Raised Garden Bed From Pallets

[AnnaIkona]

Hi there!
My husband just brought a pallet from work. And I decided to turn it into a raised garden bed to place it near our house wall.
My husband just sawed the pallet in half to turn it into two pieces. I was thinking of painting it and then will layer it with a plastic cover to protect it from water.
Do you folks have any other suggestions? Am I doing anything wrong?

And also, I was gonna plant cucumber plants in it. And attach a trellis for them at the back.

[Asica]

I know it is important to see if they do not ave any chemicals on them. If you check youtube you can see what to look for. The pallets usually have numbers and letters on them that tell you if they have chemicals on them.

[AnnaIkona]

Will the chemicals affect the crops even if I will cover the area where the soil will contact the pallets with plastic covering?

[ManChild]

Hello,
I think the pallets are a great idea. I spent almost $100 on wood alone so far on mine (2x10s). My neighbor actually uses pallets and it doesn't look to bad either:

[imafan26]

Pallets are a great idea. I would not put a bed up against the house foundation as it may harm the house.

[AnnaIkona]

Thank you folks!
I'll post up some progress pictures once I get started on 'em!

[Taiji]

Pallets have so many wonderful uses! I am fortunate to have access to lots of free ones. I used pallets to build the interior walls of a wilderness house we built. They are surprisingly sturdy walls. I covered them, plastered them over with homemade earth plaster, and then painted them with a homemade earth paint. People use them to make furniture, build houses, whatever.

I'm still trying to find an easy way to salvage the boards from pallets without destroying them. A person could have an unlimited supply of boards. Because of the screw-nails used to hold them together, they're almost impossible to get apart. I've tried pry bars, hammers, some people use a sawzall to try to cut the nails. I tried that too, but it's just too difficult. I think I did manage to get enough boards from pallets to line our closets in the house, and do the bathroom ceiling, but what work!

Are you planning to set them on edge to make your raised beds? I'm not visualizing how you are going to do that. Great idea!

[AnnaIkona]

House walls from pallets?! Wow...that's really cool!

The way I was planning on building this raised bed is by just sawing it in half (which I have allready done as seen in pic), and then add a fourth side to each pallet half.
Since the pallet is already just like a box, we really don't need to do anything other than covering the bottom with plastic covering to protect the wood from getting damaged by water.

And, YES, pallet pieces are REALLY hard to take apart!

[applestar]

This was how I did my first one Subject: Pallet sided high raised bed hugelkultur experiment

I'm finding pallets offered free for picking up on Craigslist. I used the HT -- heat treated -- pallets.

Looking around the Internet, it's amazing how much you can do and you can build them into elaborate and beautiful designs... mine are just held in place with the green fence-posts for easy take down and replacement.

And I didn't line mine pallet sides because the whole point for me is to try NOT to use synthetic materials. Grass clippings held back the soilmix, nothing fell or washed out. But mine were located partly with intention to absorb the water that always puddles in the path and the primary swale/path for the VG beds, so there wasn't a lot of overhead irrigation going on.

I think average pallet cut in half is about the right height for a typical high raised bed -- the one I built is higher on purpose, but I intend to build one this year that will be made with the weathered remaining pallet cut in half for a potato bed.

[AnnaIkona]

Yes, I agree, maybe the plastic covering isn't such as good idea, Applestar. But I am just slightly worried that my pallet is chemically treated. And I don't want all the chemicals transferring into my soil.

And I WAS NOT on planning to make half of the pallet one side of the raised bed...but instead just take one half of the pallet and put on on the ground. The pieces already have a rim/edge/wall which is about 6.5 inches around them. And I think that is enough space for the roots of some types of plants.
Sorry, it's pretty hard to imagine it in your head from what I have wrote.

[AnnaIkona]

After breakfast this morning, I started the "project" (it's not really a project as it took less than 5 minutes)

So, as you can see in the attachments below, I have allready sawed the pallet in half, and now removed the middle bar from each half and attached it as the missing fourth side.

Do you think it is deep enough? Any suggestions as to what to plant in it?

It was REALLY easy!

[applestar]

Your pallet is nicer than mine... Almost a shame to put soil on top of those slats.

I cut mine in half (I prefer to use the hand saw for the wood and hacksaw blade on the reciprocating saw where there might be nails), but when I laid it down, it felt too tall --the pallet was almost exactly 48 inches long, so each half made a 24 inch high side. - - - solution was to cut it in half again. Now I had enough to form three sides, and I don't need to enclose the near side because the ground is graded to slope down and form a valley between the two properties.

I wrestled with the tumbling composter to see if I could move it sufficiently closer to the apple tree, but there's just no way. And then realized that by cutting that 4th piece off at the center post, the 1-1/2 sides fit exactly to the existing bed dimensions.

...and yes that is a peach blossom -- the apple tree didn't make it into the cropped photo

[AnnaIkona]

That's an interesting way to do that! Never though of it...but it is a good way.

...Peach blossom...yum!!

[applestar]

I started to fill it today. I kind of like the way this looks.

Two Falstaff purple Brussels sprouts survived the winter, so I dug them up and then planted them in the filled part of the new raised bed. Also saved a few chervil and an OVERWINTERED parsley.

[AnnaIkona]

Yours looks nice and busy! so far mine is empty...planning on planting cukes in one and spinach and radish in the second one!

And yes, same here, my parsley survived this winter too!