How to Build Raised Beds Using Pallets (UPDATE VIDEO LINKED IN DESCRIPTION BOX) | A Thousand Words
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- PLEASE CHECK OUT MY UPDATE VIDEO HERE: • Pallet Wood Raised Bed...
A full tutorial, including tips and tricks, on how to build raised garden beds using pallets WITHOUT having to dismantle the pallets first! (By dismantle I mean taking them apart at the nails, which is a tough process.)
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I was intrigued by this as someone who has zip experience with carpentry or the equipment but loves growing. If you aren't a professional teacher I think you missed a calling. I was surprised how much sense it made to me. Always thought how great raised beds would be but probably won't tackle it at this point though, despite how easy you made it look. I am certain it will offer inspiration and practical help to others though. Thanks also goes to whoever was responsible for the excellent quality of the video itself.
Thank you, you are very kind. I've learned (through comments here) that I was totally using my table saw wrong, whoops!
I love your tutorial on the raised bed. It was clear and concise and I love the practical, commonsense way you did it. Thanks for showing. Pallets are an excellent, economical material to use and the staining and capping make the beds look expensive and professional. Good job.
Brilliant thanks for sharing, one tip if you level it out on reclamed bricks lifting it off the ground it will give a solid foundation and maybe use a plastic liner this will make the wood last longer. Thanks again.
These raised DIY beds are the best ones I've seen on UA-cam. Very good tutorial too! Thank you for this.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!! My wife and I live on a very fixed budget and you have just opened a huge door for me that I failed to think of. Yes they look lovely and as I live in Dallas Tx there are many free pallets to be had. I am not thinking of all the projects that I could use your raised beds for. Once again thank you for this tutorial.
I'm very happy to say that from your basic instructions I built 2 raised beds. I did add 2x2 in the corners and ran wood strips at top and bottom on the outside as I was afraid the weight of the soil would cause a blow out. As a bonus the extra thickness at the top made the cap boards feel sturdier.
Thanks Susan, great idea.
how many pallets did you use, Susan and how big are your beds? thanks
I suggest everyone watch your updated video on this project first, then come back and watch this video. You built some nice-looking raised beds, but they will not hold up over time, as you found out. I have been building raised beds for a number of years, and my designs have 2X4 frames on the outside, which results in a much stronger, long-lasting build. Your updated video confirms everything I was concerned about in this build. Thanks for being brave enough to post your "mistakes" video and helping others to learn how to do it better.
Excellent! I love how much detail you gave but not too much so that it wasn't repetitive. I'm so glad I found this channel. I plan on using this for my own gardens from now on.
This is just Brilliant and I have about 10 pallets in my Garage taking up valuable space and now i can do exactly as you have done and put them to good use.it also helps that I love gardening too. Thanks to you and what a very nice Lady you sre.
Damn, I've got to admire your tenacity and patience! Good result too. And I liked the background music being at just the right level as to not be annoying. Great video. Full props to you.
I rarely find such nice pallets that have such perfect pieces of wood. What I do is build the frame first and then add the boards to it. With so much warp, cup, and bow, I will glue up and clamp to compress a span of boards in a line and brad nail everything in place to the frame then moving to the next span.. Finally, run the circular saw across the top once everything has dried to clean up the edge. This what I have done to make nice planters while renting, now at my new house, this Spring I will be making raised bed gardens. Great video!
I was so happy to hear your South African accent! Been looking for someone one UA-cam that knows all about our climate etc. The fact that you don’t live hear anymore is sad. But I am so the two countries are similar...? Love the raised beds. Greetings from Parys in the Freestate.
I often build my own raised beds and I usually buy the material but after seeing your video about free pallet wood it's really got me thinking not to mention that those are some beautiful palettes one bit of friendly advice if I may if you actually want those to be extremely long-term raised beds without pulling apart you might want to try using a little bit of wood glue the next time that's what I do on mine but it's all personal preference
Bravo!! Love seeing another handy lady. I have access to lots of pallets and I think these would look marvelous in my Tn country yard!
