Our Deck Project with Planters for Screening

We like our neighbors, but having some privacy on the deck is important to us too. When my husband started building a deck to hold his grill, it started out as a simple, ground-level wood deck.

Before long, it evolved into a super outdoor living area. I showed him a deck project that I found on the Hometalk site. It included a triple level planter across one side. He liked the idea and incorporated it into our deck.

Here's the way he made the deck.

My husband wanted to keep it simple, so he laid this framework for the deck. It used a standard sized timber that would fit in his pickup truck bed.

You'll note that he put down black plastic for a weed barrier. The support posts each rest on a concrete paver to keep those from sinking into the ground and to provide stability.

(photo by Virginia Allain)

Take a look at some of these to get the sequence in mind and learn about some of the pitfalls of deck construction.

Attaching Them to the Frame

To add extra interest to the deck surface, he created a checkerboard pattern rather than have all the boards running in the same direction. He made each square the size of the board so didn't have to cut them.

Check out the video below for details on completing this step.

Look around online for deck projects before you get started. Here's the page that inspired our planters (Backyard Deck in New Orleans :: Hometalk). It was a 16 by 16-foot deck in New Orleans with 4 rows of red cedar planters for herbs.

Here's another example (Recycle pallets by turning them into a planter. :: Hometalk) but my husband doesn't like to use pallets for an outdoor project. The cedar boards in the planters will hold up longer in the weather and against the moisture in the soil.