Wheeled flower pot stand

When I started woodworking, a key motivator was simply financial - make stuff myself and save cash.

A recent trip to the garden centre, where they were selling these wheeled flower pot stands at absurd prices, convinced me to get back to basics and make my own.

There's nothing complex about this build. Simple pallet wood - all from the same pallet to keep consistent appearance, and avoid the need to process the wood too much (planing, thicknessing etc)

A simple grid of five slats with gaps in between and two perpendicular underneath, all 40cm in length. Each overlap with two screws - the only 'gotcha' being to be mindful of the screw placement on the end ones, given that it'll be cut into a circle.

Then simply cut into a circle with a jigsaw, and a quick sand to remove sharp edges.

Four wheels from an old office chair were attached - these are simply push-fit into a drilled hole.

That's all it took - literal junk (pallet wood, wheels scavenged from a binned chair, and even the screws were from the 'miscellaneous' jar). Whole thing took less than a couple hours and saved about thirty quid.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy)

Multi-tiered triangular planter

I'm pretty sure at some point I said I was done with making planters, but, here we are, here's another.

It's a multi-tiered, 4-segment planter made from pallet wood and arris rails from a dismantled fence.

I've always liked the idea of mixing differing heights in gardens, like with the firepit project, and as we're aiming for a zero(ish) waste approach to the garden, planters are a great means of re-homing soil that is displaced from other projects.

The triangular arris rail is an example of letting the available materials influence the design of the project. In my original sketches I'd planned for a square design, but finding the arris rail led me to using triangles, which actually fits better as the planter is intended to go in a corner.

Likewise, the pallet wood influenced the sizing, as the sizes of the triangle are 120cm, which is a standard footprint for a pallet.

Woodstore / Planter from reclaimed wood (old shed)

After finishing the upcycled planter by the firepit, I realised that something similar would be useful as a wood store for the firepit, and would also help define a boundary to the patio and fire pit area.

Looking through the remaining timber from the shed, there was still the shed floor, and the second long wall to use, and the short (back) wall

These formed the back and front of the second planter, with the back wall being split into 2 lengths to provide the sides, in mostly matching dimensions to the first planter.

To help keep the wood dry, the shed door and it's hinges were repurposed. The thing is, the planter is around 8 foot long, and the door only 6.

To overcome this, it's split into 2 sections, with a divider made from part of the shed front. The 6 foot section with the lid is the woodstore, and the remaining 2 foot section was lined out with plastic to create another planter, in the same manner as the first planter.

The idea is that this will house climbing plants to grow along the trellis that has been installed on the fence at the back of the patio.

The door had to be trimmed down as the planter was narrower, and the hinges had to be switched to the opposite side. A bit of scrap chain (left over from the light fitting project), and an odd carabiner clip I had lying around, were looped around the tree to provide a latch to hold the lid open when needed.

Bonus Planter

That was meant for making planters. But, when I set out with all these garden builds, I did set a 'zero-ish' waste rule. And when the bricks were delivered, they came in a wooden crate, which would then need disposing of.

Plus there were a few miscellaneous bits of shed panel left, which were otherwise just going to be firewood.

So I quickly whipped up a third mini-planter to go out on the front lawn. It's pretty rough and ready, but will serve it's purpose, at least for now and until I have more definite plans of the work I want to do out front.

 

 

The bonus planter, just needs top soil and plants

Planter from old shed

When working on the patio and fire pit, I took on the challenge of 'zero-ish' waste - not having any more waste than could fit in the regular household bins. No skips, special collections etc.

On the opposite side to where the fire pit was built, there was an old shed, which wasn't in bad condition, but was unwanted.

It was taken down so that we could make use of the paving slabs which were being used as it's base.

Along the side of where the raised patio was being built, there was a gap which used to have long-dead roses in - the area marked in brown in the patio-plan model below

Just eye-balling it, I could see that the length of the shed (approx 8 feet), was about the same, and came up with the idea of using the sides to create a raised planter there. 

It also helped the zero-ish waste plan, as the planter would provide space for re-homing soil removed during the fire pit and patio builds, as it could be filled up from ground-level

The frame was simple, just the four sides simply screwed together - leaving the bottom open for drainage.

The front panel was cut down from the front of the shed (below the windows), and the back of the planter was one of the roof panels of the shed. The sides were the other roof panel, cut lengthways.

The back of the planter is higher than the front - I considered cutting it down, but it does provide some utility in that it gives a place to mount things like chicken wire/frost protection/cold frames over the top of the plants if need be, and as it is still lower than the fence itself, I decided to leave it alone.

And finally some miscellaneous bits of shed timber was used to add trim to the top of the panels, which also served to pin the plastic liner in place.

The wood was treated with normal fence stain/wood preservative.

The insides of the frame are lined with plastic sheet (which as it happens, is also up-cycled from some packaging.) and stood on some slab offcuts to protect the wood from moisture caused by contact with the wet soil.