You've made a user-friendly video that even the least handy folks can understand! I wish mine were already built because I recovering from shoulder surgery ..... maybe by spring I can handle it. You've really given me the "fever"!
Great vid!
At work we have 1x8 inch boards which warp when they first get damp after installation. Eventually they settle in and straighten out. I build my beds only that 8 inch height bracing the corners with scrap aluminum from old gutters or leaders keeping soil from leaking our corners. It's easy to drill through making 4 to 6 holes to facilitate sheet rock screws to hold braces around each corner.. When the boards eventually rot i simply increase the bed size by adding another ourside so planning size is criticalfigurebeds will be in place for a number of years and ample space is needed to mow. Where this vis demos a nice project which is pretty, mine is simple and 5 beds, 48 inches square went togerher on a spring saturday morning.
Fill beds with old branches roots and other scrap wood half way. Eventually they rot but do help retain moisture for a couple of years.
I see some folks gave thumbs down, i mean really, about gardening? Lol. Shes a vlear speaker with good experience and tech knowledge of the subject and is not hard to look at at all :).
If you were to finish the end grain on all your boards, including the cap, and just a quick coat to the underside of the cap to repel moisture, your raised beds would last a lot longer. The wood may have been treated for pallet user but by cutting the boards out, you circumvented that treatment and left your wood vulnerable to rot and warp. Your unprotected inside braces will be gone in 2-3 years. Also, decomposing material pulls nitrogen from the soil so you may want to add a dusting of Nitrogen fertilizer to the top of your composting vegetation so it doesn't pull it from your soil and rob the plants' nutritional needs... Otherwise, quite an enchanting video! Well done, Jolly good, and all the rest!!! Hyrum, Sherri's faithful hubby. ;-)
Thank you for this tutorial. It was very helpful. I used to undo the pallets which is quite hard and time consuming. Not only your design is more practical, it's also prettier. And thanks for the tip regarding the pallet treatment.
This is by far the best video for raised beds with pallets they look great and I'm sure they are very inexpensive
I think this was probably the best pallet raised bed tutorial I’ve yet come across. And it looks so pretty too. Thank you
I'm doing raised beds for the first time and really love how you reclaimed the pallet wood. My wife will be helping as she, like you loves working outdoors and with power tools. Thanks so much. Cheers.
Wow! This is, hands down, the BEST tutorial I have EVER seen on UA-cam (and I watch a lot of them)!! You ROCK!! I felt bad for all the comments that saw one thing not done the way a trade does it and, though I appreciate that extra advice, they utterly ignored the sheer excellence of the entire video. I will be building these and filling them with all my gathered tree branches, German Hügelkultur style (my property is heavily forested so I have lots of fallen limbs). I am so very excited that I found this today as I live on a retired income and thought I couldn't afford to build deeper beds but you've shown me that I can :-). Your finished beds look so nice and, well, I can do this too! Yay!
Thank you for your kind words! Please do use thicker treated wood for the rails and line your beds with plastic and they will last well - unfortunately I did not do those two things and they are coming apart in places.
Wow! This is quite amazing I'm gonna give it a try in my back Yard
Firstly, even though it looks like you have been here for a while, a big Welcome to New Zealand. Great to have people such as yourselves trying to make it happen and live the good life here. I have no doubt it can be hard to settle in a quiet rural town especially if you are used to a larger populated place like England and South Africa before that. Glad it's working out for you. Looks like the hard work on your projects are really coming together and your home is looking great. A small tip when staining the raised bed timberplanks, rather than with a small brush as hubby had it, use a decking pad on a pole. Far quicker and easier. I'm sure there must be plenty of interest from overseas viewers getting a sneak peak of what small town life and its challenges is like in NZ. You show it well.
