Garden Planter Box

Overview: This is a pretty simple and fun little project if you have a saw and a router. We live in an apartment with no land for ourselves so I decided to make a big box that I could still grow veggies in without having a million jars full of dirt around the house. This only cost me $20 to make because I only needed two pieces of wood. I bought two 1" x 8" x 10' pieces of wood.

First cut the wood into 2 parts. Cut the two sides of the box the same length which I cut 4' long. Then cut the four other pieces all the same length. I cut them 2' long.

Then I used my router with a 3/4" bit to make a groove for the 2 foot length pieces to fit into. I used the 3/4" bit because it was the same thickness as my wood. So I made 4 cuts all together. One cut on each end and two in the middle.

Time Saving Tip: Clamp your two pieces of wood together width wise. By doing this, you can make one long cut with the router making both pieces of wood look the exact same. If you don't then you have to measure both pieces of wood separately and make twice as many cuts.

Then apply glue into the slots made by the router and fit the pieces of wood into those slots. You made need a mallet or a hammer to help you fit the pieces into the slots.

This is a close up picture of a router joint. Try and make them as tight as possible and as flush as possible. In the instance that they aren't flush you can either hammer it until they are or sand it down. I didn't think I needed it to look pristine because it is just a planter box and my vegetables won't care how well the box looks.


Use clamps to tighten everything together and while the glue is drying, put some nails into the joints to strengthen the whole box. Wood glue is not very strong enough by itself.

I then cut some pieces to fit into the top to act as dividers and to strengthen the box. No glue was used.


I cut 2" x 4" pieces of wood to fit into the bottom so that I would have somewhere to screw the screen onto.


I then screwed a screen onto the bottom so as to hold all of the dirt in and to let the water drain from it. To see more pictures of the plants in it go to my older post about gardening and you will see it in all its glory.

Now you didn't have to use a router to make the joints. It would've been just as easy to not use it and simply glue/nail the pieces together. I used a router because 1) I just barely got my new bits and I wanted to try them out and 2) by having the wood be in joints, the whole box is a lot stronger than if nails and glue were only holding it. I was able to stand up the box like a book shelf, climb it and sit on the top and it didn't break/collapse. If I didn't use a router, I may not have been able to do that without it breaking.

If you would like to see the garden planter box in action with all of the plants in it click here and scroll down.