That New House Smell: Vegetable Garden Planter

Materials Needed:

6- 8' Landscape Timbers

16- 3/8"x4" lag screws

Cost: $20-25

Tools Needed:

Saw (I used my circular saw for the first cut or two then switched to my miter saw which worked a lot easier.)

Drill with 1/4" bit and 1" spade bit

Impact driver or impact wrench with a 9/16 socket for the lag screws

Tape Measure

Safety Glasses

1) Measure and cut 24 inches off of one end on each landscape timber. These 2 foot lengths will form the ends of the planter, the remaining 6 feet will be our sides. It doesn't need to be exact, but make it close. All my landscape timbers measured 96 1/2" long so I made my cuts at 24 1/4". You can adapt as necessary, just make sure you cut all the lengths the same to keep everything square.

2) I laid my boards out so they interlock at the corners from one layer to the next. Lay one layer out on the ground and then put the second row on top of that. I used a 1" spade bit to bore where the head of the lag screw will be so it can sit cleanly inside the hole for when we add the next layer (shown in the picture below). Next use the 1/4" bit to make pilot holes for the lag screws. I used 2 screws for each board, one on each end.

I don't have an impact wrench, but using my impact driver and the right adapters, screwing down these big lag screws was no problem.

3) Repeat the same process of laying down the last level of your timbers on top of the first two. Make sure you note approximately where your screws were from the previous level so you do not end up trying to put one screw on top of the other. When its all done this is what you have!

4) Flip it over! Once you flip it over you have a finished planter with no visible screws that looks great! If you really want to get detailed with it you can buy some solid stain to finish the ends that were sawed off. I oriented my boards so the stained sides are all pointed outwards so its not visible, but if you are very particular, that's a simple step to add on.