My wife and I are getting close to doing the same type of move to a small town from Auckland, but we haven't chosen where yet, but we're both so looking forward to it. Keep up the fine work!
Kerry
Thanks for the kind words.
We prefer to use a small brush as the wood is very uneven and we can work the stain into the groves and texture of the wood.
All the best with your move! It's been the best thing ever for us.
Never knew something so beautiful could come from pallets. Very good tutorial.
This Lady is an Artist. Of gardening. She knows her stuff.
Always nice seeing a lady that can build stuff.
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Very nice job! I love these kinds of projects that save on expenses and the back when gardening. I've purchased a new home in an area of Tennessee where nothing grows in my huge back yard. It needs top soil really bad. I plan to keep the non-growth state but place a bunch of raised boxes filled with compost rich soil mixed with top soil. I love gardening. So the front yard will have all sorts of flowers and the back yard an easy to walk through jungle of vegetables and fruits. I'm so happy to find another woman who's got a few power tools and knows how to use them. This grandma also drives a pick up truck (also handy for being a gardener!). That excess wood from the pallets make nice campfires in the fall on mildly chilly days. I don't mind cleaning out the metal residue later on. Sifted ash is great for balancing pH of soils. I'll be turning my garage into a seed sprouting haven in the spring. I'd love a green house but they cost way too much...but if opportunity presents itself I will go for it!
She explains everything amazingly! I have the same problem here in south florida. We moved in to our house almost a year ago now and i got to work right away digging out my plot for our garden. We didn't have the money at the time and had our 3rd little one due in a few months time and i didnt wanna wait around til we had the money and just let all that grass grow back up so i thought just planting in ground with some cheap bags of top soil would be fine enough. Well that was fine my stuff grew great and then the beginning of this fall we got tons and tons of rain and cause i didnt have alot of good drainage in our dirt every thing got wiped out. So now to building raised beds i go hahaha ive already got 8 4x4 beds dug out a 1ft deeo and back filled with good compost. Oh and i actually just seen a video of some one building a green house outta pallets :)
I just bought a home, and I'll be building a few of these for my yard. Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial. :)
I live on 9 acres in Iowa and I am so intrigued with your beautiful raised beds. I try to live by: Use it up, wear it out, make it due, or do without. But let me tell you my raised beds were never this ingenious!! Keep building and inventing, This is the first time I have ever commented so thank you for the inspiration.I look forward to more from A Thousand Words :)
Thank you for your kind words! If you do attempt this project please check out my raised beds update video linked in the description box.
That’s how I move my pallets....Great video thank you, you go girl!
Thanks for this instructural video. People tend to always go for the expensive stuff and not realizing the potential in something as simple as pallets. And it turned out to be beautifull!!!
I would use boiled linseed oil on the inside to try to help the wood last a bit longer.
I love this video! Thank you for showing me how straight forward this can be. I’ll definitely be doing this this spring.
I tuned in to this just to get ideas for making my own raised garden beds with pallets. I was fascinated by your video and stayed thru it...., not because I "learned" much (I am a remodeler by trade and have quite a bit of carpentry experience) but rather because I found your stuff delightful. Believe it or not, men who see women doing work in areas traditionally done by men are not threatened, but delighted. I could give you some hints, but you are a smart woman and obviously will learn (I will echo the safety tips on a table saw upstream, though.... please keep your hands and fingers!). More than that, I am sure you got a great deal of satisfaction from your project. I love to see my wife learn to do things like this. My biggest question had to do with lateral pressure from a lot of dirt in the box and the tendency of the wall to "bow," but I have resolved that.
Anyway thanks for the nice video. You made me smile.
My wife and I are going to work on some beds tomorrow in fact!
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement.
Great tutorial!! Very easy to follow. The beds look great too! Thanks
Putting the rails along the top is a terrific idea& ( not just for immediate stabilization for the structure) preventing rainwater & hose water from soaking into the ends of the wood. The ends are more porous & absorbent, being the natural avenue the tree had moved water thru its interior. Good job!
