Winter Shrub Frames - An Easy DIY Project

It’s been a crazy weather week here in Ontario, Canada - one day bright and sunny, one day raining and now we have snow! It’s a good thing I finally got around to building the shrub frames I talked about way back in Essential Fall Yard & Garden Maintenance. Yes, I put on my little carpenter’s hat, hauled out the table saw, the cut-off saw, and the cordless drill and took total advantage of that one bright and sunny day earlier this week.

Here are the fruits of my labor!

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

This is a quick and easy DIY project. Here’s the rundown.

Materials List

OSB Panels (inexpensive and environmentally safe)
2 x 2 x 8′ lengths of spruce
Zinc-coated nuts, bolts, washers, and screws (the zinc coating will help to prevent them from rusting)

How To Instructions

• Using the cut-off saw, cut four legs of equal size from the 2 x 2 spruce.
• Drill a hole in the center of each leg about 3 - 4 inches down from the top. The bolts I chose to use were 5/16″, so I used a 5/16″ drill bit - didn’t want them to be too easy to open and close.
• Connect two legs together with the bolts, washers and nuts. The order in which I assembled them was bolt, washer, leg, washer, leg, washer, nut. Repeat for the other two legs.
• On the table saw, cut OSB down to the size you want for the sides of your frames - two panels for each frame.
• Lay the two sets of legs out on the ground, place one of the cut-to-size OSB panels on top. Align it so that the top of the panel is just below the bolts on the legs and the sides are even with the outer edges of the legs.
• Screw the first panel in place. For the first side of the frame, I screwed the panel to the outer legs with 3 screws in each leg - top, bottom and middle.
• Flip your frame over and align the other OSB panel on top.
• On this side you’ll be screwing the panel to the inside legs. Again, 3 screws into each leg.

The ultimate test to see if you’ve screwed the panels onto the legs properly will be if your frame actually opens! I’m not too proud to admit that my first one didn’t - duh. Cordless drills are sooo handy.