As a gardener concerned with the environment, you’re always looking for ways to turn trash into things you can use in landscaping. Pallets are easy to find, and grocery stores, home improvement stores, and lumber yards often give them away for free. Use one or more of these do-it-yourself projects with pallets to give your garden a unique, pretty, and useful look.
Vertical herb garden
A small herb or vegetable garden can be made from a used wood pallet. Your new vertical garden won’t take up much room, and you can start using it in about an hour. To grow plants, you can put pots or planter boxes inside or on the pallet.
Some pallets might have been employed to move gasoline or even other dangerous chemicals. Or they could have bugs or mold in them. Before using your pallet planter to grow food, ensure the wood is safe. If the pallets have been subjected to heat instead of treated with chemicals, most of them are safe to use.
Cost: In most cases, it’s free. Or, you can buy a pallet for about $16.
Pallet bridge or path
What could be more magical than knowing where a path leads? Using old pallets to make a garden path can add some mystery to your yard and make it more useful.
How to do that: Clear and level the land you want to use, pack the soil down, and set the pallets. If you need to, you can add more dirt over them to make them more stable. Watch Funky Junk Interiors’ Donna make a pallet walkway.
With more work and the right tools, you can cut the pallets to separate the boards and utilize them to build the walkway. As this tutorial shows, you can also nail them to the ground to make them even stronger. This DIY project may be accomplished with any food-safe pallet.
Cost: You can buy a bunch of 10 recycled pallets online for around $14 each if you can’t get enough for free.
Compost bin
With this do-it-yourself project, you can transform old pallets into a compost bin and utilize food scraps and yard waste as soil sample enricher and fertilizer. This is a big win for recycling.
How to do it: You don’t need any tools for this pallet design. Four wood pallets and a backpack of heavy-duty zip ties are all you need. Pick a location for your compost bin, level the soil there, and then connect the cargo pallets at a 90-degree angle.
Cost: You can ask local garden centers, repair shops, or grocery stores if they have free pallets.
Freestanding trellis
The easiest way to build a freestanding pallet trellis for your garden is to put a hinge on the top of the two. This DIY pallet project is easy for anyone because the pallets do not have to be removed with saws and other tools.
Best plants for a pallet trellis: Some of the best fruits and vegetables to grow in this vertical pallet garden are cucumbers, melons, pole beans, smother, tomatoes, and raspberries.
Cost: You could get pallets for free at stores near you and hinges priced between $7 and $40, depending on how big they are and how many you need.
Chicken coop
Your mini farm has fruit and vegetable gardens, but you would like to add chickens to improve its appearance. A pretty low-cost job. Taking care of five hens costs about $69 a month. You can save cash on eggs and chicken mutton at the store with a few chickens on your property. You can also build a cheap place for your chickens to live out of old pallets.
Details: Take apart just a few wooden pallets and use the slats to build the walls. Then, build your chicken coop and use deck screws to connect the floor, door, and roof. Instructables show step-by-step how to do things.
Cost: Businesses near you will give you pallets for free. If you don’t, buying regular wood will cost you about $650.
Pallet-based privacy fencing
Anyone can build a normal fence, but normal isn’t your style. Instead, make a fence out of pallets by showing how unique and creative you are. With pallet fences, your landscaping will stand out. They additionally save you money because most shipping pallets are free and can be used more than once.
Line up enough large pallets (96 inches by 48 inches) vertically to cover the area you want to block off, then connect them with roofing nails or deck screws. This will start by giving you a privacy fence that is 8 feet tall.
Forty-eight by 40 inches pallets can be used to fence in a garden (or 4 feet by about 3.5 feet). To grow food in your garden, use heat-treated pallets rather than pressure-treated materials, which might leach chemicals into the soil.
Cost: Pallets should be free, but you may need to buy screws, a drill, and untreated wood planks if you don’t already have them. You can buy pine boards without a finish for $5. With screws and a drill, you can probably have spent more than $100.
I made a swing from pallets.
You can’t tell us why a pallet swing isn’t cooler than a hammock. A pallet swing is simple to construct and is a great place to sit under a tree with a cool drink and a book or magazine you like.
Sand and clean up two pallets. If you want to, you can also paint your pallets. If you want to, you can use wood-based paint for the outside. You can attach this half-piece to the pallet with a drill and screws. Then cut holes for the rope to go through. Hang your paddle from a strong tree branch and decorate it with colorful throw pillows, cushions, and blankets.
Cost: Pallets are free at a local store, an electric sander costs $14, and each can of paint costs about $30.