Mini veggie patches using pallets: Be inspired by these awesome DIY projects

The idea of cultivating a vegetable garden is traditionally associated with the availability of free ground in a large garden. But urban gardens and other solutions that allow you to grow some vegetables even in confined spaces (lik on balconies and terraces in the city), are now widespread. Generally this is done by using large containers in which the different plants have enough space to develop their roots - a bit like flower boxes or raised flower beds. And these can also be created using a great DIY workhorse: wooden pallets.

Pallets in good condition lend themselves to becoming compact gardens. But even if you want to use the wood after disassembling them, there are many types of projects that can be useful for creating easy-to-manage, urban veggie patches (vegetable gardens).

For all leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and some types of cabbage that are not too large, you can use pallets that are equipped with a bottom in order to contain a sufficient amount of soil. Typically, tin sheets (corrugated iron, for example), or thick plastic sheets are used for their bottoms. It is also necessary to ensure that adequate drainage is always guaranteed to avoid unwanted water stagnation.

By taking advantage of the planks of the pallets (obviously, also adding other types of wood if necessary, and not just recycled materials), you can create raised flower beds: so even on balconies or in paved areas of the garden, you can grow some vegetables or fruit.

For an even larger, higher raised beds, you could use the pallets as walls on the sides. Also, in these cases, the interior must be lined with retaining sheets, but perhaps for these projects shade sheeting (which is a somewhat perforated) might be enough to hold and retain the soil.

If instead you base on the lawn or on the ground, the wood of the pallets will serve only to create the containment walls of your raised flower bed. Why are they more useful than using the ground itself? Well, for example, you can mow the lawn without the risk of passing over "good" plants.

And a very useful shape for raised beds of this type are those that look like a "U" or a horseshoe, with deep recesses on one side. It is necessary in large flower beds, because it allows you to easily reach any point without having to step into the bed and walk among the plants.

Again, if you have plants that need to grow on some support or trellis (like squash), you can use sloped pallets to achieve this.

Whole areas can be created by combining the various methods!

A pallet could also be used only to create the outline framework, and then the sides can be made them with metal sheets (corrugated iron).

Would you like to create vegetable gardens using pallets?