Frame and Panel Planters

This is a pair of planter boxes built the same way despite being two different sizes — a 1x3 frame, a 1x2 top cap, and vertical fence-picket paneling nailed on starting from the center and working outward, which keeps the pickets landing evenly across the width instead of drifting off-square by the last board.

The real design decision here is in the fasteners, not the joinery: build each planter's four panel assemblies as separate flat pieces, then join them together with screws through predrilled holes. Skip the glue at that final joining step on purpose, and the whole planter breaks back down into four flat panels for winter storage — a meaningful advantage for anything living outside where the ground stays wet for a season it isn't being used.

Use exterior-rated glue and galvanized finish nails on the paneling itself, since that layer stays permanently assembled either way; it's only the final four-panel-to-box step that's built to come apart.