Large 3 Tier Garden Planter (Pallet Reclamation Project)

Gareth · Large 3 Tier Garden Planter (Pallet Reclamation Project)

Over the last few weeks I have spent around 15 hours and £25 making a large, stepped 3 Tier Garden Planter from timber reclaimed from used pallets. I initially stripped the pallets with one of my Cargo Cycles Pallet Reclamation Bars, and it took me approximately 30 minutes to strip and de-nail sufficient planks from used 2 way pallets to make this planter.

I have exclusively used countersunk bright zinc plated woodscrews, stainless steel coach screws, and suitably sized Stainless Steel Penny washers throughout this project. Each screw hole has been pilot drilled before installing the screws to prevent the timbers splitting.

The insides of the panels have been completely covered with bitumen paint, and the outside of the panels have been coated with bitumen paint to approximately 1 inch above the required soil level. The rest of the exposed woodwork has been coated twice with a green coloured water-based wood preservative.

I have utilised halving joints on the framework made from pallet stringers, with each joint held together with foaming polyurethane waterproof wood glue and suitable BZP wood screws.

The dimensions of the planter tiers are as follows:

Bottom Tier: 150cm L X 150 cm W X 30cm H, or about 60 inches L X 60 inches W X 12 inches H.

Middle Tier: 100cm L X 100cm W X 60cm H, or about 40 inches L X 40 inches W X 24 inches.

Top Tier: 50cm L X 50cm W X 90cm H, or about 20 inches L X 20 inches W X 36 inches H.

The bottom tier will be completely filled with riddled through, stone free soil.

The middle tier will be filled with 30 cm (12 inches) of drainage stones, topped with 30cm (12 inches) of riddled through, stone free soil.

The top tier will be filled with 60cm (24 inches) of drainage stones, topped with 30cm (12 inches) of riddled through, stone free soil.

I have now got to continue filling the planter with drainage stones and soil, so that Lois can start planting some fast growing salad and vegetable crops

bodger

Thats a nice one Gareth.

Gareth

I have two more stepped 3 tier flower planters as work in progress. Both of them slightly smaller at 120cm X 120cm bases: the standard width of a Euro pallet, because I have run out of the 150cm wide and bigger pallets for the moment. The tiers are going to be set at 20 cm high steps rather than 30cm steps. The first one will be stepped out from one corner, and the second will be stepped out from the center.

I am also making some hook-on planters from reclaimed pallet timbers to fix to the sides of the 1000 ltr bulk liquid container we are using as a water butt.

Mo

Looks great!

Gareth

I have been busy today riddling out the stones from the big pile of soil that we have at the bottom of the garden. The stones have been put into the bottoms of the middle and top tiers, and I reckon that I have moved close to 3 tons of material today.

The bottom tier is filled only with riddled out soil, and the 2nd tier filled with the loose stones and gravel:

Of course someone else had to get in on the act. I've no Idea how Oz managed to get his solid play ball in there as it is too large for his mouth:

After filling the 2nd tier with stones and half of the required top soil, I then riddle out a trug full of compost from the heap. This layer of compost will be buried under approximately 6-7 inches of top soil and will hopefully retain some moisture around the plant roots:

It took this much soil to fill the 2nd tier:

The bottom and middle tiers filled to capacity, and nicely levelled off:

5 minutes and half a cuppa later, it had been Ozzified!

I had managed to fill the top tier with sufficient drainage stones, and half filled it with top soil, when Lois insisted that I go shopping with her. When we got back it had started to rain, and my friend Jonathan wanted some help stripping pallets. I stripped 10 euro pallets for Jonathan at a steady no sweat pace in less than 30 minutes, and subsequently sold him the bar. Jonathan said he was off to the pub, so I left him as I nipped over to B&Q and Lidls. 90 minutes later, on my way back home I passed the pub and saw the pallet bar leaning up against the pub's fence but their was no Jonathan in sight.

By now the showers had stopped and so on my arrival home, I got straight on and finished filling the top tier of the planter with soil and compost.

I am really proud of what I have achieved with these old and unwanted pallets, and Lois is exceptionally pleased with her new vegetable planter.

I have several other reclaimed pallet projects that I would like to do over the next 2-3 months, and will post them here on OTG as I undertake and complete them.

horace

Cracking job Gareth

Gareth

On reflection I have learnt a very valuable lesson making this large 3 tiered planter, and that is size consumes materials. This planter is exactly what I want in a vegetable planter. The width and height of the bed in each tier allows the gardener to easily reach over the front, sides and rear to tend the vegetables, without interfering with the crop in tier below and is how I designed it to be.

However, the next two reclaimed pallet timber planters I am making are to be used exclusively for flowers and herbs. The 12 inches/30cm high tiers are not required in these instances, and so I have set the tier heights at 8 inches/20cm increments: Bottom tier at 8 inches/20cm high. centre tier at 16 inches/40cm high, and the top tier at 24inches/60cm high.

This will save me a considerable amount of materials, screws, paint, preservative, and time. It will also reduce the amount of soil and stones that I have to dig out from the pile, riddle and haul down the garden. I also think that the proportions will also look nicer when the planters are in situ and the flowers are in bloom. I may also scale down the height of the herb planter to 6 inch increments of the tiered steps, and I might even add a forth tier to equal out the height of the two planters at 24 inches/60cm.