterior grade wood glue on the end pieces at the very least to help with stability and longevity?
Once assembled, I knew the box being made of pine and definitely going for element exposure was not going to last long. I looked around and found a can of white, green, and what I thought was gray spray paint that had moved with the last three of those traumatic incidents. Wanting to get them used up, I felt like it was the perfect opportunity and decided first on white, thinking if nothing else I could use it as a base and cover later if need be. The white spray can fouled after only one side was painted though.
I decided next on gray, which actually turned out to be a metallic silver that I am sure I had a reason for purchasing at some point in the past. Not really happy with it, I decided to give a wild try to something and followed the somewhat tacky silver with green. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I do like that result.
After a brief air drying, I filled with soil mixture. I felt it was a good size for two tomato plants of my heirloom type variety and made it so. Only a few people have seen the box on the patio, but those that have liked the looks of it. This weekend coming up I am going build two or maybe three more. I have a couple more tomato plants and want to do a larger fresh herb box garden as well.
