Gardening with wooden pallets has moved from a creative idea to a garden trend. It’s hard to say who first suggested backing a wooden pallet with landscape paper and planting crops in the holes on the other side. Today, though, gardeners are using pallets for planting everything from herbs to succulents. Read on to learn how to grow a pallet garden.
Wooden Pallets in the Garden
We’ve all seen them, used wooden pallets leaned up beside garbage cans waiting to go to the dump. Then someone thought of bringing those wooden pallets into the garden and planting veggies, flowers, or other plants between the bars. Gardening with wooden pallets is an easy and inexpensive way to create a vertical planting area when space is tight. If you are wondering how to grow a pallet garden, all you need is landscape paper, hammer, nails, and potting soil.
How to Grow a Pallet Garden
If you want to do DIY pallet gardening, follow these instructions to get started:
- First, be sure that the pallet you have chosen is not pressure treated, since this can introduce toxic chemicals into the garden.
- Next, wash the pallet well with soap and hot water and allow it to dry. Move the pallet to its permanent site, but leave it on the ground, the side with the widest holes up. Stretch landscape paper tightly across this side of the pallet and nail it in place. Flip it over.
- Fill all the holes halfway with good potting soil. Stand the pallet up, leaning against a wall and fill up the holes completely.
- Insert your plants, tucking in the root balls and placing them snugly against each other. If you like, you can mount the pallet on the wall with brackets. Add water generously until the soil is completely damp.
Pallet Gardening Ideas
Use your creativity to think of different pallet gardening ideas to try. You can start vegetable gardening with wooden pallets, create a fragrance garden, or grow small succulents. Once you’ve started planting in wooden pallets in the garden, many other ideas will come to you. DIY pallet gardening is fun and takes up very little room.