So I got this thing for pallets too. In case you haven’t noticed, I got a thing for a lot of things. I am absolutely infatuated with pallets. I have no idea why. Maybe its the utilitarian nature of them. Or the fact that I have always loved trying to rescue the unwanted (just look at my past dating history). Or maybe its their sheer authenticity. Whatever it is, I am smitten. So much to the point that I am dumpster diving. You know what they say- one man’s trash is another woman’s…pallet garden (I laughed).
Anywho, I first saw this idea on my fave design blog Design*Sponge in this post. I read thru the comments and saw that people were using them for different plantings – some planted herbs, others succulents or annuals. I also learned that there are some concerns that must be taken into consideration like whether or not the pallet was heat or chemically treated, what it was used for, etc. So I took the safe route and went with non-edibles. I also chose succulents because it takes me longer to kill them. And here is what I created:
Which isn’t too bad for a first stab. Of course, you can see the landscaping material peeping from the right side but I think that adds funk; my junk has too much junk in the trunk. Bwahahahaha!
Materials: you need a pallet, some landscaping paper (had some left over from a failed landscaping project), and staple gun (my birthday gift from my baby girl Amira) some potting soil, and of course, some plants. I also recommend some sort of cover-up for when you mess up. I used some moss from the Dollar Tree. Now you can follow the directions of those who do stuff right – like Life On a Balcony who gives awesome instructions. Or you can cheat-like me. I sort of made these little pockets with the landscaping material and stapled all around. Because my staple gun doesn’t lie flat, that required me to staple over the outside which was where the moss came in handy.
Now for some reason (ok- because I am a little touched sometimes), I started at the top. Hey, I can’t be beautiful and brilliant. This, of course, meant that my pallet started to topple over after the top sections were complete. So….after 5 hard minutes of thinking, I decided to balance things out with my HOSTO planters. I got these from IKEA last year for $15 a pop and was already using them. I then added my IKEA BORRBY lanterns with a couple of nails…..
and viola! A succulent garden that almost looks completely intentional.