Whose ready for spring yet? I know I say I want snow, but with two good snowstorms under our belt in the last week or so as well as a school closure, I'm kinda itching to see some green instead of all the white. I know green isn't coming outside for a while, but to brighten our spirits I'm bringing the green inside. So the plan is to start lettuce and spinach seeds indoors, but I needed a place to plant them so I created these planting crates out of cedar wood and some leftover barnwood. Come on and see how easy these are to make, and you probably have all the supplies necessary already!
These are going to be perfect, left to sit in a sunny spot I'm sure to get lettuce and spinach in no time. Well here's our wood pile, let's see what we can do.
To start creating these crates you will need a base, and three 1 x 4 inch cedar fence pickets work perfectly, they are inexpensive and rustic looking which are probably two of my favorite things.
You can create the size that works best for your space, but for mine each of these planks is cut 18" long, and the three boards put together are approximately 10.5" across.
Next up the sides, I had barnwood I wanted to use in this project, but I also made one using the same cedar fence pickets that created the base. Don't feel limited, use whatever scrap you might have around the house.
This particular barnwood was 6" wide which does make for a large box, but the benefit is that the plant roots will have plenty of space to grow. The sides are cut 18" long like the base and the shorter sides measure 12" long.
Using wood glue and 1 1/4" brad nails it's starting to look like a box!
Now to add the cedar wood base.
Perfect, now I'm getting out of the cold barn, and headed to the warmth of the house to add the plastic lining that will protect the wood from water and wet dirt.
Back in the warmth! The second box simply uses the 1 x 4 inch cedar pickets for the sides as well as the base, but they are made exactly the same. It's not as deep as the barnwood version however our seeds should be plenty happy in here.
I happen to have some plastic sheeting that I have used to protect my outdoor seedlings from frost from year to year, so using what I had laying around I cut a couple of squares to line the bottom of my crates.
Using a heavy duty stapler and 1/4" staples it's time to start laying down the barrier.
Cutting off the excess now all you have left is to finish off that edging.
I simply folded the excess plastic in on itself to create a cleaner edge.
All protected, and now it's time to add the dirt.
All finished! Looking forward to some green in the next week or two. Check back on our Instagram to see how the lettuce and spinach are doing.
Now it's time to go clean up my dirt mess!
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