Centerpiece to planter box

Last summer a friend needed some help with her wedding centerpieces and, of coarse, I jumped at the opportunity. We were working without a budget and very little time to create a fitting centerpiece for their rustic and casual Talkeetna reception. I decided to take a trip to the local mill and loaded my car with some cut offs from their raw-edge siding (I always forget the official name for this siding). She had some silk orchids and ferns left over from their bouquets and wanted them incorporated so this is what I came up with...

They worked great for her casual Alaska wedding at the greatest bar in Talkeetna. 

After a couple weeks I was getting a little sick of having a giant pile of siding pieces in my lawn so I got my creative gene pumping and decided to make myself a planter.  My husband was out of town with all of the power tools and nail guns so with a little sweat, a rusty hand saw and a wonderful day I began building.  I dug the frame of the planter to be level and began layering the siding pieces so that they no seams overlap for at least 3 rows (a trick I learned while vinyl siding houses with my hubby).  I also layered the corners to add rigidness. Once the frame was level with the deck I lined the inside of the walls with pit liner (plastic of any type would work fine).  I made sure to layer a little of the bottom and more so by the deck to ensure protection and kept it in place by stapling it to the boards.  When finished I filled it with topsoil from the back of the property and waiting until I came across something to plant in it.

A day's hard work

After a couple days of being back, my husband brought me home a HUGE rhubarb plant that was going to be destroyed due to a building being built.  This fit perfect in my plan of low maintenance perennial and useful landscaping, especially since we plan to be renting this house once we finish our other one (a long long long process).  After finally lifting and setting the water retaining overweight rhubarb, I finally got it filled in and to it's new home, with a little help from my mud loving toddler of coarse.  After some blood, sweat and very few tears I have a wonderful planter that adds so much to our deck area and gives me at least 3 harvests a year, filling our freezer and bellies.  YUM YUM!

my rhubarb gaurd