THE PALLET PROJECT

This has turned out to be a lot more work than I thought. If you want to see the original instructions go HERE.

Because of the horses, we have pallets for days. These are heat treated and not pesticide treated. This is super important if you are planning on putting anything edible in your pallet garden.

I had one that is super weathered, which I love. It also means that it is weak. I had to really work around the missing and broken boards and I also had to strengthen certain areas.

The back

With the landscape cloth attached - forgot to take a picture of the plywood backing

Pallet in place before planting

I doubled up my landscape cloth on the back , bottom and the sides. I used T50 5/16 " staples which are what is called for in this application, but I think next time I will use 1/2" . More heavy duty because that dirt and water will be putting a lot of pressure on the cloth and what's is holding it on. I also screwed on a piece of plywood to the back which gave me more support where there were missing boards and it also is helping to support it while it lies on it's back letting the roots take hold.

I love the look of overflowing cascading plants, so I used Petunias and Nasturtiums . I am trying my hand at Strawberries again , so those are on the top and first layer. I put in 4 kinds to see which does best. I saw another cool idea for Strawberries using cinder blocks , which I may try next year.

Putting in the dirt and getting the plants in is much more time consuming than it appeared to be on the instructions I followed. Maybe because I took the time to read all the user comments and took into consideration the pit falls each experienced it took me longer and I used more material than was listed. I used 3 full bags of soil and I made sure to really pack the dirt in after each row got its plants. I also used a soil amendment so really, 3 and a half bags of soil. I put the pallet up on a couple of pots to keep the dogs off it and to make it easier to pick up next week when it gets put in place. I also will not be putting the plants in to the top until it is right side up.

I really like it as a horizontal garden and think I will do this in my little garden plot that MCH built for me a couple of years ago. No weeding really appeals to me!

Once I finished planting it I watered it down with a mist setting on my hose and then I mixed one capfull of Superthrive into 2 gallons of water in a watering can to help the plants recover from shock.

As of today(4 days later) it has been laying on its back and the roots have definitely started to take hold. I will be putting it upright this weekend. Word to the wise - DO NOT try to move the pallet or place it in position by yourself unless you are a trained iron man. This thing is stinking heavy!!!