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Deck Planters
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These wooden planters cling to your railings or stand proud on their own
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By Art Mulder; Photography by Mark Burstyn; llustration by Len Churchill
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These CEDAR planters are a great place for your best blooms. They are made to fit standard planter liners, and you can add gravel to the base for better drainage.
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Assembly time
I used #20 biscuits to join the planters, beginning with slots in the legs.
Whenever possible, I like to cut biscuits with the base of the joiner sitting flat on my bench with the joiner sides aligned with the edges or ends of the piece being cut. In most cases, this set-up eliminates the need for alignment marks. As well, resting the joiner on the bench is much more stable than relying on the tool's fence. You must still mark the inside and outside faces of each board, as well as the tops and bottoms, so that things don't get mixed up.
Use a scrap piece of leg stock as a spacer to align the biscuit joiner with the bottom of each leg prior to cutting. Next, when cutting the slots in the sides and ends, align the side of the biscuit joiner flush with the bottom of each board. This arrangement results in the planter legs extending below the bottom of the planter box by an amount equal to the thickness of the leg stock. It looks good and helps the parts grip your railing or fence.
Make sure the inside face of each board is oriented down on the bench when cutting biscuit slots to attach to the legs. Also, mark and cut slots in the side of the base board of the planter, as well as matching slots in the ends and sides.
One thing you'll notice is that the slots cut in the two adjacent sides of each leg interfere with each other. If this project were something large, such as a bookcase, that might concern me. But in something light and small such as these planters, reduced biscuit size doesn't reduce joint strength enough to matter. I used
a sander to remove enough of each biscuit so that each one fits.
Glue-up your planters in two stages. First, apply glue to each end piece and its matching legs. Insert biscuits and clamp each end assembly. Next, apply glue along the long sides of the base board, insert biscuits and clamp the base to the sides.
After these parts have dried, apply glue to the end assemblies and the base/side assembly. Insert modified biscuits where needed (the biscuit slots will now be shallower in the legs, in the way I explained above), then clamp the ends to the base/side assembly.
Using a 1⁄8"- to 3⁄16"-diameter bit, drill drainage holes into the base of your planter. If you drill at an angle, up from the bottom of the side boards, these drainage holes won't interfere with your deck railing. To prevent the holes from clogging, put a layer of gravel in the bottom of each planter before filling with soil.
Final finishing
I applied two coats of Circa 1850 Tung 'N' Teak oil finish to protect my planters and keep the wood looking fresh. The finish wipes on easily and is rated for outdoor use.
The only remaining step for this weekend project is to find something beautiful to plant in these new additions to your backyard.
Click here to see a detailed image.
ART MULDER is a woodworker who enjoys a little gardening on the side at his home in London, Ont.
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