Vertical pallet garden

You’ve probably already noticed we call this blog travel and DIY blog. It’s been 4 months now since it came to life and still without DIY post. So we’ve decided to make this right today. We’ll show you how to make a vertical garden from a wooden pallet.

 

 

Our backyard in London is not particularly big, so we always have to consider the space. Further more it’s east orientated and we’d like to plant something that will survive more than only few months. With all this to consider and few leftover pallets (from experimenting with furniture), we decided to make a small vertical garden using these.

 

And to find a pallet? Most likely it’d be enough to look carefully when you walk around your neighborhood. Or you can ask local stores. Back then we used to bring some useful material from almost every walk with the doggies. For this job you will also need some screws and nails, hessian jute fabric (or similar strong fabric you can find in garden shops – as we did), strong garden foil and of course plants of your choice and potting soil.

 

 

You can give the pallet another look by sanding, dyeing or painting it… Based on exactly what kind of pallet you got (found), you may need to put two of them together. Before joining, attach the jute on the inside of one of the pallets. We used a spare board put over the joint from inside and screwed into both palettes to hold the whole construction firmly together. The garden foil may come on the outside, it will probably face a wall anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much.

 

 

If everything goes well and you can still count ten fingers on your hands, you should have an enclosed space inside the joined pallets. Make cross shaped cuts into the jute where you’d like your plants to be. Based on type of substrate you have (it’s permeability – more sand, more leak through) decide where to plant your plants. We decided to place plants more accustomed to drier conditions to the very bottom and ones that like more water to the top. To actually plant, first lie your garden flat and place the plants where you’d like to have them. Look if you like the visuals, if the plants have plenty of space, if one won’t shade another… Next stand it up and fill with soil till you reach the first floor. Put your chosen plants through the holes and cover with soil. Repeat until you reach the top.

 

 

We planted only ornamental plants. If you’re looking to grow herbs, fruits or vegetables, you should choose your pallet more carefully. It should have HT stamp on it (heat treated), which means no harmful chemicals were used to treat the wood the pallet is made from. Also make sure you know where it comes from, or rather what might have been stored/transported on it (paints, chemicals, building materials are obviously not ideal). You should also use a hand plane or at least sand the surface properly if you want to plant some edibles. Poisonous pallet planter, hmm…

This type of gardening allows for very efficient use of limited space and allows to get very nice result even on a small balcony. For inspiration we recommend Pinterest. So good luck with your own DIY and don’t forget to share your creations with us!