During my second year of grad school, we worked on a project for a fantastic group of people outside of Atlanta. We designed areas for working and learning for special adults--and working with these folks was amazing! They were so honest in telling us what they liked and wanted from our designs, and they were so extremely nice and happy to work with us. For this project, a friend and I developed a garden space with raised beds so those in wheelchairs could access them--because everybody loves to pull weeds! Also, to go up against a building in this garden space, we designed a vertical pallet planter. When I say "designed," I mean that Buck and I took apart a pallet and put it back together to make a small vertical planter. And I wrote a guide telling how we did it.
Our designs needed to be low-budget, so the pallet fit that criteria. Also, we used untreated pallets because we didn't want chemicals from treated wood to leach into the soil! And lastly, we were looking for things that volunteer groups could do, so we had to write step-by-step instructions.. and that just happens to translate perfectly into a nice blog format.. just in time for some weekend fun! And during this beautiful spring weather, no less!
If you find yourself with limited dirt.. this project goes vertical so you can grow herbs... Perfect for a city dweller! And if you have plenty of dirt, but need a rack for storing canned tomatoes, pickles, (violet!) jelly, etc... or wine.. this pallet shelf holds 750 ml bottles of wine and pint mason jars perfectly!
Things I like about this project:
1. It works for small spaces!
2. It's perfect for growing herbs.. you can move it into the sun or shade. Or inside if you're trying to overwinter your herbs. And, I. Love. Herbs. Especially this time of year in vinaigrette dressing.
3. It also holds wine and/or canned yummies.
4. It's cheap.. basically free if you already have the tools and the screws.
But, since it is untreated, it will deteriorate over time. The one we made in Athens and I used as my herb garden was two years old and still doing the job. Unfortunately, Buck made me chunk it.. he refused to move it to Winston with us. Boooo!
Without further ado, let me share these (super serious and seriously boring) pallet planter/shelf instructions with you!
Vertical Pallet Planter Instructions
Materials Required:
Pallet (measuring approximately 4'-0" x 3'-4 1/2" x 0'-4 3/4")
Exterior Screw (1 5/8")
Tools Required: (See Figure v1)
Hammer
Pry bar
Drill Tape measure
Hand saw or circular saw
Other:
Soil mixture and preferred transplants and/or seeds
Mulch (such as pine straw)
Note: The available pallets may vary in size and number of boards, and type of wood. Depending on the design of the pallet, alterations may have to be made to these instructions. It is suggested that you find a pallet similar to the one described below if you do not wish to make any changes. However, with a little bit of planning, it can be fun [!] to design your own pallet planter, with a different number of planting shelves. Just make sure that when you are planning your pallet you have enough boards for the front, back, and bottom of each planter shelf. You may have to pry some boards up and rearrange them to make the pallet planter look as you want. You will need to plan which sections to keep for planting shelves, and keep in mind that you will need a board on the front and a board in the back to be even with each other in order to create a planting shelf.
The pallet pictured has seven 3/4" x 5 1/4" boards spanning horizontally on the top, or what will from now on be referred to as the front (see Figure v2). On what will be called the back, it has two large (3/4" x 5 1/4" actual) and three small (3/4" x 3 1/4" actual) boards running horizontally (see Figure v3).
Figure
v2 (front of pallet)
The pallet in the pictures is a hardwood pallet, but with each pallet, care should be taken when removing boards. The board may split, especially around knots in the wood. To pry up a board, use the hammer to tap the pry bar between the boards. Once you get it started, begin prying up the board little by little. Do not try to pry the board up all the way, but instead tap the board (not nails) back down with the hammer and the nails will be protruding up. Use the nail removing slots on the pry bar or the hammer to remove the nails and keep the board intact.
To build the pallet, follow each step below.
1. Pry up all boards that need to be relocated or removed to make the planting shelves. To decide which boards need to be relocated, realize that some boards do not align well with the boards on the opposing side. These boards should be carefully pried up and realigned.
· The second board will need to be sawed (explained below). It will serve as the base of the top shelf.
· The third front board will be kept. One of the smaller boards on the back should be directly opposite the front third board, onto the back side of the pallet.
· The fourth board from the top, the middle board, will be sawed. It will serve as the base for the second shelf from the top.
· The fifth board from the top will remain, serving as the front board for the third shelf (from the top).
· The sixth board from the top will be sawed, and should serve as the base for the bottom shelf.
· The bottom front board will remain in place.
· On the back, the two boards that directly oppose the second and third shelves will remain.
· The board on the back that does not align with a board on the front is to be sawed and will serve as the base from the third shelf.
(What I'm saying is match up the boards that work for a front and a back, and saw the others to use as a base for the shelf. Rearrange as needed.)
2. Using a saw, cut the board that you will be using for a base. The base of one shelf will have two sections, each fitting into the slots between the three vertical supports. There will be two cuts for each section of the base—both to the interior of the vertical frame boards. This section of board that you are cutting out will then be the exact fit needed for the base sections. Make these cuts.
3. The small pieces of wood still nailed onto the vertical supports can now be pried up.
4. Fit the sawed boards into the base section that they are to occupy as directed in step one. You may need to use the hammer to tap the bottom into place (see Figure v4). Do one section at a time. Make sure that each base is flush with the front and back.
5. Have someone hold the base in place, and use a 1/8” drillbit to create the hole that the screw will be screwed into later. This step is necessary to avoid splitting the wood. Only two screws will be needed on the front or back of each base section. Four screws total will be used for each base section.
6. Now use the drill to screw the screws into the holes you just created.
7. Repeat this step for each base section (see Figure v5).
8. If desired, you may now line the shelves with a geotextile fabric. However, this pallet has not been lined, and though the geotextile fabric will prolong the soil to wood contact, the wood will still be moist from the start, and the decaying process is expected to begin immediately.
9. Now the vertical pallet planter is ready for soil. This particular pallet will hold approximately 1 cubic foot of soil. Fill the shelves with the soil, leaving room to plant seeds or transplants.
10. Plant your seeds or transplants.
11. Fill up the rest of the volume with the soil.
12. Now, place the mulch/straw over the bare soil where the transplants are planted, but not where seeds are planted. Once the seeds germinate, place mulch around them too. The mulch will help keep the moisture in, and is an important component, as the shelves here do not have the ability to hold much water, therefore dry out very quickly.
13. Be sure to regularly water your pallet garden! If possible, use water from rain
barrels.
I recently made osso buco (osso meaning bone, buco meaning hole-per Wikipedia), but I substituted the deer neck (with a hole) with a turkey leg (with no hole).. So I guess I made Liza's osso turkey lego. And I used sage in it. I flippin' love sage!
Y'all in South Georgia! Stick ya some citronella and basil in there... I read both help keep skeeters away... and Lord knows, it's worth a shot. Though if you're in South GA, I doubt you have a shortage of dirt and need a vertical planter...
If anyone makes this, please share pictures! I hope it makes sense.. even though reading it is as boring as using the bathroom without your iphone.
:)
Happy palleting! And most of all, happy weekend!
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