This garden project shows how to make a deep container for growing food and flowers out of a single wooden planters from pallets. A valuable and inexpensive addition to your container garden! The tutorial has DIY instructions and a video showing how to build a pallet planter, fill it with soil, and grow plants inside it.
Wooden Planters From Pallets
When gardening in containers, more bottomless pots are often better. They keep water in better, give roots more room to grow, and help plants grow much better. Large planters can be expensive or hard to find, which is a shame. No matter what, you can make a pallet planter with a few tools and access to the pallet wood. They take about an hour to make, and once they are planted, they can last for three to five years before they need to be replaced. A great DIY project for an afternoon is making a pallet planter. You’ll be happy with what you can grow in it and that you can reuse an old pallet instead of buying a new one.
In this project, you’ll make a rectangular wooden box out of pallets deep enough to grow tomatoes or raspberries. It’s also an excellent pot for growing flowers or bushes. When empty, pallet planters can go anywhere and look great on a balcony, deck, patio, or in a traditional garden. You could make a whole garden out of pallet planters and use them as mini-raised bed gardens if you want. You could also plant herbs or succulents there.
How to Build a Pallet Planter: Step-by-Step Instructions
In this project, you will cut a pallet into three pieces and put them back together to make a simple planter box. I made a video (which you can see above) to show you exactly how, and I strongly suggest you watch it. It will take less than an hour to build the project and another hour to fill and plant it. The final size of my DIY pallet planter box is 15 inches by 43 inches by 15 inches, which is an excellent depth for growing almost anything.
Step 1: Cut the Pallet
Cut the pallet into three equal pieces while protecting your hands and eyes. You’ll want to cut the front and back of the pallet in the same places. Cut between the planks on the side that faces the other planks, not through them.
Step 2: Remove the Wood on the Backs of the Pieces
Planks and the square wooden spacers that will connect them will be affixed to the backs of each individual piece. If at all possible, get rid of all of them. Many of them will come loose on their own, but for some of them, you may need to use the claws of a hammer to pry them off. The protruding nails should be pounded flat using a hammer. If you are having trouble, you may keep the spacers connected to the other two sections, just as I do in the video. However, the centre component must be entirely free of the planks and spacers to function correctly. Ensure the planks are removed since you will need them for the subsequent stage.
Step 3: Begin Assembling the Pallet Planter
Put together the significant sides of the planter, which include the front, the rear, and the bottom of the container. The bottom of the farmer will be the section of the piece from which all of the spacers and planks were removed. If the other two parts still have the spacers connected, you will need to reattach them to position them at the bottom of the planter rather than at the top. This will ensure that the spacers are in the correct location. After drilling pilot holes, attach the three separate sections together using screws.
Step 4: Putting the Final Touches on the Pallet Planter Box
You should now see a planter made out of a pallet with three sides in front of you. Construct the two shorter sides of the pallet using the smaller boards that were removed from the other side of the pallet. You should have enough planks for this project, but if you don’t, use wood from another pallet. Cut the planks to the appropriate size, then screw or nail them into the sides.
During your labour, if you come across any splinters or rough patches of wood, you may use sandpaper for sanding them down and make them smoother. Sanding the planters made from pallets is not required, though; I have never done it before.
Step 5: Add Feet (optional)
The pallet box may now be considered finished! If you were successful in removing all of the spacers, you would be able to utilise these wooden blocks as feet for the pallet planter. In such a case, you may position the farmer to rest directly on the ground or use bricks as feet.
