Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

x 2. I need to make 2 coops for ducks and chickens and a goat stall. any idea for the stall (for 4 goats, 3 girls that eventually will have babies).

Sorry, I have no experience with raising goats. All I know is that they are pretty smart and seem to find a way out of their pens. I would like to have a few goats, but Dear Wife is a hard "no" on that adventure.

 

[Molpet]

I liked your pictures of the support poles in the chicken run to hold up your roof framing. I am thinking of upgrading my chicken run with some kind of pole support system as well.

Like a game bird pen
https://www.pheasant.com/about-us/b... should be 10' high,from digging their way in.

Also a friend had bird netting over his turkey pens. A bobcat went through it like butter. Killed all in one pen. Left the carcasses and came back every night until they got a nuisance permit and got it.

 

[gtaus]

A topic of conversation on the garden thread was the poor/very poor/zero germination rate of seeds this year, and specifically those from Baker Creek.

I was using a lot of older seeds, and that may have had some bearing on my rather poor results. However, upon reflection, I really believe I just chose the wrong potting mix for my seed starting this year.

I got a big bag of Master Gardener's potting mix from Menards this year which was very coarse and had no other fertilizers in it. Last year I bought seed starting mix from Miracle-Gro which was very fine and had some kind of fertilizer mixed in it.

Even after my seeds sprouted in the potting mix from Master Gardener, they just never took off and grew very well. Last year with the Miracle-Gro seed starting mix my tomato plants were about 10 inches tall at this point. Strong and healthy. This year, with the Master Gardener's potting mix, the tomato plants are only about 2 inches tall, thin, and looking weak.

Well, my backup plan is always to buy starts from the big box stores and nurseries if my home starts fail. I have had to buy many more starts this year than I had hoped. Live and learn, I guess.

Having said that, I built about 8 new pallet wood raised beds over the winter and am determined to fill them with plants even if I have to buy starts from the big box stores to fill in everything. Here in northern Minnesota with our short growing season, I don't have the luxury to let time pass and try to regrow more home starts.

 

[gtaus]

My plans have now developed to get a few more rain barrels to use for watering the garden through the summer. We get such intense droughts, and we end up with water use bans during the summer, if we can just catch up this excessive amount of rainwater we get during the spring to use in the summer, it'd be worth it.

We had a terrible drought summer a few years back. All my in-ground garden plants dried up and died because I did not have running water for that garden. The only plants that lived to produce any fruit that drought summer were in my hügelkultur raised beds. I maybe only got 60-70% of a normal year harvest from those plants in the hügelkultur raised beds, but my in-ground garden was ZERO!

From that time, I have only built hügelkultur pallet wood raised beds. You just don't know how much those big logs in the bottom of the raised bed act like a giant watter battery until you go through a drought. It made me a believer from my experience.

Honestly, one of our biggest issues is foundation problems. We live atop black clay soil, the stuff shifts and moves so much, between summer's dry up and shrink up, and spring's soak and shift, gates especially become a pain in the tail. Some months we may be able to get our main gate to open and close with ease, other times it won't line up right at all and it's a battle. Shouldn't have such an extreme a problem with the run door, but knowing that it will be an issue, well, let's just say the idea of using a bolt latch is gone completely.

Yep, I have an elevated chicken coop sitting on top of the soil. It sags and heaves varying on the seasons. The hasp systems I have provide lots of slack and still work. There is no way any sliding bolt would work in my setup. i was not willing to invest $$$ in a proper foundation for a chicken coop and run. But I don't think it was needed either given that my hasps can compensate for the changes in the seasons.

 

[gtaus]

a friend had bird netting over his turkey pens. A bobcat went through it like butter. Killed all in one pen. Left the carcasses and came back every night until they got a nuisance permit and got it.

Yikes! That would be a bad day for anybody. As I stated, I have a chicken run that is predator resistant mainly to prevent daytime attacks. At night, my chickens are locked up in a Fort Knox coop that I don't think even a bobcat could get into.

I just have 2X4 inch welded wire for the chicken run fence and that is covered with bird netting. The fence has been good enough to stop local dogs that pass through the yard during the daytime and the bird netting has prevented any aerial attacks. I would never leave my chickens outside overnight in the run.

 

[Sally PB]

You just don't know how much those big logs in the bottom of the raised bed act like a giant water battery until you go through a drought. It made me a believer from my experience.

Summer before last, I buried some large "slices" of apple wood in my heavy soil garden. I was digging holes for the tomatoes, and dug a hole over one of the pieces of wood, and heard the "sucking" sound of digging into wet clay. Yup, that's where there was some wood.

 

[gtaus]

Summer before last, I buried some large "slices" of apple wood in my heavy soil garden. I was digging holes for the tomatoes, and dug a hole over one of the pieces of wood, and heard the "sucking" sound of digging into wet clay. Yup, that's where there was some wood.

I had a few hügelkultur raised beds at the same time I was in-ground planting my garden. Everything seemed to grow about the same for me, and for years I thought my hügelkultur raised beds were only more or less a good way to get rid of some excess wood from storm cleanup projects. Plus, the wood logs and branches were a great filler in the raised beds, so it would not cost me so much to fill the raised beds with that final layer of topsoil. I guess I'd be happy with just those benefits to making a hügelkultur raised bed.

But the year we had a drought summer really showed me the true benefits of the hügelkultur raised beds with the wood acting as a giant water battery for the plants. All my in-ground plants dried up and died about mid-summer. Only the plants in the hügelkultur raised beds survived to produce a harvest at the end of the season. I became a true believer about the hügelkultur method after that.

This year I dumped all my pallet wood cutoff bits and pieces into some of my newly built pallet wood raised beds to fill the cracks and voids between the big logs. I thought that was a great way to use those pieces instead of burning them in the fire ring. It's all wood, anyways. Better to let those pallet wood bits and pieces sit in the hügelkultur raised beds and let them soak up water for the next ~10 years than to burn them for a few minutes in the fire ring.

 

[Swiss]

I figured out a way to protect the sacrificial plywood on the floor of my coop: feed bags.
Dog food bags, chicken feed bags, bird seed bags, etc. cut down one side to open it up, laid on the floor, and stapled down.

 

[fuzzi]

DIYers, I need input.

I have created a flower garden where my Rose of Sharon trees used to be, and planted a clematis. I gave it a cattle panel trellis (partial) and it's climbing like gangbusters!

Now I need to extend/create the top of the trellis, but I do not want to put holes in the vinyl siding. I was thinking of using a second of garden fence that is 4' tall.

View from the porch. I don't mind putting holes in the black porch supports or railing, as it's wood. The vertical under the porch roof is vinyl, as is everything on the right side.

Is there a way to attach to vinyl siding without making holes? Should I make a wooden frame for the fencing and attach it to the wood porch support? How strong do I need for clematis?

 

[gtaus]

I figured out a way to protect the sacrificial plywood on the floor of my coop: feed bags.
Dog food bags, chicken feed bags, bird seed bags, etc. cut down one side to open it up, laid on the floor, and stapled down.

Sounds like a possible solution to protect the sacrificial plywood. I have lots of empty feed bags, many that are made out of plastic like material, that should work for something like that.

Originally, I bought some off cut linoleum piece for my coop floor, but I don't want to do that again. I like your idea better, frankly, so if you try it out, let me know how it works for you. I have to do some coop floor repair sometime this summer. Thanks.