If you are limited on space, or if you have land that isn't suitable for gardening, you may start researching alternative gardening methods. One of the methods you may consider is using wooden pallets. The problem with many of the projects you will find online is that they tend to be vague about the type of wood pallet you need or that any wood pallet will do. The truth is, you need to look for open boarded pallets and here are three reasons why.

Vertical Gardening Options

The open boarded pallet design allows you to create a suitable vertical garden option. The slats of the pallet give you a top and bottom barrier to hold the plants in place while they grow. They also offer a stable vining area for plants like beans and other vining vegetables. If you find a wood pallet that does not have a solid back for holding in your various plants, consider using a weed barrier fabric. Simply attach it with staples or nails to the back of the pallet in order to give your plants support or to fill in with growing media, such as soil, to help your plants flourish. These pallets can be placed vertically with the bottom resting on a patio or ledge or they can be hung on a wall to create even more gardening space.

Elevated Gardening

There are some cases where you may have plenty of suitable gardening space, but the ground is not suitable for growing. This could be due to having rocky ground, hard soil or other issues. You can use an open boarded pallet to assist with this. The pallet can be placed on the ground and filled with fertilised soil. The gaps between the slats will then act like gardening rows and allow you to plant and grow in the spaces. If you are planting a rooted vegetable or plant, such as carrots or potatoes, you can stack several wooden pallets with the open boards lined up to allow deeper trenches for the vegetables to grow. When you are ready to harvest, simply pull the vegetables out or carefully remove the pallets one at a time to retrieve the plants.

Seed Starting

The open boarded wooden pallets give you something that may normally take some time to build up yourself. The gaps between the boards are generally very evenly spaced. This gives you a suitable trench to build up with fertilised soil and begin seedlings. The seeds can live and grow in this environment until they are stable seedlings or plants that can be safely transplanted to other garden areas or pots.

By keeping these reasons for using an open boarded pallet for garden projects in mind, you can help cultivate a longer lasting garden. Depending on what your crops are and the results you are hoping to achieve, you may want to consider wooden pallets that have wider open boarded gaps. You can order these from wooden suppliers who specialise in wood pallets.