Turn a crummy pallet into a clever herb garden

Creating a planter box from one of those old wooden pallets you see lying around is easy. If you follow these simple steps you’ll soon be enjoying fresh herbs and salad greens – without needing much space to grow them.

You'll need

• Pallet (or ideally two, for spare parts) – free
• Packet of at least 40 x 45mm wood screws with driver (square drivers are the best) – $11.67 for a box of 200 screws from Bunnings
• 30 litre bag potting mix that suits the plants you want – $11.42 for strawberry mix from Bunnings
• Plants – if you know anyone with a good garden you can pinch some salad plants and herbs for free. Otherwise pay a visit to Bunnings.

Tools required

• Cordless drill
• 3.5mm drill bit for wood
• Wrecking bar, or crowbar
• Standard hammer
• 500ml non-toxic paint (optional – if you prefer the look of raw wood)

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Find your pallet

Discarded pallets can be found in just about any industrial area or you can head off to your local transfer station or landfill – you are almost certain to find one for free. If necessary, you may need to use two similar pallets as most that are discarded have broken bits, so you may need to mix and match.

Look for unpainted pallets – that way you know what’s on the wood and can choose a non-toxic paint yourself if you want to pretty it up. Pallets are almost always made from heat-treated timber (look for an ‘HT’ stamp) so are perfectly safe for growing edibles. Treated wood will be dyed an obvious green or pink or be stamped with the letters ‘MB’ (for methyl bromide).

Step 2: Remove some planks

Most pallets have nine top planks (the closely spaced pieces on the top where people stack things) and three on the bottom, which are all held together by three thicker bearers in between.

Using a wrecking bar, crowbar or hammer, carefully remove the five top planks that are in the middle, and all protruding nails, leaving two planks at each end of the pallet.

Step 3: Make floor pieces

You will need to make two cuts on three of the planks that you ripped off, to make six floor pieces for the boxes. The cut pieces must fit flush between the middle and side bearers, so to work out what length to make your floor pieces, measure the distance between the centre and end bearers.

Step 4: Make the planter boxes

A. Start with the middle planter box by wedging two of your cut floor pieces into the space between the middle and end bearers. These will be the box floors where the potting mix will sit. They should sit there nice and snug by themselves. The edge needs to sit flush with the centre bottom plank, which will become the back of your middle planter box. Give it a bang with a hammer if needed.

B. Place a plank over the floor piece you have just inserted. The bottom of the plank should connect at a right angle with your inserted floor piece, to make a tidy box. Drill two holes through each end of your centre plank into the bearers on the side of the pallet, then fasten it with screws (or use the nails you previously removed if they are in good nick).

C. Connect the plank to the floor pieces by drilling four holes along the bottom edges of the planks, going through into the floor-pieces, then fastening with screws.

Repeat with the top and bottom boxes. Of course, these already have the top planks in the right place so you’re just securing the floor pieces.

If you want, you can paint the pallet now, otherwise leave au-naturel.

Step 5: Fill with potting mix, plant out and position your planter

Choose a bag of potting mix that suits the plants you intend to use, fill up the boxes to the edge, put in your plants and position according to their sun/shade needs. Step back and admire your handiwork!