Creating a Pallet Garden
Creating beautiful garden in pallets has become a raging trend nowadays. From flowering plants, herbs to succulents, everything can be grown on a pallet. Gardening Info agrees that it is simple and does not occupy much space.
Wooden pallets are a good way of creating vertical garden in your roof or balcony. It is an inexpensive process and you can let your imagination run wild with creative ideas. All you need is some wooden pallets, landscape paper, some nails, and hammer and of course some potted soil.
Method of growing a Pallet Garden
Finding a Pallet– The first thing you need to do is some wooden pallets. If you can find fresh ones there is nothing like it. They are most hygienic for your edible plants.
You can also go for used ones that are easily available in dumpsters around supermarkets. Make sure that they are not pressure treated as they can introduce chemicals in the plant. Heat treated ones are safe for planting edibles. Find one that is intact with no rotting or nails sticking out of it.
Preparing the Pallet– Clean the pallet with some soap and hot water and let it dry. If the pallet has some loose boards, fix them with some nails. You can smoothen out the rough patches with some sand paper. If you are feeling artistic, paint the boards with some eco-friendly colors. It will brighten up your garden even more.
Nail some landscape paper over the side that has the widest holes. Then flip it over and lean it against the wall where you want to keep it. Then fill up the holes with good quality potted soil. The paper will prevent the soil from falling out.
Planting the garden– Start planting the saplings from the bottom row of the pallet and take it all the way to the top. Ensure that the soil is firmly set in each layer of the pallet. Tuck the root balls of you plants in the soil and make sure that there is no overcrowding.
You can keep the pallet horizontal while placing the plants in the soil. Keep it in the same horizontal position for at least a week or two until the plant takes root. You can then change the pallets to the upright position. Water the plants thoroughly in the meantime.
While watering the upright pallet, start from the top and reduce the amount as you go down. This is because the water from the top will gradually seep down to the lower level.
Use your imagination to come up with different pallet gardening ideas. You can mix and match different plants or keep separate sections for each variety. You can start with a small flowering garden and move on to veggies, herbs and other succulents.
You can create a potting bench with the pallets and place your favorite herbs and flowers in it. Small pallets can be placed indoors too to give a different look to your home.
Start with your pallet gardening today and new ideas will come rushing to you.
