Reusing heavy duty metal roofing panels for planters.

About five years ago I got twenty sheets of these heavy duty galvanized roofing panels.  They were used, had screw holes in them, and only cost me I think $50 for all twenty sheets.  They are 11' long by about 3' wide.  At Home Depot I think they sell for about $36 each, last time I checked.  Again, these are the heavy duty panels, not the lighter duty ones that can be had for about half the price.

Just about three years ago, I decided to make a border planter box along my long driveway using them since I hadn't used them for anything yet.

I first considered cutting the metal into 12" sections by 11', and then building a frame out of wood to screw them to.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized if I could bend the sections, they'd make a perfect "canoe", and would need a minimal amount of extra material to keep them squared up like a planter.

The only materials used were the panels, seven of them bent in two places, about 220' of cheap 1" X 1/2" furring strips, some caulking to make the seems look better when the panels overlap, some screws, and some paint.

I think the pictures will explain it better.

Never seen this done before this way.  They are holding up great, although I didn't do a great paint job on the furring strips so the paint is flaking off now.

Nice work! Those came out great :D

S,

That’s really nice work there!  You have taken a small amount of space and turned it into a surprisingly large amount of garden.  Great!

Eric

Interesting!

I have a whole pile of those too, and a daughter who wants metal raised beds in her yard...

I will share with her.

Great idea.  Thanks for the post.

I love when you can make something useful, and beautiful for little or no cost. Great job.