Being thrifty homesteaders, we are always on the look out for clever and creative ways to re-use things.   A friend of ours had a bunch of pallets and wondered if we wanted them.  Heck, yeah!  Who can turn down free wood?  Pallets ( seeds, plants, baby chicks and canning jars) are like candy for a city homesteader.   Especially when there are so many up-cycle uses for pallet wood.

We are suckers for plants, especially edible; however, being recently gifted with some lovely succulents, we fell in love with the textures and colors.  Not to mention their being drought tolerant too!  On a side note, we are still in a drought (going on 5 years).  El Nino turned into an “El Dud-do” for Southern California. 

Our neighbor needed a fence, so we set to work and whipped up this cute pallet and succulent planter fence.

Using chicken wire or hardware cloth, we lined the gaps between the pallets to create a cradle (a staple gun is handy) in which the coir can nestle.  Or you can skip that and use landscaping cloth.   

Next, we filled the chicken wire/cloth “nest”, added dirt and then planted the succulents.

 Easey peasey!

For nighttime ambience, add lights!

Pallet planters are a great use of vertical growing space.

Note:  Pallets may be chemically treated,  so don’t use for growing edibles.   If you can find heat-treated ones (for growing edible like herbs or strawberries), these pallets are usually marked with an HT .