August 21, 2013

Raised bed garden boxes from wooden pallets

Well I won't promise a full resumption of blogging (after all, I am the World's Worst Blogger), but here's a post for you! We decided to create raised bed garden boxes from wooden pallets. I saw this idea on pinterest, but it just used one pallet. I was concerned that wouldn't off enough soil, especially for deep rooted plants like tomatoes, so we figured out how to put two pallets together to make it deeper and allow for more soil.  One benefit of using pallets is that the slats make it a nearly weed free garden.  Anything that cuts down on the laborious task of weeding is a plus in my book.

We took two same-sized pallets and started by sawing off all the middle slats on one side of each. Then we placed them together with the "empty" sides together to form the box. We then used the slats we had sawed off and cut them to size and nailed them all around the box to hold it together. We had some larger pieces of wood in our garage and my husband used those, too.














Next, we stapled garden cloth to the bottom of the box.  This helps contain the soil.





















Then we flipped it over and moved it into position, and filled it with 10 40lb bags of potting soil.

















It makes perfect rows!  Here are some pickling cucumbers come up. 





















Those are pumpkins that the kids planted at Purdue University's Spring Fest.  I transferred them to the box and they're all over the place now!
















Since we built the boxes one at a time over a period of a few weeks, things were planted a bit haphazardly.  I have three boxes right now (we'll put together the fourth box next season).  One has green beans, green onions, a couple cherry tomato plants, and pickling cucumbers.  Another has zucchini and pumpkin, and the last has green beans and tomatoes.  This was a relatively easy and cheap garden project.  I've seen raised beds sell for hundreds of dollars, so recycling wooden pallets definitely saves you money.

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