Who says Saturdays are for relaxing?

Well I have never had a blog before but I figured that I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone (not that I would actually kill an animal)...kill some of my summer boredom and maybe post something interesting that someone else may benefit from!

So since it was Saturday and my day off I decided to tackle a project that I have been collecting supplies for a while to do, turning a pallet into a garden planter for my patio garden!

I got the idea from lifeonthebalcony.com but I think I will just post what I did so it is easy to follow :)

Here is the finished product!

Yay!!! My Pallet Planter

       Materials

• Pallet (in good condition) in any size that fits your area
• Staple Gun
• Hammer
• Nails
• Landscaping Cloth
• Plants and Soil

First things first, get the pallet ready! I had to actually get two pallets so that I could utilize the wood from both! One my teacher gave me and the other one I got from Lowes, now my experience was that
I had to speak to about 5 different people at Lowes but eventually they gave me a pallet free of charge which was really nice :) So after I lugged these huge things upstairs (insert boyfriend) we had to do a few quick fixes! My boyfriend took two of the boards off one of the pallets and nailed them into the other one so that we had five boards on the planting side! 

Now comes the part that I absolutely loved...using the staple gun!!! So after you get the pallet to your liking (I left mine kinda old looking and chose the darker pieces of wood) it is time to grab that landscaping fabric and the staple gun! With the boyfriend helping me we did two layers of fabric over the back and sides and used about 500 staples! Hahaha!!! I got a little staple gun happy but you really do need to make sure that the back fabric is securely on so that you dont have a soil blowout! That would be a complete mess and something I do not want to clean up! After I was done sweating for about an hour this is what we have...

It may be hard to see but there is black fabric on the back!

Pallet After Fabric Was Stapled On

I wish I had taken more pictures of me stapling (mostly for audience amusement) but the 90 degree weather was making it a little difficult to concentrate!

Now comes the fun and creative part because you can add pretty much what ever kinds of flowers you want! I chose some begonias and little succulents for the front slats and some taller purple plants (can't remember the name) and cucumber and squash as well! Yes I planted veggies in the top because cucumbers and squash are vines and I am hoping they will climb up the trellis :)

Filling the pallet took a little bit of time, probably about 2 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot until it was finally finished! The way I did it was to lay the pallet on the ground and first plant the top flowers...

Top Flowers First!

Then I began pouring in the soil and then organized the flowers in the way I thought looked best and packed, packed, packed in the soil! You have to make sure it is really really tight so that when you tip it up the soil (and plants) do NOT fall out! Here are some more pictures of planting:

Progress

Starting the Soil

All Done!

 Now that I finally finished this wonderful project I had to pick it up and put it into place with the help of the boyfriend again because this is a two person project and this sucker is HEAVY! Oh and you should leave it on the ground after watering it thoroughly for at least a week...but I couldn't wait to get it up and see what it looked like!!! Hope you will try this and definitely look at lifeonthebalcony.com for more detailed info!
Here are some final pictures of the finished product on my wonderfully large patio at my very little apartment!

LOVE my Garden!

Proud of This :)

Look at the Pretty Colors it Adds

Gravity has Spoken