Is It Cheaper to Buy or Build a Wooden Planter? Honest Numbers

A bare-bones DIY planter costs roughly £30 to £40 in timber and screws, if you already own the tools. A build that actually matches a ready-made planter, with a liner, proper drainage and a plant-safe finish, runs £75 to £115 in materials plus an afternoon of your weekend. Ready-made solid-timber planters start at £29.99. So building is only cheaper at the rough end, and only when your time and your tools count as free.

That answer probably sounds suspicious coming from people who build planters for a living. Fair enough. So this guide does the sums both ways, with real prices you can check, and it ends by telling you when building your own genuinely is the better call. We would rather you built the right planter than bought the wrong one.

What a DIY planter actually costs (the full shopping list)

Take the most common first build: a trough around 4ft long and two boards high, the sort of thing most "easy weekend planter" videos show. Here is the shopping list at mainstream DIY-shed prices.

That lands between £75 and £115 before you switch a drill on. Trade-price site MyJobQuote puts the same picture in wider brackets: £40 to £200 for boards, £10 to £20 for fixings and £10 to £30 for a liner, with a small timber bed totalling £40 to £250.

You can undercut all of this. Skip the liner, skip the finish, build one board high, use the cheapest timber in the rack, and a serviceable box comes in around £30 to £40. It will grow potatoes perfectly well. It will also look and last like what it is, which brings us to the part the videos skip.

The three costs that never make it into build videos

Tools. Every "£30 planter" assumes a cordless drill, a saw, drill bits, a countersink and somewhere to make a mess. If you own them already, genuinely free. If you do not, price them at any DIY shed before you start, because the tools for a first build usually cost more than the timber, and often more than a finished planter.

The finish, if you are growing food. The treated timber on the shed rack is pressure treated for fences and gravel boards, not chosen for growing salad in. If you plan to eat what you grow, you need to think about what sits against your soil: a liner as a barrier, an untreated timber core, or a finish you have checked is safe around edibles. Doing that properly is the least fun part of the project and the part most builds quietly leave out. It is also the reason we developed TIMBAC®, our own non-toxic water-and-wax treatment, rather than using what everyone else uses.

Your afternoon. MyJobQuote's estimate for a small raised bed is 2 to 3 hours of labour, and that is a person who builds them regularly. A first build, with cutting, squaring, pilot holes and the trip back for the screws you forgot, is more honestly a full afternoon. Whether that is a cost or the whole point depends entirely on you, and we mean that. Some of the best planters in Britain were built slowly on a Saturday with the radio on.

What ready-made actually costs (our real prices)

For a fair comparison, here is our current range, built in our Kent workshop from solid timber:

• The Sussex raised bed, in tan or black: 2ft £29.99, 3ft £39.99, 4ft £54.99
• The Hastings wide-plank trough: 2ft £33.99, 3ft £39.99, 4ft £59.99
• The Square Sussex cube planter: £59.99
• The Cotswold Reeded planter, 4ft: £39.99
• The Sussex Planter Trellis Panel: £29.99
• Solid timber planter legs: £6.99

What those prices include is the list you were about to buy separately: solid boards rather than veneer or chipboard, a liner already fitted, drainage built into the base, and every surface finished with TIMBAC®, which is safe around edibles, pets and soil from the day it arrives. The troughs are delivered fully assembled. The Square Sussex ships as five pre-drilled panels and takes about ten minutes with a screwdriver, and we say so on the product page because pretending otherwise is how trust dies.

Each planter carries our 2-year no-exclusions guarantee and 90-day free returns, with free UK delivery. No shed we know of guarantees your DIY build.

So which is cheaper? Three honest scenarios

You own the tools and want a basic growing box. Build it. £30 to £40 of rough timber makes a fine potato box, and nothing we sell beats that number. This is the one scenario where DIY wins on pure cost, and it is a perfectly good scenario to be in.

