Who doesn't know this - over the course of time there are countless pieces of equipment for the terrace, lawn or kitchen garden, which you always have to hand, but would like to stow away invisibly and yet within easy reach. However, if you do not want to use the ready-made tool shed from the hardware store, you can build your own garden box yourself with little effort. We explain step by step how to do it.
Build a garden box out of wood
In order to maintain the garden practically and purposefully, hobby gardeners like to use a wide variety of equipment and tools. So that the garden also looks attractive and tidy outside of the work phases, a garden box helps to hide the necessary utensils out of sight but still within easy reach. If you value an individual solution with a high-quality look, you will find the right idea with our step-by-step instructions. You can build your garden box yourself and deliberately avoid using the same standard kit over and over again.
What kind of garden box to build yourself?
The result of your efforts should have a modern touch, but at the same time fit harmoniously and discreetly into the garden design. The following instructions therefore enable the construction of a garden box with the following characteristics:
- Solid frame made of squared timber
- Paneling on all sides with horizontal lap boarding
- Door with a matching look for closed walls
- Use of high-quality Douglas fir for high durability of the facade
- Roof design as a green roof, e.g. as a herb garden
- Execution without foundations, installation on a paved surface, alternatively a subsurface made of terrace slabs, etc.
- Creation as a free-standing box
danger: Again and again it can happen that the device box is not to be positioned free-standing, but leaned against a garage or house wall. Then you can basically proceed in the same way. The only thing that needs to be done is to position the roof in such a way that it is flush on one or two sides. Either the roof should then be reduced accordingly, or the roof overhang increases accordingly on the remaining sides.
size and dimensions
Large enough for all everyday items and at the same time small enough for a corner, the instructions for creating the following garden box are used:
- Width = 1.20m
- Depth = 1.20m
- Height = 1.23 m to the lower edge of the roof
- Total height including roof approx. 1.33m
notice: Of course, the dimensions can be adapted to local conditions and personal requirements. The instructions refer to a storage box that can accommodate all normal equipment including the handle / handle. At the same time, the low height should enable good accessibility of the roof as a usable area. In addition, with common wood dimensions, the size limit allows you to work with little waste.
material
So that you can build your garden box yourself without having to keep finding missing parts, materials or tools, we first make a list of all the things we need:
wood
The interior of the device box should primarily be practical and functional. The facade, on the other hand, should still look attractive and of high quality even after years. Therefore, different types of wood are used as building materials, which optimally meet the respective requirements:
- 10 pcs. - square timber KVH spruce/fir 60x60mm, rod to 3000mm length
- 20 pieces - Lap siding, tongue and groove, Douglas fir, 26x144mm, board length 2500mm
- 1 piece - three-layer panel 19mm, 1400x1400mm (as roof panel)
- 2 pcs. - planing board Douglas fir, 19x100mm, length 3000mm
steel and connecting parts
- 36 wood screws 6x100mm
- 156 wood screws 4x50mm
- 48 wood screws 3x30mm
- 16 pcs. - perforated plate angle 60x60x60mm, galvanized steel
- 3 pcs. - Hinge/ table hinge 120x35mm
- 6 expansion dowels for 6mm screws
- 1 piece of brass or copper pipe 10x1000mm (e.g. from sanitary supplies)
Others
- Impregnation/varnish according to personal visual preferences
- Rubber pieces 60mm wide, e.g. from underlay mat for washing machine or similar
- 1 pack of liquid plastic for painting (approx. 1 liter)
- 2 to 4 screw clamps, opening dimension at least 12 centimeters
- 1 pc. door latch with locking plate incl. screws
For planting
- 1 roll of knobbed wall protection sheet
- 1 piece of garden root protection fleece
- sand
- clay granules
- garden soil
tool
- Set square, meter rule, pencil
- drilling machine
- Wood drill set 2, 4, 6, 10mm
- Masonry drill 10mm
- OPTIONAL: pillar drill with adjustable stops
- Cordless screwdriver with bit set, suitable for selected wood screws
- Miter saw with inclinable and tiltable saw blade
- iron hacksaw
tip: A cheap, usable chop saw is available for between 100 and 150 euros. It is even cheaper if you rent the device from a hardware store. If you clock your work well, a day's rent is enough to make all the necessary cuts.
