Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Knobby]

That's a good buddy! Nice score!

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Yep, that wood looks in great shape. There is no end to what you could use pallets with solid tops like that. I look forward to hearing what you do with them.

FYI, I keep one of those type of solid top pallets in my garage and throw it on some sawhorses when I need a quick and simple worktop. Great that the solid top means my nails and screws, nuts and bolts, etc... stay on top of the workbench and don't fall in between slats like a normal pallet. When done using it as a tabletop, I just take it off the sawhorses and store it vertically along a wall. Takes almost no room in my garage.

Be sure to update your score when you put the pallets in use for something. I am always interested in how people use their pallets. Thanks.

It seems too nice to use, but I'm sure I'll make something out of it. If he can bring me atleast 10 more, I can erect a chicken-feed storage closer to the coop area.

 

[SarahGfa]

Well, I had to take the protective pallet wood cover with chicken wire and the extension off the planter today. The original bean plants were pushing up against the chicken wire. So, I got about one more week of protection from the squirrels using the extension. The new bean seeds I started a week ago to fill in the gaps where the squirrels either ate the seeds or pulled out the bean plants have sprouted and are about 2 inches tall. I hope the squirrels leave them alone now.

I was hoping to get maybe an additional 2 weeks of protection using that pallet wood extension, but my bean plants are growing too fast. Oh well, it was worth the effort as every day counts.

For your consideration, here is a current picture of my bean planter with the cover and extension removed...

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Sorry if you already answered this question, but did you have to paint/treat your planter box to prevent rot/termites?

 

[gtaus]

Sorry if you already answered this question, but did you have to paint/treat your planter box to prevent rot/termites?

I don't paint or treat my planters. I don't have problems with termites where I live. If/when the planter rots out, I'll just build a new one. I expect my pallet wood planters and raised beds will last 5 years, maybe longer, before they need to be replaced. Since I enjoy making stuff anyways, it's not a big deal for me.

If you paint or treat any outdoor wood, it will probably last longer.

 

[gtaus]

More Gardening Challenges - Pallet Wood Covers

It's really been a frustrating experience trying to grow some food out in my pallet wood raised beds. Something has been eating almost all my pepper, lettuce and Swiss chard plants...

All those plants were previously coming along just fine, and I was hoping to harvest some lettuce and Swiss chard this week. Now, I'm just hoping that the plants can be saved if protected.

I built a frame out of some scrap 2X2's...

Then I used some old 2-foot chicken wire to cover the frame. After that, I put it on top of my smaller 2X4 foot hügelkultur raised bed. I hope it will deter whatever animal is eating my plants, but I don't know. Here is a picture of the new pallet/salvaged wood protective cover in place...

I built another cover for the raised bed right next to it, too. Again, using whatever wood and chicken wire I had laying around.

I don't know if it's too late to save these plants, but at least I will have some cover protection for next year. I think the lettuce will come back, but there was very little to the Swiss chard plants left, so I am less optimistic about them recovering.

Some of you may remember that these 2X4 foot raised beds were placed alongside my chicken run fence. The idea was to plant peas and beans so they would grow up the run fence as a trellis. I have to report that idea has not worked out for me. The chickens are eating all the peas plants as they grow, and what they cannot reach, something else is eating the plants from the other side of the fence.

I don't really know what is eating all my plants this year. I see squirrels running all over the yard and suspect them of digging in the raised garden beds. This is also a bumper year for rabbits, some that are so bold that they just sit in the shade only five or six feet away from me and don't bother to run away when I approach them. I have never seen them jump up into my 16 inch tall raised beds, but it sure looks like rabbits eating those lettuce, Swiss chard and pepper plants.

But I also have a new critter on my list this year which are chipmunks. They have shown up running around my yard, and worse yet, I found a number of chipmunk burrows in one of my raised beds. That was the raised bed where I put the first frame cover with chicken wire. Unfortunately, if it is chipmunks eating all those plants, the chicken wire will not stop them. I would have to redo the frames with 1/2-inch hardware cloth to keep them out.

I am currently in the process of making more pallet/salvaged wood frames for my 4X4 foot raised beds as well. It might be too late for this year, but I will be ready for next year's battle!

The real heartbreaker this year was that something dug up and ate all Dear Wife's (a Filipina) bitter melon plants when they were young. I started those plants inside the house at the start of April and was so hopeful of a good harvest this year. I restated some new seeds, but it's doubtful the plants will have enough time to grow and mature once transplanted. I'm already 3 months behind on those plants, so it's not looking good for any bitter melons this year. Of course, the heartbreak is that we cannot buy bitter melon locally at our stores.

Well, I will leave this post on a positive note. My elevated bean planters are really doing well, I have some zucchini plants that are looking real good, about 6 squash plants that are spreading out just fine, and my tomatoes are really taking off growing up the ropes on my pallet wood trellis frames I built. I planted 100 green onion bulbs and we have already enjoyed eating some of them. And, to my surprise, I planted 8 banana pepper plants in my lakeside hügelkultur raised bed as "extras" because I did not have room in my backyard main raised beds, and those extras are the only ones that were not eaten by the varmints!

