How to make raised bed from pallets at home

I love to grow my own food a much as much possible as I can in our small city garden. Over last year I have been making raised bed/ planter from pallets. These pallets are found by skips, building sites and warehouses nearby where I live. I have not paid for them at all. Yes it does saves some money but it’s also a great way to recycle and reuse pellets that can be found easily.

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Disadvantages

However, there are disadvantages of using a pallet as planters. As it’s made of not an ever long last wood unlike using timber. So it might not last for a long time. Its also not as strong as therefore it might withstand wear and tear plus the weather.

Planters/ raised beds are great to have around in the garden whether the reason is to contain ericaceous soil or for me is to my plants to have better soil rather than clay-based soil.

Making raised bed/ planters out of pallets

It is fairly easily done as all one needs to do is to cut away the supporting plank and join them to the sides. A fair amount of precision is required but it’s easily obtained as the pallets are built in such a way that support straight cuts. One will definitely need a drill to drill the screws in so a to join the pieces together. One can have the option of either using a hand saw or electric saw to cut the planks into the correct size.

To make it

First of all, is to find and bring the pallet home. Especially if you don’t have your own transport or it simply just wouldn’t fit in the car!! Find out if they (warehouses delivery man) would deliver for a small fee. I use to carry it home which I don’t recommend doing that. We ended up using my 5-year-old scooter as a wheels transporter to cart it home. It does take 2 people to do it though. At other times we got it home by car.

Once you got hold of the pellet lay it down on somewhere flat like below and begin to saw away the planks. The planks are on the east side of the pellet. I wouldn’t bother with removing the existing nails on the pellet as it’s too much work and it’s dangerous.

Calculate how much you will need to make the short sides of the planter. Normally it’s about 3 you will need for each side. Then cut away the remains of the main pellet. This will make the long side of the planter. If it’s a standard size pellet you will end up with a long remaining plank of the pallet. in this pallet, it is about 4 long planks used for each side.

Once that is all done then just assemble the planter together by shutting together using some 50mm to 55mm wood/ all-purpose screws. You will need about 20-30 for this. I just a cordless power drill to screw them in. It makes life much easier. I have seen others build planters using nails but I have yet to use it myself.

Line the planter with some compost bag at the sides of the planter. There is no need to stick it down. However, if you want to use a stapler gun.

One tip of when laying the raised bed/ planter on the lawn do remove the lawn. Otherwise, the grass will sprout through the layers of compost and they will grow like crazy.

if you have the time it’s a good idea to treat the planter with outdoor wood paint otherwise just leave it alone.

Thank you for dropping by. Do have a look at my other post on gardening like how to set up an automatic watering system.