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After a decade of harvests, the raised garden beds in the community garden of Plympton, MA, were in desperate need of some TLC—and Girl Scout Troop 70837 was ready to dig in. Fortunately, 8-year-old Brownie Audrey Hickey had an ace up her sleeve: her uncle Nathan (that’s TOH carpenter Nathan Gilbert) and his friends at Ask This Old House.
While Nathan helped the girls rebuild the four large, rectangular raised beds, TOH landscape contractor Jenn Nawada showed them how to divide perennials, identify weeds, and plant seeds. Meanwhile, back at the workshop, Tom and Kevin pitched in to design and build this hexagonal herb planter to serve as the garden’s new centerpiece.
Don’t let all the angles intimidate you. Even if you don’t enjoy a math challenge quite the way Tom does, the pinwheel shape is easy to build. Just set your miter saw’s bevel angle once and follow Tom’s instructions. He used simple butt joints to provide plenty of wood for the screws to bite into, which creates stronger corners—important for weathering outdoor conditions.
The planter’s intriguing compartments are practical, too: In addition to keeping aggressive plants, like mint, from taking over, they allow for adjusting the soil to suit each variety. While moist potting soil is fine for tender annuals like basil and cilantro, woody perennials like sage and rosemary prefer a fast-draining mix of sand and soil.
Note: The following instructions will build a hexagonal planter roughly 40 ½ inches in diameter, from point to point.
How to Build a Hexagonal Herb Planter
1. Cut the hexagonal frame pieces.
Adjust your miter saw’s bevel angle to 30 degrees. Bevel-cut the end of the first board, rotate it so that the opposite edge touches the fence, mea- sure 201/8 inches from the outer tip of the cut (or half the desired diameter of the finished bed), and make the second cut. Continue cutting until you have six pieces. (Note: If your saw has an auxiliary fence, using a stop block would ensure identical parts.)
2. Dry-fit the frame.
Arrange the parts on your workbench so that the mitered ends overlap, as shown in the illustration at left. At each corner, make two pencil marks on the outside board faces, 7/8 inch in from the end and 13⁄4 inches from the top and bottom edges.
3. Assemble the frame.
Holding the corners tightly together so the pieces don’t shift, use a countersink bit to drill pilot holes at the pencil marks. Angle the bit so it goes in at the center of the rear board. Then, drive two 31⁄2-inch stainless steel screws into each corner to secure it.
4. Cut the dividers.
With the miter saw bevel angle set to 30 degrees, cut six 183/8-inch-long pieces. After bevel- cutting one end of each board, rotate it so the opposite edge touches the fence. (Each divider’s long face is the same length as a frame piece’s short face.)
5. Assemble the inner hexagon.
Place the dividers inside the frame so that one end meets the frame and the other butts against an adjacent divider, as shown in the illustration at left.
6. Fasten the dividers.
Attach the dividers to one another and to the frame with 31⁄2-inch screws. The resulting compartments will require you to drill closer to the boards’ edges or at a steeper angle for the inner connections. A right-angle drill/driver (see Tip) enables you to work freely in tight spaces. Once the planter is assembled, set it in the garden, fill it with soil, and start growing.
