A Picture Perfect Planter

My sister and I were at Lowes a while back looking for plant deals, for HER.  She's a plant-a-holic!  

She has yet to admit this.

We saw this cute hanging planter which was a steal at 60 bucks....and when I say a steal,  I thought ain't no one stealing my sister's 60 bucks!

Hanging cake pan picture from Lowes

A side view.

My quest, was to create something similar for nothing!

I scrounged through the scrap pile and found

 an old roasting pan lid.

I didn't even clean it for her.

I determined how big I wanted the frame and cut some scrap wood to that size.

Cut the inside out.

Drilled a couple of  holes for watering and put in some supports for the plants and dirt.  The other end was the lids original vent hole, which will be used to drain excess water.

I removed the lid handle and re-used it for the hanger, drilling new holes and using small bolts and nuts to fasten it in its new position.  Ouch

I glued and clamped the board to the metal and left it overnight to dry..... which was a fail.   Also the chicken wire ended up being cut away to allow for the roots to tuck in.

I ended up securing the pan to the wood, using four washers and screws

I painted the surface using an exterior paint.

I used some grey caulking which I had leftover from another project.

and attached rocks using the caulking as glue, hoping it would look like grey mortar.

My sister worked her magic  and made it beautiful!  Being 60 bucks richer, minus the cost of plants, she joined Garden Club, which she says is like AA for plant-a-holics.

Wait a minute, I don't think that will help her, will it?

Look what we have!

A new generation of Great Horned Owls!
I can't get as close to these guys as I did to last years batch.  They spook so much easier.  Guess last years two got used to me bugging them every single morning!
You can see them here

Cheers!