Succulent Pallet Garden Ideas

This gorgeous pallet garden is filled with drought-tolerant, easy to care for plants that look amazing all year, no matter what you put them through. The stained finish just puts it over the top. I could stare at this gorgeous thing all day. (found on Pinterest, source unknown)

I’m a sucker for succulents. I use them anywhere, anytime for any reason. They live indoors through the winter. They overwinter outdoors in pots. They go especially well in fairy gardens. If I’m at a nursery and there are succulents, you can’t stop me from buying 5.

Mainly because succulents pass the brown thumb test.

Yes, I run a nursery, but I’m terrible at growing plants indoors. I started with LOTS of houseplants. If it died, I never bought it again. This approach whittled down my winter lovelies to something manageable. Ficus. Geranium. Begonia. And lots and lots of succulents.

Here’s another gorgeous succulent pallet garden from The Urchin Collective.

Herb Pallet Garden Ideas

The greatest thing about herbs, besides making your food yummy, is that they don’t need a ton of space to grow. Of course, they’d rather be in the ground. I mean, what plant doesn’t? Fortunately, herbs can endure some crowding.

The smallest sized pot recommended for growing herbs is 6″. That’s pretty small.

These pallet herb gardens aren’t even utilizing all the space for soil. They’ve only added bottoms to each ‘shelf’ to hold everything in. All they need now is some rich organic potting soil and some sunlight. (afternoon shade preferred)

This vertical herb garden beautiful and creatively clever! Using chalkboard paint adds such a nice touch. I use this paint to label SO many things. Craft boxes, jars and so much more. Using chalk to label your plants is so fun. Change your herbs and labels as much as you want!  The chalk will probably wash off with every rain if not protected, but it’s so cute, I think it’s worth rewriting!

Another gorgeous herb garden, built by Zina’s husband (slave). The labels on this one won’t wash off in the rain. And it’s just breathtaking. I mean, what craft CANT you pull off with beautiful penmanship? 😀

Jen and her mom (from JenAroundTheWorld) did such a beautiful job building this herb pallet garden, and an excellent job explaining how they did it. I love this rendition of the herb pallet garden because it holds so much more soil for the herbs to grow in. Herbs don’t need a ton of soil, but this design gives it much more space to spread. They laid the pallet flat to plant the garden and let it sit flat for about 2 weeks to allow the soil to settle. When the roots start to put on some growth, they place the new beautiful pallet garden upright into a vertical garden.

If you’re worried about chemical leaching, or the idea of filling the whole pallet with soil turns you off, here’s a clever little twist! Just use the pallet as shelves for your pots to organize your herb garden! This idea was featured by Jen from PinkWhen. I love how compact, organized and adorable it is as a display.
(More about chemically treated pallets below).

On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re very handy, you can create this beautiful standing herb planter, shown here by BonniePlants. This particular planter was not created with a pallet, but if you’re short on wood, you can pull one apart and put it back together like so. If you’re not handy but love this design, you can buy one like it.

Vegetable Pallet Garden Ideas

Everyone loves a vegetable garden. But most people think you need a huge garden to grow them.

Not the case.

I’m actually pretty surprised at how little space can grow so much produce. I’ve seen this in square foot gardening.

I’ve also seen volunteer tomato seeds sprout in the most unimaginable places. The corner of a wood chip pile on a driveway? And it grew like crazy. Who knew?

You can create some breathtaking vegetable gardens with pallets. Take a look at this beauty featured at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. I absolutely love the use of multiple pallets to create height and I’m amazed at how well those babies are growing.

What about fruit?

Just LOOK at this gorgeous strawberry pallet planter by LovelyGreens Who wouldn’t LOVE to look at that every day, and have yummy strawberries to boot! Berry Smoothies anyone? I’m down for that.  You can view the instructions on Tanya’s website. Or you can watch her build it on youtube.

if you’re worried about treated wood, or leeching chemicals, here’s some advice:

Most wood  pallets will have an IPPC logo, since they oversee internationally-shipped pallets. Pallets that ship overseas are the ones usually treated or fumigated to prevent the spread of invasive pests. Here are the marks to look out for (they should be near the IPPC logo):

• HT – This means the pallet was heat treated, possibly with harmful chemicals.
• MB – This indicates that the pallet was fumigated with methyl bromide, a toxic pesticide. Pallet makers are phasing out methyl bromide, but you may still see this mark on some older pallets.

