Top tips for lining your wooden garden planters (2024)

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Top tips for lining your wooden garden planters? ›

- Pond liner or geotextile fabric provides excellent durability and helps prevent wood rot. - Measure the interior dimensions of your wooden planter and cut the pond liner or geotextile fabric to fit. - Place the liner inside the planter, ensuring it covers the bottom and sides completely.

Plastic sheeting is the best material for lining a planter with. Pond liners work well for lining the bottom of planters as they are robust and can easily be shaped into the perfect size to fit the dimensions of your planter. Pond liners are also thick enough to reduce any evaporation of water from the soil.

Do this by coating your container in a liquid wood sealer, avoiding chemical sealers if you're planning to grow anything edible, then reapply yearly to guarantee longevity.

As a final reminder, avoid lining your garden beds with plastic. Doing so prevents drainage and could drown your plants' roots with too much water. If you have a weed and pest problem, consider installing a combination of metal mesh and fabric or hardware cloth and cardboard to address both issues simultaneously.

Depending on what type of wooden box you have, and how you would like to use it, you will most likely need to add a liner before planting. Crates with large gaps between the boards need a liner to stop soil and water from running straight out of the crate.

Line the bottom of the planter box with a single layer of river rock or pebbles. This will allow excess water to drain and keep roots from getting waterlogged. Fill the box about 3/4 full of potting soil. Now it's time to plant.

Using an eco-friendly wood treatment is a great way to increase your confidence that your raised beds will last a long time. I recommend at the very least coating your lumber in linseed oil or beeswax to preserve them for the long haul.

If you are looking for an invisible protective treatment for exterior wood that won't change the appearance of the wood but will help protect it from rotting, a wood oil or wood waterproofer is your best option.

Planting. I don't normally bother painting the whole of the interior of a planter but will paint below the visible line. To protect the bottom timbers from the effects of direct soil contact I normally line the planter using old thick plastic – old compost bags are perfect.

Should I put anything in the bottom of my planter? ›

One of the best things to put at the bottom of a planter for drainage is broken pieces of pot. You can use any unwanted plant pots or chipped crockery for this – simply smash them up into small to medium-sized pieces. Adding a layer of broken pieces of pot like this will prevent compost loss out of the drainage holes.

To put it simply, you should put a layer of organic material at the bottom of your garden bed, which will break down and enrich the soil. This can include compost, or woody material such as logs, dry wood, branches, and leaves.

Pond liners work well for lining the bottom of a planter. Simply push the liner into the base of the planter and cut drainage holes in the bottom using household or gardening scissors.

The bags are also not made for this purpose and are susceptible to UVA rays and will very quickly degrade. Taking in to account adverse weather this makes for an unsightly mess. Bin bags also easily rip if stepped on and this may allow weeds to push through any gaps once laid.

For lining, use landscape fabric found at garden supply stores or cloth fabric from clothing. Avoid non-porous plastic, as it can retain too much water and discourage beneficial insects and worms.

I recommend at the very least coating your lumber in linseed oil or beeswax to preserve them for the long haul. Some gardeners use lining between the interior of their raised bed and soil to protect the wood. Even with the lining, you'll get seepage of water that will penetrate that wood and linger.