As stated in the intro, they were "reverse-engineered" which is a good thing I can offer to you. Like I did on these three planter boxes, first I figured out where I wanted to end up, thus, bought the pots before starting the project. Then, build the project around that. Normal, buy at store stuff, you often have to find a pot or plant to fit the planter you like. Here, make the planter box fit the plant you want and your surroundings.

I choose pressure treated wood as all the stuff in my back yard is made of it. Also, not finishing the items is my back yard look and the easiest thing to do. You could have yours of differnt wood, i.e., cedar or pine or oak or whatever you would like. The pressure treated and cedar woods hold up pretty good outdoors. If your planters will be protected under a porch roof for example, you have more options on what wood you could choose and how to finish (paint or stain) your planters. I like aged naturally stuff in my yard. It's up to you.

However, I did initially plan to stain and apply a spar urethane finish to the three boxes. But, I had heard that there can be problems so I made one and it served as a test. I spent tons of time on it. Sanded everything to extreme - it was beautiful. I stained it "cherry" tone and then applied numerous coats of the urethane coating. Well, what I heard was right. Within a couple of months the urethane was cracking and peeling off. I was "distrought". Put the whole thing aside for about a year. Later, with spirits raised again, I made the 2nd and 3rd planter boxes and left them natural as you see in the photos. They are beginning to gray as they have been out in the weather a couple months now. Looking very good and no problems.

I left the stained / urethane version out also. And, it's not great, but letting it continue to weather, it looks better today than it did last year. My conclusion and lession is that don't put dlsfld on your stuff unless it will be sheltered.

The labels on the all weather urethane say it's great. Mother nature has other ideas. I also heard that pressure treated wood has problems with the urethane finish because it contains too much moisture and chemicals. You may be able to urethane coat your cedar or other traditional wood pieces wiht such and get a year or two out of it. I have not heard anyone saying you will be maintenance free under these scenarios. You will be re-coating your finish perhaps every year or every two years and the piece should be sanded somewhat at those times. A lot of work.