Build a garden box yourself: instructions
After the preparations, it is now time for the actual work steps. An empty garage is a particularly good place to work. There is enough space for all work and the flat garage floor can be used as a work surface.
notice: In the following, reference is made several times to pre-drilling wood before screwing. This is to prevent the wood from cracking. A smaller drill should be selected for the hole than the later screw. For a 4mm wood screw you should pre-drill with 2mm, for a 6mm screw with 4mm.
1. Cut
Begin by cutting the 60x60mm frame timbers into the required individual pieces. The load-bearing parts of the garden box are then created from these in the following step. With the chop saw, the bars can be easily cut to length at right angles and with millimeter precision:
- 4 poles of 1.20m each
- 8 poles of 1.11m each
- 4 poles of 1.08m each
- 2 poles of 0.93m each
- 2 poles of 0.97m each
The remaining pieces are used as diagonal bracing. For this purpose, 8 pieces are cut to a length of approx. 0.5m and provided with a 45 degree angle at both ends with the chop saw. The angles point to each other, so that the wooden pole has a long and a short side.
2nd frame
Stable frames are now created from the cut frame wood, which are later assembled to form the supporting framework of the garden box. A total of 5 frames are created, with two frames each having the same dimensions and a single frame serving for the later door:
- 2 frames A consisting of 2x 1.11m as a vertical support and 2x 1.20m as a sill/frame
- 2 frames B of 2x 1.11m as a vertical support and 2x 1.08m as a sill/frame
- 1 frame C consisting of 2x 0.97m as a vertical support and 2x 0.93m as a sill/frame
notice: It is important that the crossbars, i.e. sleeper and frame, run through. The vertical supports are set in between. This way, no cut wood fibers will later stand on wet ground and suck moisture into the wood.
The frames are best created on the garage floor:
- Lay the frame timbers flat on the garage floor
- Check the right angles of the frames using a protractor or square
- Insert metal angles in the inside corners and fix with wood screws 3x30mm
- Insert diagonal wood at two opposite inner corners, pre-drill and screw with wood screws 4x50mm
- Pre-drill the corners of the frame through the cross members and screw into the vertical supports with wood screws 6x100mm
danger: A frame B later serves as access to the garden box and is provided with the door C. The stiffening diagonals in the corners are omitted here!
3. Assembly
Once the frames have been created, they are assembled to form the supporting skeleton of the garden box. Depending on the installation location, assembly can be carried out either in the orderly working environment of the garage or directly on site:
- Place frame B between frames A and fix with screw clamps
- Check the right angles between the individual frames and correct them if necessary
- Pre-drill the vertical supports of the frames and screw them together with wood screws 6x100mm, 2 screws per frame connection
- If necessary, transport and align the finished shoring to a later location
- Place rubber pieces under the thresholds to protect against rising water
- Pre-drill the lower frame wood twice per frame, mark the drilling points with a pencil on the subsurface and move the wooden framework to the side
- Drill the paving or slab covering at the marked points with a masonry drill and insert dowels
- Place the wooden framework back in place and screw the lower frame timbers into the floor covering with wood screws 6x100mm using dowels
notice: Securing the position by screwing it into the ground serves to hold the garden box securely in place. If, on the other hand, it is placed on a garage or house wall, the position can also be secured into the wall and is accordingly carried out with a vertical wooden frame.
