UPDATE! Last year’s growing season was surprisingly a success. I decided this year to make my wall planter into an herb garden. I made painted plywood labels and screwed them into each box.

Original Post:

I really love how this project turned out, but I have a confession: I have a brown thumb. I’ve never owned a plant longer than a year without killing it. So when I told my husband I wanted to make a vertical wall planter for our deck he thought I was crazy. A girl can dream, right? I always apologize to all the plants I buy on the drive home. This time was no different. Everyone say a prayer for these guys.

I made this completely out of dog ear fence panels, pressure treated 2×4’s and deck screws. I came up with a basic plan in Adobe Illustrator and went with it.

I am a very messy builder. My husband hates it because I completely take over our 3 car garage. At least it’s summer so there is no snow to brush off our cars outside!

First I made the back…

Then I cut lots of pieces for the boxes…

I assembled everything together. I am not the best woodworker, so the bottoms of my boxes had gaps. If you are better than I am, you might want to drill holes in the bottom for drainage. I am usually a perfectionist, so this was actually refreshing to just throw this together not worrying about imperfections. I didn’t even sand it before staining.

At home depot they sell little sample sized stains for less than $4.00 each. I thought it would be fun to make each box a different color. I stained all the boxes separately before I attached them to the back. Then it was just a matter of attaching the finished thing to my deck, buying plants and planting them!

My husband made me pick plants that didn’t have flowers. He didn’t want bees by our slider door because he is allergic. I was happy to find a variety of colors that weren’t flowering. So many variables go into plants – climate, sun exposure, how much to water, price, soil type, plant food. Gahhh! When I’m at Flowerland my brain just wants to explode. Wish me (and the plants) luck! We need it.