You would need to buy tools first. Buying wins before you reach the till. The tool kit for a first build costs more than a 2ft Sussex on its own, and that is before any timber. Borrow a drill from a neighbour and you move back into scenario one, which is the correct British solution.

You want it to last, look right, and grow food safely. This is where the gap closes to nothing. A like-for-like build, with decent boards, a liner, feet and a finish you trust near edibles, prices out at £75 to £115 in materials. Our 4ft Sussex is £54.99, finished, guaranteed and delivered. At that point you are not paying extra to buy. You are mostly deciding how you want to spend a Saturday.

Build it yourself if

Some jobs are built, not bought, and we will not pretend otherwise:

• You need an odd size. A planter for that one awkward gap between the drainpipe and the bin store will always be a custom job. Build it.
• You have free materials. Scaffold boards, pallet wood, a dismantled fence. Reclaimed timber turns the maths on its head, and a near-free planter is a good planter.
• The building is the point. If the afternoon in the garage is the hobby, no price comparison matters and none should.

If that is you, our only advice is the advice we build to: keep the base off the ground, let water out, and be careful what touches soil you will eat from. Our guide to why wooden planters rot applies just as much to a planter you made yourself.

Buy one if

Buy when you want the finished thing, not the project. A bought planter makes sense if your weekend is already spoken for, if you are growing food and want the soil-contact question answered for you, or if you want someone else to stand behind the result when a corner fails in year two. That last one is the honest difference: our 2-year guarantee is us betting our own money on our build, which is a bet nobody makes on a first DIY attempt.

If you land on buying, start with the full planter range, and read our guide on lining a wooden planter before you fill whichever one arrives. Ours come lined, so that guide mostly tells you what you can skip.

FAQ

Is it cheaper to buy or make a wooden planter?

Making is cheaper only for a basic box with tools you already own, at roughly £30 to £40 in timber and screws. A build matching a ready-made planter, with a liner, drainage and a plant-safe finish, costs £75 to £115 in materials plus an afternoon. Ready-made solid-timber planters start at £29.99, so at like-for-like quality, buying usually costs the same or less.

How much does it cost to build a wooden planter in the UK?

Budget £75 to £115 for a 4ft trough built properly: five or six treated boards at around £10 each, battens, exterior screws, a liner and a tin of wood treatment. A rough single-height box can be done for £30 to £40. Independent estimates put small timber raised beds at £40 to £250 in materials, depending on timber choice and size.

How long does it take to build a planter?

Trade estimates say 2 to 3 hours for a small raised bed, but that assumes practice and a ready tool kit. For a first build, with measuring, cutting, squaring and the inevitable second trip to the shed, allow a full afternoon. Ready-made alternatives arrive assembled, or close to it, and are planted the same day.

Is it safe to grow vegetables in a homemade planter?

Yes, with care about what touches the soil. Standard pressure-treated shed timber is made for fences, not food beds, so use a liner as a barrier, choose untreated timber for inside faces, or pick a finish you have confirmed is safe around edibles. Trelush planters are finished with TIMBAC®, our own non-toxic treatment, so you can plant food straight in.

How long will a homemade wooden planter last?

It depends on the same things as any planter: timber thickness, treatment, drainage and whether the base can dry out. A thin untreated box sat flat on wet ground can be soft in two winters. Get it off the ground, drill real drainage, and treat the timber, and it will last years. Our guide on why planters rot covers the full checklist.

What do Trelush planters cost?

The Sussex raised bed is £29.99 for 2ft, £39.99 for 3ft and £54.99 for 4ft. The Hastings wide-plank trough runs £33.99 to £59.99, the Square Sussex cube is £59.99, the Cotswold Reeded planter (4ft) is £39.99, and the Sussex Planter Trellis Panel is £29.99. All are solid timber, built in our Kent workshop, finished with TIMBAC®, and covered by a 2-year no-exclusions guarantee with 90-day free returns and free UK delivery.