4. Roof
The equipment box has a solid roof as the upper end and weather protection. At the same time, it should provide long-term protection against the weather and, through the greening with herbs, receive a usable added value:
- Provide the roof panel with an auxiliary line from all edges at a distance of 13 cm and pre-drill 3x per line for later installation on the garden box
- Cutting planing boards 19x100mm in 2×1.438m each, cutting to length using an adjustable saw blade at a 45-degree angle for miter assembly
- Create an auxiliary line for each board with a distance of 2 cm from the edge
- Pre-drill the boards on the created guide at a distance of 20 cm
- Lay the roof panel flat on the garage floor and underlay it with 10mm wooden supports
- Place planing boards without padding on the garage floor and lay them sideways on the roof panel
- Screw the boards to the face of the board with wood screws 4x50mm
- Pre-drill miter joints 2x per joint and screw together with wood screws 3x30mm
- Drill through 2 adjacent corners in the lower inner corner between the roof panel and side boards diagonally outwards with a 10mm wood drill
notice: It would be easier to mount the roof edge with the underside flush with the roof panel. However, the overhang of around one centimeter serves as a drip edge, so that rainwater does not migrate into the garden box along the underside.
5. Assembly and completion of the roof
Once the roof has been prepared, it is placed on the frame construction of the garden box. Because of the weight, it makes sense to ask a second person for help. The roof construction is then completed for later planting:
- Place the roof with the same overhang of 10cm on all sides on the supporting structure
- Screw the roof through the prepared holes with wood screws 4x50mm in the support frame
- Make two sections of copper pipe, each 20 cm long, and insert them flush into the corner drill holes with the upper edge, if necessary use a piece of wood to prevent them from slipping out
- Sweep or vacuum the roof and remove all loose debris
- Empty ½ of the liquid plastic onto the roof surface, seal the remaining container airtight
- Spread the plastic evenly over the surface and roof sides up to the top edge of the roof with a spatula
- Work plastic fully onto metal pipes
- After the liquid plastic has dried, apply the second half of the material in the same way
6. Cladding (sketch 5)
After the construction, including the roof, is complete, our equipment box is still missing the cladding. After all, your goal is to build a fully-fledged garden box yourself and not just create a roof.
pages
- Divide 15 tongue and groove boards with a chop saw in the middle into pieces each 1.25m long
- Tilt the saw blade 45 degrees to the side and miter cut boards, inner length 1.20 m
- Pre-drill boards on both sides in the longitudinal axis with an edge distance of 3 cm
- Build formwork boards from bottom to top on the device box sides, use wood screws 4x50mm
door
- Divide 4 tongue and groove boards into 3ft sections
- Miter cut planks on the outside (!) of what will later be the hinge side
- Pre-drill boards in the longitudinal axis with a distance of 3 cm from the edge and screw to the door construction (frame C) with wood screws 4x50 mm
danger: Drill the top and bottom board off-centre and let it protrude 6 cm over the threshold or frame (later covers the threshold and frame of the supporting structure above and below the door)
front
- From leftover pieces of the cladding for the side areas next to the door, create sections with an inner length of 12 cm and a miter cut on one side, pre-drill and screw as usual
7. Remaining work
Now you are almost at the end of your plan to build a garden box yourself. Only a few small remaining works are still missing until the final completion of the work:
- Mount the door with hinges in the door opening, placing wood under the door leaf at the desired height to help while screwing it on
- Attach bolt with strike plate to door with enclosed screws
- Paint wood with selected impregnation or varnish
- Useful: at least a colorless primer to protect against blue stain and mold stains!
8. Green roof
When the device box is finished, all that is missing is the basis for the future green roof:
- Insert the dimpled sheet with the dimples pointing downwards as a drainage layer
- Lay the root protection fleece on the knobbed foil and pull it up to the top edge of the roof on all sides; Cut off excess
- Mix equal parts of garden soil, sand and clay granules and fill in up to the top edge of the roof
- Water well and let sit for a few days, refill substrate if necessary
- Plant the plants you want
Now we wish you a lot of joy with your self-made device box in your own garden!