Hannah GregerBack in March I claimed a very solid and very clean pallet from the loading dock at my work. When I see a clean blank slate like that of my pallet, I have all sorts of ideas for it. Luckily I was able to get two projects out of this pallet. At first I borrowed a couple center boards for my wax-paper image transfer for the Clutch MOV magazine. (Grab a copy if you have yet to buy one!) Once the image transfer project was complete, I had a perfect pallet sitting in the corner of my dining room, collecting dust and begging to have something done with it. Alas! Summer was creeping up fast and I was craving fresh veggies. One of the few downfalls of my awesome apartment is the lack of yard space for a garden. But an upside is that there is plenty of open wall space. It was a perfect combo, a vertical pallet garden, out of the way but still offering all the veggies I could ask for. So it began:
What you need:
- Pallet (already missing two boards)
- Roll of landscaping fabric
- Chicken wire/pliers
- Staple gun
- Potting soil
- Veggies of your choice
- Chalkboard paint (optional)
Keep in Mind:
This is a semi labor intensive job, it took my fiance and myself to tote everything around. Two is better than one, we were able to complete the whole project in just about two hours.
How to make it:
- First of all, lay out all of your supplies to make sure you have everything you need. I learned the hard way by having to run up several flights of stairs for odds and ends.
- I kicked off the DIY by painting my pallet. It got two light, even coats of chalkboard paint. This is where you can get super creative and paint/decorate your pallet however you would like – show us your creativity! (I only painted the front side of the pallet, since it will be leaning and/or hanging on a wall)
- Once everything is dry you can start to measure out your landscaping fabric. You will need a total of six sections of fabric to attach to the planter. (Make sure your staple gun is fully loaded. You will go through a lot of staples!)
- You can go about attaching your strips of fabric two different ways.
- The hard way, which is a cleaner look and what we did: Stapling all of the fabric in-between the two boards. Essentially making pockets at the bottom of each section. AND don’t forget to staple the fabric to the sides of the pallet to fully secure the now fabric pocket.
- A simpler way would be stapling flush at the bottom of the painted board and wrapping it back to be stapled to the back board. This simply gives a flat bottom to each section vs a pocket that gives a deeper area to plant.
- One extra step we took, that is not necessary but we did as an extra precaution, is to attach chicken wire to the bottom of each section for reinforcement. Once again we cut strips of the chicken wire in the same manner we did the fabric, except this time you will be using pliers to cut the wire and then stapling to the boards right over the fabric.
- Once everything is attached, go ahead and start planting! We chose a lot of herbs and typically they come in biodegradable containers. First we lined the bottom of the pockets with top soil, then crumbed the containers and mixed them in with the soil as extra filler.
- After everything is planted, don’t forget to water, mark all of your plants, sit back and enjoy!
Hannah Kern, born and raised in Marietta, eventually made the move the great white north, also known as Cleveland. After graduating Kent State she began working for a commercial real estate company. Outside of office life, she love to explore CLE with her boyfriend and play with her dog Indie Jones– and most importantly, make the trek south to visit Marietta.