How to make a window box from salvaged timber | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia

Millie Ross gets stuck into a perfect summer project, constructing a window box from salvaged timber to create a flower-filled view. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
Most gardeners are constantly looking for spots to put more plants. In the ground, in pots, in the house, or the house! Whenever you tackle a project like this, it is good to start with sketches. To work out what you want it to look like, and then how to make it!
What you’ll need:
You could make a window box out of anything that can hold soil, like an old wire basket or metal bucket. Of course, you can buy new materials, but there are many that can be sourced second hand. Millie used discarded sections of picket fence, made of Australian Cypress - Callitris sp, a durable native timber and some salvaged macrocarpa, Hesperocyparis macrocarpa.
- Timber
- Galvanised steel mesh
- Fixings, suitable for outdoor use
- Potting Mix
- Pots
- Plants
How to make it:
Making your own window box means you can make it to any size. It needs enough capacity to hold and grow the plants you want but not too big that it will be heavy.
- Millie measures the size of 3 x 200mm pots and cuts the timber pickets to size, approximately 650mm long.
- The ends are solid pieces of macrocarpa, fixed with galvanised screws. A nail acts as a spacer to allow some movement in the timber.
- To reinforce the internal corners, Millie is using some aluminium angle.
- The base is further secured with a piece of galvanised steel mesh.
Planting the box:
Plants are of course, most important. And the sunny location offers lots of opportunity. Just because it is a limited space doesn’t have to limit imagination.
You could line the box with some shade cloth or fabric, and use the whole thing as a planter, but Millie is using multiple pots to allow flexibility of the display. Each is filled with quality potting mix with around 20% perlite, to lighten the mix while still holding moisture. The plant-packed pots will take regular water and care, but their position on the house will make them easily accessed.
Once the pots are planted, the box is attached to the windowsill using a simple metal bracket. It is important to consider the health of the structure underneath - the window - when you attach the box. You don’t want the wall behind to stay wet, so it is worth including a spacer to stop it making continuous contact with the wall.
You really can put plants everywhere (at your place or even someone else’s!) so find a spot, sketch up a solution and get making!
Featured Plants:
PARSLEY - Petroselinum crispum cv.
OREGANO ‘VARIEGATED’ - Origanum vulgare cv.
KANGAROO PAW - Anigozanthos cv.
COBBLER’S PEGS - Bidens cv.
Filmed on Taungurung Country | Central Victoria
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[@pennylane9155]

That is a great idea Millie, the end result looks really nice!

[@FarmerGarden]

Amazing🌱

[@v.mishrasart43]

Nice👍👏😊

[@tjmarx]

The great thing about this build is it uses fence pickets, so even though most people won't have them laying around, they're 70c each @ Bunnings.

[@autumngryffinnheart6374]

Pine is softwood not hardwood?

[@introtwerp]

I was surprised they have a bidens cultivar thought it was just a weed