Our 8-by-22-foot deck looked a little plain, so we decided to build a planter. The soil box is made from a thick plastic soap barrel taken from the dumpster of a company that washes buses and trucks.

Gardening can get pretty expensive if you head to home improvement stores to buy plants, seeds, planters, soil, fertilizer, and well, you get the idea. But there are so many ways that you can cut ...