REPURPOSING & REUSING
What Did We Do?
Using 1 pallet we cut up the wood to make several usages, first some lawn edging, I say some because we have a large section to cover and will need maybe 3-4 more pallets to finish this off. Secondly we made a window style box that holds 22 10” pots and with all the scrap pieces we made more stakes
What Did We Use?
Just 1 Pallet: no other fancy equipment used, I am always so worried that Clayton will plug something in and get hurt so we only have basic hand tools.
We had left over fence paint so everything gets painted black, not only to preserve the wood but to help keep some heat in for the evenings and it always looks great as a backdrop for plants.
Free Pallets: These pallets do take some time to get apart & remove the nails, but worth the effort. Always make sure when you are collecting these to use around your garden you check the stamps.
NOTE ON PALLET USUAGE:
Check your stamps on the side and only use HT KD or DB
HT : Heat Treated or KD : Kiln Dried
Heat treated or kiln dried pallets are great for DIY work because the wood has been hardened and is less susceptible to swelling and shrinking.
DB: Debarked, EPAL or No Stamp
Untreated ‘national’ pallets – you can tell these because they either have no stamps, symbols or codes on them, or the stamp just says EPAL.
How Did We Do It?
On the fence line we have just planted out Cherry laurel, and while this section we started at doesn’t have grass up to the edge because of the large tree, the rest of this fence line does (and will add cardboard to suppress it at the bottom)
I didn’t want to have grass growing around the Cherry Laurel, I didn’t want to be weeding around AND I also when cutting the grass didn’t want to catch them and end up cutting them off
Decided to use a pallet and make a start to the edging on this slope and hilled area. Think we’ll need 3 pallets to finish the line.
Is it perfect? Nope! But shop bought log rolls or edging wouldn’t have been either on this slope!!!
Does it do the job? Yep! Certainly does and looks really effective, look forward to it all growing this year.
Did it cost me anything? Nope all stuff I had (saw, hammer, screws, fence paint, free pallet, no fancy tools here)
LAWN EDGING
Ends were sawn off the end sections (which were a bit split) and removed the nails from the centre to give us sections of planks.
Stakes were made from some of the scrap pieces and pieces that split while lifting the off. Make a section to screw into each length of plank and a small piece to drive into the ground to hold it in place.
PAINTED
Painted using left over black fence paint to cover it all. Eliza spent the afternoon with me doing this & Clayton popped some marigolds in to add some colour while the hedging takes shape.
USING THE END PIECES AS WINDOW STYLE BOXES
Screwed them straight onto the fence
Painted & filled them with 22 10” pots! Easy
These would be great filled with herbs or strawberries. Just added some left over marigolds for a pop of colour here too
One Pallet Lawn Edging Project
PART 1: Video Reel
Nothing Gets Wasted From The Pallet
Part 2: Video Reel
Pallet Ends For Window Style Boxes
Part 3: Video Reel
What can you build in your garden from some scrap?
You’ll be surprised what you come up with once you start looking!
What have you done?
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Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.
Clayton Completed The Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Last Year. This year he started the Level 2 Nurture Course. Clayton is 15, Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated for the last 5yrs.
They featured on BBC Beechgrove Gardens Ep23 2022. They will be returning to the show later this year. Katrina & Clayton are also columnists for ScotlandGrows Magazine and Author of the new children’s book: Clayton’s New Garden Journey: A Story of Autism and Growing available on Amazon
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Building a Food Forest -Scotland 