Here’s one I made earlier! In the raised bed are orange tulips, ‘Ballerina’, the pink tulips are ‘Curly Sue’, plus some orange Ranunculus and giant red Mustard leaf (as per my header above!). As the ground beneath the beds is fairly solid clay, the raised beds, filled with much lighter, but nutrient rich soil, provide ideal growing conditions for my flowers and veg. And eventually, the worms will work the compost into the clay, improving the soil below.
And here’s the same bed before it was planted up. One palette makes a complete raised bed measuring approx 3m long by 1m wide. Perfect size for my front garden.
These were the most useful tools I found to break up the palette. A sledge-hammer and a crowbar. I was struggling away with a normal hammer and a chisel, when Manuel, my neighbour, came to my rescue and produced these great tools. If you don’t have these, then worth asking neighbours/ friends or family, as they do make the job a lot easier. You’ll also need a saw, a normal hammer and nails to build the bed, once you’ve deconstructed the palette.
So here’s neighbour Claire demonstrating ‘how to’. Firstly, remove as many nails from the outside of the slat as possible.
Then, get the crowbar right under the slat, hammer it in and gently prize away the slat from the post, being careful not to be too gung-ho and splitting the slat in the process.
With 14 slats to remove, it can take some time, but your endeavours will be rewarded!
Hammer out any remaining nails,
et voila! Wood, ready to build your raised bed with. Saw the 4 posts (the shorter pieces of wood) in half, so you have 8 smaller posts.
Then start nailing slats to each post. For the centre posts, the slats should be nailed to meet in the middle of the post.
For the end posts, nail the slats right to the end of each post. I’ve made my raised bed 2 slats high as I had plenty of soil to fill the raised bed with, but you could always just make the raised bed one slat high too.
Then nail the end slats on, position your raised beds, dig in the posts and fill the beds with a good mixture of topsoil and rich compost. I’ve put bark chippings in between the beds, so I don’t get too muddy picking veg and flowers. It took me an afternoon to break up the palettes and to construct and fill the 2 raised beds.
In my new raised beds, runner beans grew wonderfully, and I planted leeks and lettuce along with Nasturtiums too.
It was great to have the delicious scent of the sweet peas right by the front door last summer.
This year I’m going to grow sunflowers, strawberries and lettuces galore. Can’t wait!
That’s a great pallet you’ve found! I’m on the lookout for a decent one after seeing one used vertically for planting up succulents. (Thought it might work with herbs on my balcony.) Great instructions, very inspiring, thanks!
Your raised bed last year was the talk of the neighbourhood. It was beautiful, and it also proved that you can grow veg in your front garden without anyone stealing it. Front gardens are clearly a great space for this project.
We did this too, although the palettes we had were just splitting when taken apart. So instead, we opted for a quicker option of cutting the palettes in half, then lining them with plastic. Not as attractive as your solution, but it was easy and it creates a perfect spot for growing flowers around the base of the bed which makes them look a lot nicer.
Love your post on raised beds! My husband was building two more for me today. I don’t dare show him your post, or he’ll be wondering why I took the easy way out and purchased the lumber! I especially love the recycling aspect!!!
Hi Jayne. It was a labour of love, but I was very pleased with myself when I’d finished and managed to build these beds. Yes, recycling good, and I do find myself scrounging old scaffolding boards from builders for building raised beds at my allotment too. V.best Naomi
Cor Jane! Just looked at your amazingly situated ‘Veg Plot’ http://jayneonweedstreet.wordpress.com/ I’m suffering from major garden envy!!!
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This is such a great ‘how to’! I’m going palette hunting this weekend.
[…] Going with the pallet theme this is how to make a raised bed using one. […]
What a fantastic article, but isn’t the wood on a pallet a little on the flimsy side.
Hi Keith, don’t think palettes are a very long term solution for raised beds, but the wood is free and mine have been great for growing plants in over the last few years, and hopefully the beds should last for a couple more years yet. V.best Naomi
[…] really want to make some raised beds out of pallets, or maybe something like this and this pallet […]
Reblogged this on Hither Greener.
This project is incredible. You must be so proud! Can you give any more details on the other plants in the raised bed alongside the two tulip varieties and the ranunculus? It looks so vibrant but I can’t work out what other plants you have there to form that mass of lush green! Thanks so much!
Hi Jo, I think that’s mainly it, but there is some Giant Red Mustard Leaf (big purple leaves) and it’s also flowering (tall small yellow flowers). Hope that helps. Naomi