In the backyard there was a stretch of stucco wall that was kind of boring. I debated what to do about it and decided it would be nice to use this space somehow. I liked the idea of doing some kind of vertical garden, but didn’t want to permanently attach anything to the wall. After playing around with some sketches, I came up with this three-level planter box idea. It’s a perfect place to grow succulents or herbs, and it turned my boring wall into something a lot more useful and interesting.
It’s an easy project, and took me only a weekend to assemble.
Step 1: Get Materials
There isn’t too much needed for this project. I bought some pre-cast cement footings, a bag of gravel, a landscaping log (which I cut in half), and then some 1″ x 6″ boards.
Step 2: Posts
The posts are constructed from a landscaping log. To make the footings, I dug the two holes and filled the bottoms with gravel. This makes leveling easier, and also helps with drainage (supposedly – not really sure if this is a thing or not!). On top of of the gravel I just put in the concrete footings and leveled them off. Then I filled and packed in dirt all around. The posts are just secured to the footings using galvanized wood screws.
Step 3: The Boxes
The three boxes are pretty straight-foward to assemble. There are a lot of pieces though because I wanted to leave a hole through the middle of each one so the posts could go through. Once there were assembled, I coated them with some weather-resistant wood stain.
Step 4: Assembly
The three boxes slipped over the posts, and I secured them with screws. Inside, I added a layer of gravel, then soil on top.
