My small front porch is now overflowing with plants. I have almost run out of space to put pots, so I'm taking my own advice and looking at how to use vertical space to plant my garden and get my Spring on. I found this great tutorial on a cheap DIY vertical garden.
Fern at Life On The Balcony is a master at maximizing gardening space. No matter how tiny your balcony or porch or windowsill, you can have a garden. Her tutorial on creating a planted pallet is inspiring and simple.
1. Find a Pallet. Most likely you'll find one behind a supermarket near the dumpsters so it's FREE!
2. Prepare the Pallet. Repair any loose boards and add landscape fabric to the back so you dont damage the wall that the pallet will rest against.
3. Pick Your Plants. Cascading plants like the nasturtiums she has on the top level will make it feel full and vibrant. This would also be an excellent place to have a vertical herb garden planted with thyme and basil and rosemary.
4. Enjoy Spring.
Follow Fern's step by step instructions, with photos on her blog: Life on The Balcony.
For more inspiration check out 10 Inspiring Small Space Balcony Gardens.
Images: Life On The Balcony
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love this!
brilliant! I have a pallet in my front yard and I keep reminding myself to get rid of it. After reading this post, I'm inspired to recycle and reuse and turn it into a vertical herb garden. Thank Fern and AT!
what a great idea!
This is great!
don't plant any edibles in a pallet if you don't know for sure that it hasn't been treated.
they are often sprayed with formaldehyde and/or insecticide. however, i think it's a lovely idea for ornamentals.
I too love this idea! I saw it somewhere (AT?) before and ever since I have been trying to figure out where I can put it...
Darlingclementine--I've never heard of pallets being sprayed with formaldehyde, however, one of the two main methods of preventing insect damage or the inadvertent transport of insects is to spray pallets with methyl bromide, a gnarly pesticide. The other method is to bake the pallets at a high temperature. There is an international treaty governing this topic, so many pallet manufacturers stamp their pallets with markers indicating which insect control method they used (which in turn makes their pallets more valuable, as they can be legally used in international transport). Anyway, here is more info on identifying the different markings: Pallet Marking Guidelines.
@Fern - thanks for posting the marking guidelines, I've been wondering about that!
mmmm bacony
LOVE LOVE LOVE.
super easy and recycled like i adore.
i would be careful about just grabbing pallets from behind stores. often they turn them back into the shipping or transport company and they consider taking them theft. just check with the store manager and more often then not they will gladly let you take one if that is the case.
This is the perfect solution to add more plants to my deck in downtown LA:
http://www.mintlovesocialclub.com/2011/04/outdoor-deck-before-after.html
I don't really want to go the wooly pocket route and this has a great industrial look -plus i always see oddly shaped pallets laying around in downtown LA!
greta post!
We recently built a privacy fence around our front yard that look has a modern shipping pallet feel.
http://thewall-nuts.com/?p=108
I was thinking of trying to integrate flower boxes that hang off, or use woolly pockets (felt bags) to create a vertical garden. This post gives me some ideas, Thanks!
WOW what a great idea. I have a postage stamp size yard so this would be awesome....**going out scavaging now**
awesome! thanks for sharing!
I did it in a smaller scale but it is still very cool
http://theregjoe.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfume-plant-house.html
You could letter with a cute font and paint directly onto the pallet (provided it's pesticide free) to show which herb you've planted on which level... i love it!
Thanks fern for the details on the poisons. I was totally gung ho on this project till my husband BANNED me from doing it since he's convinced the chemicals would poison our son. Now I can look for one without insecticide!
This is great! We built a small organic square foot garden over the summer for our city "yard" http://www.oldtownhome.com/2011/5/10/Our-Organic-Garden-Project-Progress-or-Disaster-DIY/index.aspx
...but I never thought to go up instead of out. Great project!
Love this idea! I would definitely not grab a pallet from behind a store though. I worked at a grocery store during college and we turned license plate numbers of people who took our pallets over to the police. Stealing pallets comes with a pretty hefty fine, if I recall correctly.
I love this project, but am planning on attaching it to the wall as they are pretty heavy and dont want my kids getting squished if it falls down x
Such an inexpensive and good looking version of the Woolly Pocket! I love seeing all of these creative uses for pallets! Thank you for the spreading the great ideas.
I love love love this! Thank you for such a great idea!!
i made one of these this summer, it was so pretty. Be sure to buy soil that really holds water well - it paid off during our very HOT and dry summer.
How do you stop the dirt from falling out the back, would the landscaping paper keep it from falling out?
This is such a great idea! I live in a small place with not a whole lot of space outside. Ive been trying to figure out what to do this spring to brighten things up out there... this is just the idea i need!
Yea, I'm with SJP - how are the plants held in there? And what about watering?
Inspiring! Your balcony is a little oasis and what a great way to recycle a pallet. May I ask what kind of vertical plant you have growing in that great (strawberry) pot in the corner? I'm looking for something similar. Is it citrus? Thanks.
I just got a pallet for free at home depot, just ask at customer service and they will help you get one. So now I'm concerned about insecticide .. There are no markings and it doesn't have a smell.. Do you empty and bring the pallet in at the end of the season? Do plants ever get root bound and how close do you space out the plants?