DIY Raised Beds
For the past week, I have been forgoing my other outdoor hobbies to work on a project here at home. I have been working to build a raised flower bed/herb garden out of old pallets. With the addition of our little one, we are going to take a break from a big garden and focus on a smaller area at home where we can teach her as she goes. We still plan to get fresh produce from family members and local farmers markets and can most of what we get for the winter.
I thought it would be great to share some pictures and a bit of a tutorial. These beds weren't difficult - taking the pallets apart and removing the nails was the most time-consuming part.
I started with very sturdy, high-quality pallets. Am's mom had gotten these for cheap a few months back and just had them laying around. The top boards were like decking, which made for great, strong side slats. If you have the option, ask around and try to get the best you can find. Since a flower bed will be filled with dirt, I wanted something that would last several years rather than rotting after just a few months.
Starting out - quality pallets.
From there, I began taking them apart and pulling nails. There is no secret, it's just elbow grease and a sledge hammer. After two pallets, though, I realized that there were only four slats on the bottom and seven on the top so I turned them over, removed the bottom slats and then the 2x4 supports and blew through the rest pretty quickly. Pounding out the nails from the bottom was pretty tedious, but we worked together and it wasn't so bad.
Broken-down pallets.
I started to lay out the bed by measuring where I wanted my corner braces to go. These were the 2x4 supports, cut into a point and driven into the ground (I actually used a post hole digger for the first 8 - 10 inches). Then I had to figure out where to drive in the other supports. My slats were 44 inches, meaning I had to do some measuring to figure out where to place the posts so that they would meet in the middle of the 2x4. Another challenge was making sure the supports were all the same distance from the house, so I started with the two ends and ran a string from one to the next to guide my positioning.
Almost finished.
After I got all the holes dug and the supports driven in, I began to measure and cut the side slats. As you can see, the yard has a natural slope and I had to account for that, so I started with the shorter end. Once those top two were flush and level, it was pretty easy to just continue the line and add pieces below. I came along later and dug a trench for a few of the bottom pieces to account for the slope.
Stained, trimmed and finished...just needs dirt and flowers!
Once everything was nice and tidy, we added some trim - leftover from another project - to the front to hide all the joints. I trimmed off the top of the supports with a circular saw and stained it to match the deck. I also stapled some 2 mil plastic around the inside of the wood, just to help lengthen thee life of the beds. I calculated the interior volume and picked up some dirt and we're in the gardening business! I'm hoping this little project will last for quite a while and help us pass on our hobby of gardening on to our little girl.
I thought it would be great to share some pictures and a bit of a tutorial. These beds weren't difficult - taking the pallets apart and removing the nails was the most time-consuming part.
I started with very sturdy, high-quality pallets. Am's mom had gotten these for cheap a few months back and just had them laying around. The top boards were like decking, which made for great, strong side slats. If you have the option, ask around and try to get the best you can find. Since a flower bed will be filled with dirt, I wanted something that would last several years rather than rotting after just a few months.
From there, I began taking them apart and pulling nails. There is no secret, it's just elbow grease and a sledge hammer. After two pallets, though, I realized that there were only four slats on the bottom and seven on the top so I turned them over, removed the bottom slats and then the 2x4 supports and blew through the rest pretty quickly. Pounding out the nails from the bottom was pretty tedious, but we worked together and it wasn't so bad.
I started to lay out the bed by measuring where I wanted my corner braces to go. These were the 2x4 supports, cut into a point and driven into the ground (I actually used a post hole digger for the first 8 - 10 inches). Then I had to figure out where to drive in the other supports. My slats were 44 inches, meaning I had to do some measuring to figure out where to place the posts so that they would meet in the middle of the 2x4. Another challenge was making sure the supports were all the same distance from the house, so I started with the two ends and ran a string from one to the next to guide my positioning.
After I got all the holes dug and the supports driven in, I began to measure and cut the side slats. As you can see, the yard has a natural slope and I had to account for that, so I started with the shorter end. Once those top two were flush and level, it was pretty easy to just continue the line and add pieces below. I came along later and dug a trench for a few of the bottom pieces to account for the slope.
Once everything was nice and tidy, we added some trim - leftover from another project - to the front to hide all the joints. I trimmed off the top of the supports with a circular saw and stained it to match the deck. I also stapled some 2 mil plastic around the inside of the wood, just to help lengthen thee life of the beds. I calculated the interior volume and picked up some dirt and we're in the gardening business! I'm hoping this little project will last for quite a while and help us pass on our hobby of gardening on to our little girl.
Don't forget - when choosing pallets for growing food or for indoor projects, you'll want heat treated pallet wood, as opposed to chemically treated wood. You can verify the condition of the wood by looking for a stamp. If the stamp includes "HT", then it was heat treated and is safe to use.
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