DIY Outdoor Pallet Herb Garden

Dysko7710
by Dysko7710
7 Materials
$40
2 Days
Medium
My hubby and I like to cook using fresh ingredients as much as possible, which means using lots of fresh herbs. Herbs are pricey when you buy them from the store every time you need them, and we usually never even use it all quickly enough before it goes bad. I really wanted to make my own herb garden. I wanted it to be inexpensive and something I could have on my deck right outside the back sliding doors for easy access while we are cooking. Luckily, they regularly have great 'heat-treated' pallets outside my husband's office. When growing herbs or anything edible and using pallets, you need to be sure it has the "HT" symbol on it. Here is the final result:
I started with a plain wooden pallet. The first thing I did was pry off every other wooden slat to both make space for the herbs, and to nail each of those slats on the other side matched up with the ones I left. This would create the 'front' and 'back' I needed for each herb pocket:


After it was assembled, I used extra wooden slats from other pallets to create legs along the back, and then an angled anchor so that my garden could stand up on it's own with full support.
Next, I painted it using Ebony Minwax wood stain. I honestly have used this same can of stain on about 4 or 5 projects and it finally ran out after this one. This stain goes a long way. I love it because it comes out as a deep, dark brown with one coat. You can leave it as a brown or add one more coat to get the black color. I did one coat for this. Notice I did not stain inside the 'boxes' or 'pockets' where my herbs were going for reasons of food safety.
I decided to just use landscape fabric to make my 'pockets'. Some people nail an extra piece of wood under each part to make a wooden base for the herbs. Honestly I didn't feel like doing this! I just made cloth pockets with the fabric. I wanted to nail gun it in (this would have been easier), but my nail gun does not work. I am too cheap right now to buy a nail gun, so I used standard cork board tacks and nailed them in. This was not easy, and if I were you I would just buy a staple gun. But, I am stubborn and was determined to make the tacks work.
You can see I just tacked the fabric in around all of the sides and let it droop to create a pocket. I doubled up the fabric when I tacked it in. I also tacked a layer of fabric to the bottom of the legs in the back to catch any dirt and moisture, since this was going on my deck and I didn't want to damage the deck floor.


Next, my kiddos and I filled the pockets with herbs and potting soil.
Finally, I labeled all of my herbs. I printed out premade herb labels online. I mod podged them onto my pallet to label each herb. I have found that getting the paper wet helps the labels to lay flat for being glued and 'meld' into the suface better that you are applying them to. Here is my final result again:


This has held up great. We've had some major wind and storms come through and it hasn't budged! The herbs are growing and thriving, and it has been so great to walk right out on the deck to grab some fresh herbs for cooking!
Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 7 comments
  • Dysko7710 Dysko7710 on May 21, 2021

    Thanks! It is usually on the side of the pallet. It is sometimes a stamp with several bits of info on it.

  • Dysko7710 Dysko7710 on May 21, 2021

    Thanks! It is usually on the side. Sometimes it is a stamp with several bits of info on it.

Next