Making a pallet Garden

[VGary]

Passing this Link along as information on making a pallet Garden.
Gary

http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-t...into-a-garden/

[salix]

Thank you for posting that link, Gary. I always have left over flats of annuals, what a good and compact use for them!

[ddsack]

I'm passing this idea on to a condo living friend. Thanks!

[t-ham]

Gary,

Just so happened I ended up with a crisp new pallet after a delivery today. As I type this I only need to fill it with medium and start stuffing plants in it.

The only thing I would add to the process is a warning that some pallets have slats that extend out past the struts by 3 or four inches on each side and need to be trimmed off. Worked out fine as I used the cutoffs to make feet on the bottom. I stacked 2 pieces at each bottom corner and attached them one at a time(as opposed to trying to secure them both at once). Also, there is a pretty wide range of spacings between the slats on different pallets, or even within a single pallet. The gaps on mine range from almost an inch to only a half inch. Nothing five minutes with a jigsaw can't fix. It's actually an opportunity to be creative.

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

T

[VGary]

T., It appears you have adapted the pallet to a useful container to grow your plants in. Good luck on the project. I think it is great to be able to recycle materials into something other than the original purpose! Keep us posted!
Gary

[sprout]

Good idea, I bet this would be great for growing strawberries.

[t-ham]

Hi Folks,

I decided to try bush beans in mine. I'm going to keep it at about 45 degrees to the vertical. One side wax, one side roma-type. When I went to the local farm they had quite a few flower seedlings but none that I liked within my budget so I settled for 2 packs of bush bean seeds. This also helps in leaving more area in the actual garden for my pole beans. Man I love experiments.

[t-ham]

Oh yeah,

The soil formula was 3 parts purchased garden soil (1cf bags), 1 part composted cow manure, 1/2 part perlite, and +/- 1/2 cup Espoma organic fert.

Yup, experiments.

[ddsack]

Please post pictures of your end results when your crop matures! If it works out, you should have about as many beans as from a row in the ground. I often get mildew damage on in-ground beans, I wonder if raising them up for better airflow would help with that. With four pallets partially raised and touching in a circle, you could have a rather ornamental bean pyramid.

[gammaneetz]

Excellent Idea. I'm going to pass it along to my daughter who is planting her first garden this season. I'm also going to pass it along to some of my Master Gardener friends to share as well.

[t-ham]

Bush bean pallet garden update;

We are just finishing 4 days of at times torrential rain here in the Hudson Valley. Probably 4 inches with more in some areas. I was starting to worry that the seeds might rot. When I checked yesterday I saw seeds on the surface and assumed the rain had blasted some of the dirt away but when I went to push them back down I felt the resistance of the root and realized they were growing already. The pallet is still lying almost flat since I want the seedlings to find the openings between the slats and hit daylight before I angle it towards vertical.

The saga continues...

[t-ham]

Update/observation,

The beans are popping up like crazy now. I've kept the pallet slightly above horizontal, about 6 inches high at the back, so for you construction types that's about a 1 on 8 pitch(a 6" rise across 4 feet). Almost level. I'll be raising it to as vertical as I think will work soon.
One observation; The germination % is markedly better in the "upper" gaps and drops off as you move down to the lower slats. Since I was careful to put equal numbers of seed in each gap, the # of seeds is not a factor. I would say the rate is 100% for the top 3 slats and then drops progressively to about 60% for the bottom 2 slats. One side is Roma style beans, the other is wax beans, Roma seems to have an overall better rate. The light available is uniform for the whole pallet so that's not an issue. I think the cause is that since water runs downhill the bottom third of the pallet stayed wetter longer. We just finished about a week of rain that just sat over the area and dumped 4 or more inches so I'm guessing the lower end of the pallet just stayed soggy longer.