Thank you for the tutorial. This is a great way to recycle pallets and it looks beautiful in your garden.
Thanks for the compliment :)
Clever Simple Chic thankyou so much! I am now going to locate some palettes and attempt your project to make myself a raised garden bed or two to grow my own organic lettuce.
Clever Simple Chic .
So where did you steal the pallets?
Guess you missed it in the video; she said that you have to do it at night; Supermarkets are the best she says! Happy Stealing!
Your video is a joy to watch as you explain, go over, possible mistakes and easy to understand tips. Your raised bed veggies look wonderful. The wood beds have a soft rustic and elegant consistency. Nice to know see such edible love being shared.
Thank you! Please do watch up update video on how the beds have held up and what not to do when building them.
Very excellent, thorough tutorial! Ending up with an aesthetically functional garden bed. I think I would like to combine this with the hugelkulture technique. Well done! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
If using hugelkulture I would line the beds with plastic because the organisms that break down the wood will start to attack the sides.
hi, i am watching this from Seattle, WA. i love your can do attitude and not trying so hard to make the whole project so insanely difficult or out of reach for someone just starting with a new garden. thank you for your posting. i will try one myself. :-)
Hope it turns out well!
What a terrific idea & you're so talented with your building skills!
Thanks for sharing!😊
I love using pallet wood for EVERYTHING!!!! I even built my 12'x12' shed out of them. The one thing I would consider is moving the top cleats up to the very top edge for larger surface to give stability to the capping.
David Spicer
That sounds great.
Are pallets free or is there a charge ?
Brilliant! I’m going to do that this season! It definitely beats the cinderblock raised bed I was going to do. Thank you!
Super. Just what I needed to know. Thank you. If anyone has problems with rodents. Line the bottom with hardware cloth.
On all wooden sailing ships, the top of every mast, which was exposed end grain, was protected by a wooden disc known as the TRUCK. It was there to stop the ingress of rainwater into the end grain, for rainwater rots timber, whilst sea water preserves it, hence the old expression: "From TRUCK to KEEL she was trim and neat". so although you know it as capping, what you are doing is TRUCKING! Keep on TRUCKING!
Very interesting!
This is how I would like to do our garden beds, but my husband is bound and determined to garden straight into the ground this year. He, of course, is not taking into account my spinal issues, but hey, if he wants to do all the weeding, so be it. And then next year I will get my beautiful garden beds and if I am lucky maybe even a greenhouse. I am also planning to use pallets for my compost bins. Thank you so much for sharing your plans and instructions with us. You made it look a lot easier. Blessings to you and Happy Harvest.
Please do watch my update video to avoid making the same mistakes I did!
Great video! Do it the way you want to do it. Everyone thinks their an expert lol. You taught me a lot. Thanks so much.
same with me. i learnt a lot too
Brilliant, we live on Corfu and the ground here is VERY, VERY dry. We don't have a lot of spare cash so this is an excellent solution to grow your own. Also the compost bin was a brilliant idea we have major problems with rubbish disposal over here so we kill two birds with one stone. The instructions were very clear and I like the way you capped them they looked very smart. We are definitely doing this so thanks again and well done.
I would recommend lining them with plastic to prolong the life of the beds. Wish I'd done that.
Looks great. Could also use the larger pallet 2 x 4's for corner posts. I concrete my corners posts into the ground and build the box around those.
That's a good idea.
Yes, I'm with you on this method.
We studied this video and finally finished our pallet raised bed. Thank you for this video and your thoughtful advice!!!
Glad it was helpful! Please line it with plastic before filling (as I showed in my update video, linked in description box).
Excellent instructional video. It explains everything very well and I can see using many of these ideas for my own raised gardens.
Thank you.
One of the best videos I've seen so far on the subject.
Great Vid, don't you think it would be a good idea to add some 2 x 4 or in the corners and center of the box for stability?