You can also educate yourself to recognize what pressure treated wood looks like. Head to your local home improvement store and poke around the lumber section. Pressure treated wood looks different from untreated wood, and once you see the difference in color, it should be pretty easy to spot.

Flower Pallet Garden Ideas

Flowers are the prize of everyone’s garden. And anyone can grow them.

Annual flowers, again, don’t need immense root systems to grow well. Just good potting soil, sunshine and keep an eye on the water.

Have you ever seen how many wax begonias they shove in one hanging pot at the nursery? And they do well all summer. Have you ever uprooted a large annual geranium and taken a look at the size of the root system? It’s pretty minimal for the size of the plant.

A petunia seed fell in the crack of my block patio to the soil below. The blocks are 6″ deep! The next year, I had a plant a foot tall and a foot wide growing through that crack.

Some plants just want to survive and work hard to do so. To quote Jurassic Park ‘life finds a way’. There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t do wonderfully growing a flower pallet garden. As with any garden, start with great soil.

Holy Petunias, Amy!!! This unbelievable planter box was built from pallets by Amy over at HerToolBelt. I am SO impressed with how well they grew! Amy has instructions on her blog, how to build the box and keep the plants moist so they actually grow this well. I would follow them exactly 😀

For all you apartment-dwelling flower lovers, there’s hope! Vertical gardens are awesome for apartments. Space-saving, full of plants, and just lovely. My all-time favorite vertical pallet garden was created by Fern over at Life On The Balcony (sadly her site is gone)  Her use of color in this stunning little garden is fabulous. She really has an eye.

Above is a great example of all of the beautiful plants that go well in a pallet garden. I see lots of nasturtium and many different types of succulents. The pale green trailing plant in the middle looks like a licorice plant. (source unknown)

How to Make a Pallet Garden

Here’s a super quick video tutorial below on how to build a vertical pallet garden for herbs. Make sure to pack and water your plants in WELL before standing it up.

Below is another simple way to put together a vertical pallet garden. This time, you take slats from an extra pallet and screw it to the bottom of each ‘level’

Below are full instructions on how annual vertical pallet gardens are constructed at the nursery.

One last video. If you LOVE vertical gardening, this man is brilliant at it.

Alex from Flower Street Urban Gardens has devised a wonderful gardening system that you install right on walls, fences, windowsills, your balcony. If you have a sturdy structure to hold a wire frame, this space saver can grow some plants! It’s perfect for individuals that would rather not bend to work a garden.

Best Plants for a Pallet Garden

Pallet gardens are such great space savers, but they don’t provide much growing space. Shallow rooted plants grow best, so we’ll stick with the following.

• All succulents
• Most herbs like thyme, parsley, oregano, cilantro, chives, dill, mint, tarragon
• Salad greens like leaf lettuce, spinach, kale and arugula

Annual flowers are my absolute favorite for any garden so we won’t forget them here. Special consideration is to be made to find short-growing flowers that will fit in a vertical garden. The best annual flowers for a pallet garden are as follows:

• Alyssum
• Nasturtium
• Wave petunias (regular petunias grow strangely)
• Marigolds (look for dwarf varieties)
• Lobelia
• Verbena
• Ivy
• Begonias
• Impatiens (for shade)

Last but not least, have FUN with your plants. They provide endless possibilities to get creative and surround yourself with beauty. Hopefully, this post inspires a pallet design of your own!

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I could not find the original source for this image, so there is no more information about this cool looking garden or what type of bottles they used, but we were getting few questions on facebook about chemicals from the plastic, leaching into the soil. This is a real concern. About.com mentions that Bisphenol A (BPA) in water bottles can cause interference of hormonal messaging, cancer and other nasty stuff.

There are numerous types of plastic made of different materials. All sources Ive researched say that #2 (high density polyethylene), #4 (low density polyethylene), and #5 (polypropylene) are safe for food. Are they safe enough for a plastic bottle garden? Im still looking, but I would seriously think twice before you building a garden like this. Check the type of plastic the bottle is made of, research the chemical components and if it has the likelihood to leach into your soil.

