We thought we’d share some of our favorite DIY carpentry projects for the garden. When we’re not in the shop working on custom railings and stairs, we love to do small home projects like adding flower boxes, window boxes, raised bed gardens, and the like.
It’s a fun, relaxing way to do more of what we love while adding some character and color to our home. Plus, it’s a great way to engage with our kids and spend time with our family outside in the sunshine. Check out our recommended DIY carpentry garden project ideas below!
Fence Pole Flower Pots
There are a few different styles of install options ranging from hooked pots that hang over to pots with cutouts that rest on the fence posts or deck railing. We love the brackets that screw into the fence posts that can hold customized pots, as they’re perfect for placing small potted plants for pops of color which are changed out seasonally. If you prefer something with perennials, you can choose a larger pot, like the cutout options, and leave them in place all-year round for easy gardening. You can also create a small wooden planter box out of scraps and attach that to a sturdy portion of the fence for a personalized look.
Here are a few of our favorite options:
For a more permanent option, we love the wall-mounted flower pot holders (we have similar ones on our own fence next to the shop!) And they’re extremely budget friendly and perfect for those who don’t want to rotate placement.
These brackets come in white and black and are available in pairs on amazon for less than $30
This set of four Iron Metal Potted Stand baskets are affordably priced at $25/4, and are great for outdoor or indoor plants (so you can bring your green babies inside for the cold)
Larger plants and perennials would do well in these deck rail planters. They’re wide, deep, and very sturdy, perfect to support for big leafy greenery as well.
DIY Your Own Birdhouse
Creating your own birdhouse is a fantastic way to use up scrap lumber from your other projects. While we recommend using a pine ror cedar option, so long as you properly seal or paint your project, it should withstand the elements for quite some time!
You can download your pattern online depending on the type of birdhouse you wish to make, but the basics are the same. Expect to spend anywhere from 1 to 3 hours crafting your bird house. If you wish to forgo chemical options such as wood glue, a sturdy wood screw to connect the pieces will work well. For a basic birdhouse you’ll want to avoid perches to keep birds safe from predators, include a decent sized entry hole to allow for multiple bird types, and ensure the roof is sloped to prevent water and ice/snow from collecting on top. Different speceis have different needs, so you can look online for specific nesting plans and bird box designs if you’d like to attract a specific type of bird.
Create a Raised Garden Bed or Garden Box
Raised garden beds have numerous benefits: they offer great drainage in areas that may have poor soil; they offer additional growing space and volume; the boxes help with weed control; they offer significant pest control compared to in-ground; allowing more control for the nutrient load and high quality soil/compost. The key thing to remember when creating your garden beds is to leave plenty of room between the boxes and not overcrowd them, so there is plenty of drainage, proper humidity and adequate space for growing room. You want to choose a spot with plenty of daylight exposure, as well as easily accessible water sources for proper maintenance. While it isn’t mandatory to do so, you may wish to add a layer of lining to the garden bed before soil such as mulch, twigs and bark, or planks of wood with space between them; this helps by adding a layer of insulation to the soil and controls temperature regulation.
When building your beds, you can select from two styles: one that is raised on a stand, one that is built directly onto the ground. We recommend using your leftover scrap wood to create the frame for a more rustic, creative aesthetic. The perfectionists in our midst may want to buy new lumber and cut it down to size for a more even, cleaner, and uniform look. Additionally, some stores such as Aldi, Lidl, Home Depot, and even Costco offer pre-cut kits with everything you need to assemble your own raised bed frame (although, where’s the challenge in that?)
Another wonderful option for DIY planters is to create window or deck boxes. These smaller boxes can be attached to your porch railings, a wooden deck, or even outside on window frames and sturdy fences. We love making them out of scrap wood, because they don’t require a lot of lumber, and are small, space saving shapes.
Let’s check out these tutorials to learn more about DIY-ing your own raised garden beds and boxes:
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