Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Sally PB]

I blanched and froze some spaghetti squash. Not a fan and won't bother with that again. Even well drained, it's just little bits. I was hoping for noodley stuff for spaghetti night.

 

[UrbanHomesteadTX]

Not technically a pallet project, but since it's recycled wood and we're all on the conversation of gardening, I felt like sharing anyway.

Just put in a new garden bed for our abundance of Sweet Potatoes we've got going this year. I had to put up a fence to deter cats and people from getting into them. I was initially going to use pallet wood to build it, but realized I had a couple of old fence panels that I'd replaced and figured I'd much rather use that wood than my 'nicer' pallet wood

Instead of just staking posts in the ground, we decided to build up a little bit to make weed eating easier. All I had to do was take the saw out and cut the support of the panels every two fence posts, and just like that, had a two high barrier with minimal effort!

Then just pulled some more boards off the left over panel, cut and slapped em on, threw some chicken wire on there and we got us a little fence! Won't be able to fully keep a cat out, but it will deter them. Thankfully those little brats cant see chicken wire too well and are very unlikely to jump it.

Now lets just hope there's enough room for all the Sweet Potato slips I've been getting I've got two entire shelves full of em from just two potatoes that are still producing like crazy! About to have to figure out what to do with excess.

 

[gtaus]

Not technically a pallet project, but since it's recycled wood and we're all on the conversation of gardening, I felt like sharing anyway.

Pallet wood, salvaged wood, it's about the same to me. Most of my salvaged wood these days is coming from the same places where I pick up my pallets. Thanks for sharing.

 

[gtaus]

Late this winter, I built four new 4X4 foot, 16-inch-high pallet wood raised beds. Here is a picture of some of them...

I filled them with hügelkultur wood, then an organic layer, and today I was working on mixing the top 6-8 inches with a topsoil/chicken run compost 1:1 mixture. I got 2-1/2 beds completed today with the topsoil\compost mix. I might have finished all four beds today, but I had a rain delay and then ran out sunlight this evening. Sounds like it might rain tomorrow as well.

Not much left to do in any case to finish off that project.

Just want to shoot out some numbers for anyone consider making some pallet wood raised beds like those in the picture above. Since the pallet wood was free, I only had to pay about $2.00 for the new screws and brad nails I use on each bed to put it together. That's a pretty good deal.

Because my native lakeshore soil is so sandy, I have to buy my topsoil at a local nursery which ships in Red River topsoil from about 100 miles away. My nursery charges $60.00 for a Bobcat scoop. That is a really good deal. My little 4X8 utility trailer was loaded up with almost 32 cubic feet of topsoil. I did a quick price comparison to how much quality topsoil in separate bags would cost me at our local Menards. To get 32 cubic feet of topsoil in bags at Menards would cost me about $167.00!

Like I said, the top 6-8 inches of each of my hügelkultur raised beds is filled with a final mix of topsoil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. My chicken run compost is free. I estimate it takes about 10 cubic feet of the topsoil/compost mix for each bed, which is about $10.00 per bed in the cost of topsoil portion.

My total out-of-pocket cost is around $12.00 for each 4X4 foot, 16-inch high hügelkultur raised bed. That's not too bad. Using hügelkultur wood as a filler really saves a lot of money, plus, all that wood acts like a giant water battery throughout the summer.

I spent years trying to improve my native sandy lakeshore soil in my garden. I improved my in-ground soil over the years, but still, it was never great. I never had much luck with gardening until I switched over to making raised beds and filling them with quality materials. When I got into Square Foot Gardening, the question was asked if you wanted to spend years of improving your poor native soil to grow food, or do you want to invest in quality soils upfront and actually grow food for all those years. So, I invested in making all these pallet wood raised beds and buying high quality topsoil. Best decision ever!

Judging by how much topsoil I am using in my existing raised beds, I think I might build another two 2X4 foot hügelkultur pallet wood raised beds for behind the chicken run. I should have enough topsoil to finish them off as well. Building two more 2X4 foot pallet wood raised beds might be a good rainy-day project...

Picture of the first two 2X4 pallet wood raised beds that I have finished and filled this year...

 

[chickengr]

Correction: I meant to say buttercup squash, not butternut squash, is our favorite. And I have started a number of buttercup squash plants for transplanting.

We also like the butternut squash, and other types of squash, but buttercup squash is what I meant to say.

if you were closer my mother would love to join you for buttercup squash, lol.

 

[chickengr]

I went to athens and brought more bike pallets with plywood. dismantling them is going to be tough. there are a lot of small pieces all over them.

 

[Smokerbill]

The daikon leaves were outgrowing the cover I had on the bucket so I built a new cover today out of scraps of lumber I had laying around.

Sorry I didn't take pics of the cover framing before I tacked on the floating row cover.

 

[gtaus]

...so I built a new cover today out of scraps of lumber I had laying around.

Looks great. I have been considering making similar small frames like that to use as a mini greenhouse to maybe get some plants out 2 weeks earlier and/or add a number of weeks of growth at the end of the year. I like the idea of being able to put them on and take them off at will.

Other than gravity, do you have any way to hold down that cover, so it does not blow away in a strong wind?

I have watched a number of videos where they build full sized raised bed covers with hinges and latches. That looks like a possible future project as well.

I have more projects I would like to build than the energy to do them all! I'm at that age where it seems I work a little and rest a lot.

But keep posting those great ideas and projects and I'll just add them to my lists. In the meantime, someone else might be looking at your projects and take advantage of your ideas. Thanks.

 

[Smokerbill]

Looks great. I have been considering making similar small frames like that to use as a mini greenhouse to maybe get some plants out 2 weeks earlier and/or add a number of weeks of growth at the end of the year. I like the idea of being able to put them on and take them off at will.

Other than gravity, do you have any way to hold down that cover, so it does not blow away in a strong wind?

I have watched a number of videos where they build full sized raised bed covers with hinges and latches. That looks like a possible future project as well.

I have more projects I would like to build than the energy to do them all! I'm at that age where it seems I work a little and rest a lot.

But keep posting those great ideas and projects and I'll just add them to my lists. In the meantime, someone else might be looking at your projects and take advantage of your ideas. Thanks.

Good point! Nothing but gravity and friction is holding the cover in place now. Maybe I'll add a screw at two opposite corners to tack it down, just in case a big gust of wind blows through.

 

[Smokerbill]

I'm thinking about making a table and some simple chairs or bench seats with all the pallet boards I have accumulated. I think the boards range between 19" to 26" long. Bench seats with no back would be easiest.