This snazzy pair of planter boxes arrived on my doorstep for review a couple months ago, just as I was getting ready to build a new garden that called for some planter boxes.  (You can check out the details from the manufacturer here, but if you actually want to get some, go here.)

Anyway, these are ready-to-assemble cedar planter boxes that are surprisingly cheap–even the very largest one retails for under a hundred bucks.  How do they do it?

Well, first of all, the panels are thin.  Not flimsy–it’s plenty sturdy for a planter box–just not as thick as lumber you’d buy at the lumberyard. They don’t use any more wood than necessary.

Also, they’ve partially assembled it in such a way that saves them labor and shipping costs, without turning it into an onerous IKEA-esque nightmare for you. Here’s what you get out of the box:

So all you have to do is attach the side panels to the end panels and drill in the wood screws through the pre-drilled holes. No instructions are needed–it’s quite obvious which way the panels go together–and even assembling the larger size (this is the Gran Robusto, which is 4 feet long) is quite easy for one person.

The bottom panels, which already have pre-drilled drainage holes, just sit inside the planter once it’s assembled. Since I put my planters on the ground, I just didn’t put the bottom panels in so that plants could grow straight into the soil if they wanted to.

The planters are already finished with a nice warm cedar color, but I’m doing some very dark wood in this garden so I added another coat of stain to mine. Just took a few minutes.

And now the folks at Blue Marble Industries want to give away a planter box to you!  Want one?  Sizes range from The Latte (15 in square) to The Churchill (5 feet long), and they say they’ll give people whatever size they want.

So–you know the drill–post a comment, and we’ll give away a planter.  Gen at North Coast Gardening is giving one away too, so head over there for another chance to win.