The post Plastic Bottle Garden appeared first on Roots Nursery.

Drill some holes in the cap, or remove cap.  Cut the bottle open leaving enough room for dirt.  Place the top back on and see if its the size you want it to be.  If not, cut away more plastic from the top portion.  Fill with dirt, seeds, or cuttings! I chose cuttings here.

A little water goes a long way here so don’t overwater!  Place the top back on, open the cap at least 2x a day to let out excess moisture.  After these plants take root, I will pot them up, and stick some new cuttings back in my new mini terrarium!

Another added convenience of this simple terrarium?  Keeps my cats from eating my plants!

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Now thats good. But how do you keep it heated overnight? Here’s the concept of passive solar heat from greenmethods.com

A solar greenhouse is heated by collecting and storing heat energy throughout the day, then releasing it slowly at night, basically moderating the climate. To use the sun’s energy, a solar greenhouse needs to collect, insulate, and store energy. Aside from fans to circulate air, it is a passive system.

He suggests water for heat storage, and gives us a calculation to go on. 2 gallons per square feet. Not sure how this works, since were looking at cubic feet for ground and air temperature in a contained unit, but its enough to go on.

So I started thinking about how to heat a small space, just to hold flats… and this came to me.

Plans for a Pop Can Solar Heater

If my wonderful drawing skills dont convey the idea well enough, its a basic 4’x4′ frame. Pop cans on the outside, covered (airtight!) with a layer of plastic (instead of glass). Milk jugs on the inside to collect and store heat. Im still considering the materials to use. Its usually constructed the first time with whatever scrap I have here, for the testing prototype, and modified until it works.

Will be testing this plan in the coming weeks to see if it keeps a small coldframe at adequate temperatures to put annuals outside before our last frost date.

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This broken pot fairy garden was one of the first of a slew of jaw dropping fairy gardens. The hens and chicks (sempervivum) bursting at the seems is what really gets me in this arrangement. Densely compact succulents keep it looking clean. It’s neat and tidy and messy all at once!  The fairy door, bird bath and little birdhouse on top is like the icing on a chocolate cake!

Source: hometalk.com via Kathy on Pinterest

I had to try this myself.

When the plants grew in, it looked fabulous, but I want to show you the bare bones. It’s relatively easy to fit the pieces together into a nice arrangement.  Some tips to make it work. Wet your soil so it packs firmly. And you do have to pack very firmly to get the whole thing to stay together. It will take some adjusting. The rock at the bottom was not only decorative but helped to support the entire garden. The steps were the hardest to get to stay in place. Keep working with it until you get your desired result, because this will be a beautiful garden for a long time. It does hold together if done right.

Here the plants are starting to grow in…

Broken Pot Fairy Garden

Here are some of my favorite broken pot fairy gardens from pinterest to get your juices flowing. There are so many creative people out there! (Click the image to see the original pin.)

The post Broken pots turned into a fairy paradise! appeared first on Roots Nursery.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jan on Pinterest

Now this is the MOST Inventive vertical garden I have ever seen. An old hanging shoe organizer is perfect for plants, who would have ever thought! Theyre usually made of canvas, so durability and drainage isnt an issue. And these pockets are pretty big, a good amount of space for plants to stretch their roots. Now I wish I didnt throw mine away. But you better be sure I’ll be keeping an eye out at garage sales and resale shops for something like this!

The post Ditch the Shoes, Grow More Plants! appeared first on Roots Nursery.

Plastic Bottle Greenhouse

This project was also revised by Ana White. I am ultimately impressed by the huge recycling effort. It takes 1,000 bottles to create this greenhouse, and think of the man hours. Putting this together would be quite a task, but its worth the effort. To put our plastic back to good use. Here is Ana Whites instructions for a Plastic Bottle Greenhouse. She invited the world to get involved in this project. Its such a good idea, I think its catching on. Zakynthos Bottle Recycling in Greece has a whole facebook page dedicated to recycling bottles. Visit them to learn more about their recycling efforts.

What’s Next? More Recycled Craft ideas…

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