Building a planter box.
 

I thought I would ask and see if anyone had advice on building a Planter box. This is what I go going on. I want to kill a few birds with one build.

#1 I want to add seating around my deck
#2 I want to add some privacy buy planting some shrubs in a box and making a "plant wall"

I thought If I built a Bench that had a planter box at the rear of it it would work out pretty good. Here is a rough Ideal what I want to build.

I have never built a planter pox and wanted to know what kind of wood should one use and how should it be lined or how does drainage work ect,

I plan on using a shrub called pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira "Variegata")

its a pretty light weight bush and works well when they are trimmed back and thinned out as a plant wall

Here is a example of (pittosporum) used as a plant wall.
These are at our house and these are about 3 years old. They started out about 3-1/2 foot tall when we planted them

Grant, what is above and below the planter? Decking? Awning?

Dane; above the planter is going to be blue sky. And below the planter it's decking (quartz tile)

Make the "shelf" that holds the plants adjustable. This way if you have to change them out it will be easy to adjust per plant. I would probably make the shelf out of galvinized/stainless/aluminum as a liner for protection. Wood - Redwood or teak. Of course make it drainable. I would probably put lights in it. I would make sure the "seat" is hinged and lifts up so you have storage in there as well. Build in drip system. Throw some bluetooth speakers in it while you are at it

Jason: you have the right Idea. The plan was to make this go all the way around the deck in a U shape. And yes the bottoms of the seat Aera would hinge up for cushion storage.
Good idea on the lights. I wanted to make it all out of wood and then use a plastic liner with some sort of rock/filter base.

Part of the idea was to boost the plants up to the edge of the hand rail height all around my deck (48 inches) that way we are getting a 4 foot head start on the height of the plants. But that's a good idea about making the boxes adjustable so as they grow up we can lower the boxes to deck level and get some of the weight down lower. I'm guessing I could raise them up with cinder blocks and then remove one or 2 as they get taller

Have you figured out the footing? It will need to drain. And, you don't want it sitting on water. And, you want the drainage to not mess up your patio.

No I have not figured out the drain? I figured some one had some incite on how it should be as far as How the inside of the planter box should be. I was guessing it should be lined with some type of membrane so that wood doesn't rot away so fast and the box would have some sort of way that the water could drain threw it and out?

I guess if I installed some sort of PVC outlet the water could run threw the box and out to some sort of drain. Ill draw up my Idea

somthing like this.


Another Idea has popped into my head. I should build the planter boxes independent of the bench. so that when or if i need to get to the planter boxes I can remove the bench part and get directly to the planter boxes.

This kind of gives you a lay out of what I was thinking

I would consider separating the seating from the planter. It's more flexible. Plus, water and furniture rarely go well together. Here are some planter only ideas I yanked off the web...

Dane thanks those are some great examples of what I'm looking for do. As far as building the
cedar or pine? What would be a the better material ?

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Here are a few I found too they all seem to be made from Cedar. I have a BIL that has made a few of these and he added a sheet metal liner and solders all joints together and adds a nipple for a PVC drain.

Good Luck

Maybe also consider putting some space between the backrest and the planter space? Room to put your arms and drinks on and avoid plants crawling down your neck while you're sitting...

Grant I have done a few of these. Make your life simple. Think rubber maid trash cans. The kitchen ones work well for the shape. Drill a hole and pipe the drain where you want it. Styrofoam peanuts make for great space fillers. And drain even better. This will keep your construction simple. All you need is a container to hold multiple trash cans. Bounus. Plastic dose not rot.

That's a good idea. Wrap a pair of these with some wood.

Bingo. Water tight containers simple to fill and drain. No worries of rot in you new bench.

Grant, did you think about the weight of all the plants, dirt, benches all sitting on the perimeter of your deck? Just a concern.

I like the garbage can idea.

Again thoes are some great Ideas and examples,
The deck is plenty strong to support some planters.
I guess I should figure out the over all size and then I could calculate the over all weight with dirt ect because right now I have no idea what it would come out to be in weight. The trash cans are a great Idea

If you end up too heavy sub out some of the dirt for styrofoam peanuts. We do this all the time with large pots that have to be moved all the time.