Wilbur Shaped Garden Planter .

It's Christmas Eve and I need a present for a friend.

Luckily I can fall back on my roundabout dog Instructable.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Roundadabout-Dogs/

I was with her a month ago and we drove past the Roundabout dog; she expressed delight and initially refused to believe that I had put it there.

Such was her enchantment that I decided to  make a version  that could hold spring bulbs.

Well, it's not to my taste but she is a sucker for anything even vaguely animal shaped.


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UPDATE- January 1st 2013

I made more of these by request but ran out of nails on the third one so the last page of this Instructable is an update on  how to give the planter as a present in kit form.

A pallet.

A saw.

A hammer.

Some nails.

A bottle lid, bottlecaps ams can lid.

A drill is helpful but not essential.

A marker.

I cycled to the Industrial area and found a pallet.

It's not so hot; very thin wood with splits; but for this project that's fine.

This wood is so wet that easing it apart was not so hard.
The wooden slats were all different sizes; I scratched my head for a while to come up with the most expedient design.

I removed a full length and after removing the middle block I cut the slat in the middle and matched the ends up.

I nailed these together and used another slat for the base, to become an open box.

I simply cut two short slats and then cut them lengthwise to create four skinny legs.
These are held on by one nail each, which makes them adjustable.

The head is just a pallet block.

Ears- The wood was too splitty to make ears so I used the lid from a tin of dog food.
I cut the lid in two and hammered the sharp edge over. These will rust to a pleasing brown.

Eyes and Nose- two bottle caps and a whisky lid.

Head-The head is held on by a big nail ( I drilled the block first).

Tail- The wood only allowed a rudimentary tail but it fits.

Draw on some teeth.

For instant appeal I will use winter pansies: Pansies are the best bedding plant to give you colour from the autumn right through the winter and into the spring.
Underneath there are some bulbs which will surface in the spring. (Before planting soak snowdrop bulbs for 8 hours or overnight).


Quick! you have just got time to make one.

Merry Chrimblemas.

After Christmas two more friends wanted these roughly made dog planters ( I don't know why ).

I started on the first one.

I got bored and cut even more corners; I used some kindling for the legs and tail and held the box together using the leg-nails.

It took about ten minutes but I was running out of suitable nails.

I started the next one but scratting around for nails was becoming tiresome.

This friend, who this dog is destined for, has a builder as a partner; he has thousands of nails.

I had splodge of inspiration; If I lettered each piece and give it to her in kit form, she could assemble it at her house.

The DIY dog was born; it all fitted nicely into a box shape.

I wrapped it and made a label.

Happy New Year.