Ref: Hügelkultur Raised Beds post #231 but was originally intended for this thread. Works good for the Hügelkultur thread as well, so I'll keep it there too.

 

[Sally PB]

Squirrels are HORRENDOUS this year! I think the mild winter meant that more of them survived. Chipmunks, ditto. Well, all the critters.

Pay attention, for I probably will never say this again:
I'm hoping for a harsh winter! I never hope for a harsh winter, but we need one to thin out the critter population.

I lost my first planting of green beans, ALL my collards and chard.

 

[gtaus]

Squirrels are HORRENDOUS this year! I think the mild winter meant that more of them survived. Chipmunks, ditto. Well, all the critters.

Pay attention, for I probably will never say this again:
I'm hoping for a harsh winter! I never hope for a harsh winter, but we need one to thin out the critter population.

I am at an age where I think I would prefer to have those mild winters and fight the battle with the critters in the garden the following summer. I only had to use my snowblower once last winter. That was really nice, considering an average winter it gets used about 10 times.

I have made enough pallet wood frames and chicken wire to protect almost all my raised beds for next year. I should be in much better shape coming the season next year.

My new plan is to build a new protective cover/cage for every new raised bed I make in the future. I don't think I could stand to do all that work again only to see half of my efforts defeated by hungry varmints.

I lost my first planting of green beans, ALL my collards and chard.

Sorry to hear that. I lost more than half my pepper plants, probably all my chard, and my lettuce plants will need time to bounce back. I had a cover for my beans, but I added another extension this year to give me another a week or two of protection. I'm thinking of making a full sized 2-foot-high cage for that bean planter as well. That should get me well into the season for the beans.

I had more setbacks this year than usual, but I hope to still end up with lots of successes on the board to keep me going. This whole gardening thing is an exercise in self-encouragement to keep trying. Anyways, I have built lots of protective covers/cages for my raised beds to get through the remainder of this year and that should put me in a much better position for next year to start.

 

[chickengr]

I keep dogs for night visitors. they do damage some veggies in the ground garden but I can live with that.

a neighbor got rid of a baby cot and I'm going to make a brooder! not pallets but zero cost wood.

 

[Sally PB]

This whole gardening thing is an exercise in self-encouragement to keep trying.

Very true!

I am thinking about turning some of my "heap o dirt" raised beds into proper, enclosed, raised beds in the fall. If I do, I will tear what's there totally apart down to ground level. I will put a base of hardware cloth down to foil the voles (they're a problem too, this year, grr), and the sides will be built from pallets/left over metal roofing or a combination.

Then logs for hugelkultur, leaf litter, dirt, and chicken run compost. The plants will be lining up to be planted in there, waving their leaves and saying, "Me! Me! Please, pick me!!"

 

[gtaus]

...Then logs for hugelkultur, leaf litter, dirt, and chicken run compost...

All my pallet wood raised beds use the hügelkultur method. I always have excess logs and rounds to use in any new hügelkultur beds. In my experience, the hügelkultur wood does indeed act like a giant water battery, or sponge, and feeds the plants more consistently throughout the summer.

And speaking of filling the raised bed with logs, I like to fill the cracks and voids between the larger logs with smaller cutoffs of branches, etc... I really like using my little Ryobi 18v 8-inch pruning chainsaw for that job. I can hold the pruner in one hand and the small branch in the other and cut it to the perfect size to fill those gaps between the larger logs...

I am in the Ryobi line, so I got one compatible with my other tools. However, these small one-handed pruning chainsaws are built by many companies. For the last 20 years, I always used a reciprocating saw with a pruning blade for the small stuff, and that worked great. The small pruning chainsaw just works even better. That's why I bring it up every once in a while. I use it all the time, more than my other full sized two-handed chainsaws, because most of the time I don't need to bring out the bigger chainsaws.

Well, in the case of setting up a hügelkultur raised bed, with the small pruning chainsaw, I can now pack in a lot more wood in those gaps instead of having to fill them with leaf mold or other organics, for example. I think that having more wood coverage in the base will be better.

Another good filler for those gaps between the larger logs would be wood chips if you have them.

Also, recently I used a bunch of pallet wood scraps as filler in a few hügelkultur raised beds. I had two or three 5-gallon buckets of offcut bits and pieces to get rid of. Since they were already cut into small pieces, those pallet wood pieces made great raised bed filler to fill those gaps. It's a great way to use those "unusable" bad pieces of pallet wood that are no good for anything else...

It gives me a great sense of pride in my older days when I can find a way to use stuff that other people might consider trash to be hauled out to the landfill. Lord knows we used to haul all our grass clippings, leaves, branches, and used wood to the landfill years ago. Now, I find a use for all that stuff and nothing organic leaves my property.

 

[gtaus]

For many of us on this thread, reusing stuff is part of our nature. There is a new thread on the BYC forum called DIY Uses of Scrap Hardware Cloth started by @Tiffany Wikk. I think you might enjoy looking at some of the ideas presented in that thread.

Here is a picture of some hügelkultur pallet wood raised beds @Tiffany Wikk built about 3 years ago. Very nice job. Check out that thread if it sounds interesting to you and drop some comments. I have been enjoying the discussion over there...