There’s something special about being able to step outside and grab fresh herbs while you’re cooking. With these easy DIY herb planters, you can feel like a fancy chef with her own herb garden.
Let’s start DIYing!
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Tools
- Drill
- Miter Saw
- Nail Gun
- Bernzomatic torch (we’ve used this baby to torch a countertop and our herb boxes)
- Staple gun to install landscape fabric
What You’ll Need
- Cedar fence picket (each picket should make 2 herb planters)
- 120-grit sandpaper
- Exterior wood glue
- Weathermaxx wing nuts and machine screws to hang the herb boxes
- Landscape fabric
How to make DIY herb planter boxes
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Step 1: Cut your wood
Cut the front and back of the herb planter to 10″ each.
Cut the bottom pieces. Instead of breaking out a table saw, we’re just going to use the miter saw, but that means each herb planter will have two bottom pieces that we will glue together.
First cut two pieces that are 1.25″ wide. Set one piece aside and cut the second piece to be 3.25″.
Cut the side pieces. To do this, measure and mark 1.75″ on one side of your cedar fence picket, then set your miter saw to 33-degrees. Line up your wood so that the saw blade is in line with the 1.75″ in the back. Then set your miter saw back to 90-degrees and cut your second side piece to the same size.
Then line your angled piece up with the front of the box. Mark the excess and cut it off with a miter saw set at 33-degrees.
Step 2: sand
Quickly sand your cedar using 80 or 120-grit sandpaper. We’re not going for smooth, just smoother.
STEP 3: burn the wood
Burn the cedar using your Bernzomatic torch. Get excited because this step smells amazing! If only I could figure out how to capture it and turn it into a candle…
Step 4: assemble
Assemble the planter box using exterior wood glue and nails. Note: I won’t say glue and nail every time, but assume if I say nail, that you’ll want to add glue first.
The first step is to glue your two bottom pieces together to make them a single piece.
Nail the back to the sides. Then nail the bottom to the back and secure it further by nailing through the sides into the bottom. Then attach the front.
Optional step 5: make labels
Make labels for your planter boxes and stick them to the front of the box. We made some using the typewriter font, vinyl, and our Cricut.
Step 6: add landscape fabric
Install landscape fabric using staples. It doesn’t have to be pretty since the herb boxes are going to be filled with soil. We cut ours to be 10×15″ before installing it.
We opted to install landscape fabric to protect the herbs, but also to keep the soil from coming out the bottom. There should be a gap between the front and bottom of your planter. This will serve as drainage, but we didn’t want all the dirt to fall through too.
step 7: hang your planter
Plant your herbs and install your boxes. We drilled two holes in the back of each herb box using a 3/16″ drill bit and used wing nuts and screws to secure them to our AC cover.
There you have it! Now you have some beautiful outdoor herb planters. I think that means it’s time to grab some fresh mint and make some mojitos!
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