Plus the caps will be able to sit on them without turning in.
An easy way to do pallet garden beds. Thanks for sharing.
Definitely will keep in mind when I can make a raised bed
I am impressed with your knowledge of preparing raised beds. BTW you have a great work dedication.
Your channel is just wonderful. A real joy for all to watch and learn things. Thank you...
So nice of you, thank you.
I have always wanted to build my own raised garden beds, great tutorial and advice in comment box! Thank you everyone!
Hope yours turns out well, enjoy!
Awesome. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but, I just don't have the strength anymore to do those kinds of things. Needless to say I just never brought it up. I can't get down on my hands and knees anymore so..I got 55 gallon drums instead. But... I just showed your video to my husband and that's all it took. As soon as the weather breaks we're going to decorate the backyard with raised beds. Thanks!!!!
Happy gardening!
Is there anything you can’t do ?. Amazing and the s rustic look makes it even better
thank you so much for the tutorial! my husband actually works in a sawmill here in northern mn (usa) that makes pallets... we get all the free pallet wood we can handle and this is the perfect perfect perfect way to use it! tou would not believe how much waste is in a sawmill.... so sad. this is going to bring new life to wood that would have been thrown in the roto chopper and discarded :)
That is awesome! Happy building :)
You are so awesome! One smart lady!
Thank you for such an informative DIY video. They look so beautiful once assembled. These raised beds add both class and style to your back yard for almost little to no money I love how the stain turned out on them. I found a tutiorial on Pintrest for building garden pallet furniture. I will pair the two to makw my creation. How impressive. Thank you for sharing.
Michelle Molden-Coleman, could you please share with me the pallet furniture tutorial?
This has to be one of the best tutorials, if not the best, I've watched yet. To the point not to much talking just to the point.
Omg, you make it look so easy
That is an excellent plan to use pallet wood for raised beds, to save cost and reuse something that may be discarded. I definitely plan on using this idea to build my raised beds in the future. Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea.
Please do watch my update video so you don't make the same mistakes I did. Linked in description box.
Just imagining here: I would cap it with wider board and reinforce under the cap every 16 inches so I could sit on the cap to tend/harvest.
Very good use of recycling wood and such a nice finished product. Your garden is to be proud of.
That was Amazing. Thank you for the idea. Since it's my First time having a garden and growing Veggies ....
Thanks looks great and doable even for a 70 year old. I am retired and need more exercise. Gardening is my choice. Thank you. I am looking forward to all your videos. Great job
l
Enjoy!
This was so very helpful thank you! I am a newbie and needed a step by step guide
Great tutorial - it's shown me another way to consider and they look great. Also brilliantly clear explanations from a very competent lady - thank you from England x
Thank you! Glad you found my video helpful.
I have avoided,raised beds for several years..i didn't like the look and I didn't like the cost. But there's are AWESOME and yes,I will be using your plan to create some.
Thank you this was a great video...good job!
I really like how you harvested the wood. I've been doing it that way for years, but for seedling trays for my soil blockers.
Do you have any advice or instructions on how to build seedling trays? I just found a video that uses the tool that makes the soil blocks, so I'm trying to figure out an easy winter project 😊 thank you
@@saradebuque1801 I guess he doesn't.
I am still in the planning phase of (not so distant) future gardening. I am seeking cost effective and space saving methods for consideration. This plan is definitely in the plan. Thank you so much! It may be as much as a year from now, but I will share when I do it.
I'd love to see it!
great job, we have a bunch of pallets and I will be building these.
They look really nice. I have loads of pallets I want to repurpose after endless trawling on utube I found this idea the most simple and fast way to turn them into something useful thanks for sharing this.
Love this tutorial!!!!! I will certainly be using your instructions. Keep them coming :)
Very good. Other than the issue with the table saw what a great idea. Thanks.
I will try this.Thank you so much!!!
I absolutely love your raised beds. They are beautiful even if they're empty!
