What to do with the old decking boards that have been piling up in the garden for months? Before you dispose of the discarded floor panels and possibly even pay money for them, you save on acquisition costs at the same time by recycling the floorboards. Converted into a plant pot, terrace slabs prove to be quite useful. Here you can read how to do it.

If you have decking boards or other wooden slats, you can easily make a planter out of them

Decking boards as cladding

Unfortunately, it is not recommended to make a planter exclusively from decking boards if you want it to beautify the garden for years to come. When assembling you have to cheat a bit. Namely, by covering a mortar barrel with decking boards. The trough inside protects the wood from contact with wet soil that could cause rot.
The easiest way is therefore to create a square planter out of decking boards.

Which wood is suitable

Of course, you can still use existing, old decking boards for the construction. However, these should be in usable condition. Otherwise, the robust wood of the Douglas fir has proven itself for the construction of a planter.

building instructions

  • take measure
  • Attach roof battens
  • Remove reinforcements on mortar barrel
  • drilling and screwing
  • Assembly

take measure

  1. Measure the outside edges of the mortar barrel.
  2. Allow some leeway when cutting the decking boards (the boards must overlap at the corners).
  3. It is recommended to work with twice the board thickness.

Attach roof battens

  1. Attach the roof battens to the halves and to the long sides so that you can screw the planks on top of each other.

Remove reinforcement on mortar barrel

  1. Some mortar barrels have small handles for transport.
  2. Remove these to be able to attach the panel.
  3. Otherwise the edge will deform later.
  4. It is best to use a multi-function knife to remove it.

drilling and screwing

  1. Pre-drill the screw holes to prevent the wood from splitting.
  2. To do this, turn the mortar barrel upside down.
  3. Lay out the decking.
  4. The top floorboard should protrude a few centimeters so that the barrel does not lie on the floor later.
  5. Now pre-drill the holes at offset heights.

Assembly

  1. Happy with the result? Then finally screw the planks tight.

Use and other tips

Incidentally, you can also make many other garden items from decking boards. The plant pot is also suitable as a raised bed. Or how about a bird house from the cuttings?

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Care tips