Awesome video, thank you for sharing.💐
Recycled, functional AND gorgeous! Thank you for the video ❤️
Good job beautyful the gardienesss,very strong your evens to plant and show word out the world.ok thanks
Great tutorial and example of re-use. Some very constructive comments included to cut the material and make it even more structurally sound. What a woman...All I need to do now is convince my wife to help 😉🤔😊
Really loved this, Thanks, Just wanted i was looking for! Going to be showing my wife this, letting her see how easy it is to get involved ;)
As soon as my foot heals and our weather gets better here in Deer Park, man it's been wet. Yes I plan on doing that, your concept is been thinking about doing .yes mam.
Great video with lots of detail. I'm inspired. Thanks.
Just awsome I built a raised bed last year was going to build 2 more this year but after seeig yours I am going to build these from now on thank you
Skip all that wasted time on the table saw. After you cut the boards from the pallet fasten them to the back brace pieces, snap a chalk line and run a circular saw to cut off all the uneven pieces. just the way deck builders do when building a deck for your house. BIG time saver.
Genius!! You're a master of efficiency.
Brilliant Services can you do a demo?
I'll find one today after work, they are all over the place on youtube.
... or do that when you are cutting them off the pallet, then they will already be the right length.
E. V. look up the video "Deck Trimming" that shows what I'm talking about.
What a woman, not afraid to get hands dirty and work with power tools. Why would anyone dislike this video? I enjoyed this video. I look forward to some more. 😅
Screwing into end-grain isn't strong. You should always screw through side-grain into side-grain. Easiest to illustrate with the cross-braces...screw down through the rails into the cross-piece instead of through the side into the end-grain of the cross-piece. If you screw into end-grain, it will pull out eventually when the board gets soft from moisture. You should also join the corners with a 2x2 and then screw into the side of the boards rather than into the end-grain. A small amount of extra work that will result in a much higher structural stability and years of happy gardening! A great video...thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tips!
thanks for this added insight :) looking forward to creating my own.
Thanks for the extra tips as I am currently building my garden beds.
Thanks , super. So fun to learn more.
We’re starting a vegetable garden this year and just started our research with the plants, then decided to look for cheaper ways to build planters and stumbled onto your video! What a nice surprise!! They are perfect! Before I even hit ‘play’ I showed my husband the first still picture and said “these are what I want them to look like!” Super excited! I feel like it is achievable now! Thanks for sharing
As'salaamu anlaykum
thanks so much for this wonderful tutorial
I love the vertical boards... it gives the beds a nice look!
Cross cutting on your table saw like you do scares me to death, thank goodness you weren't injured. Clamp a 'leader' board to your fence, in front of the blade then measure, then cut board with miter gauge so that you will never 'pinch' the wood and suffer 'kickback'. Good looking project !!!!
I saw the same thing with the table saw....lol. Basic safety, use the saw that best suites the purpose. Skill saw to cut off the pallet, chop saw to cut the rest; could cut 2-3 or more at the same time, too. The project is nice.
that was my first thought...
I got to about 3:00 when I started getting nervous about that table saw and by 3:25 I was heading down here to the comment section to see who else noticed the danger of cutting like that on the table saw. Good advice Mark W.
I gotta say though, that's some impressive table sawing if you didn't bind or kickback any wood with all the times you've done that. I could never have that level of muscle control, and I'm an experienced handyman.
Same here I cringed as well. The raise beds are cool but the improper use of the table saw could cost someone the loss of a digit or maybe even their life.
I don't even understand what this means - which is why I shouldn't be using a table saw. :) The sawing is the part that I find most intimidating, mainly safety, but, also, saws aren't cheap. In any case, Jen is amazing, the beds are terrific, and this video is very inspiring.
Fabulous! very clear ans simple instructions. Makes it accessible for all with minimal costs ! Thank you.
Glad you found it helpful, hope your beds come out well.
WOW - thank you so much! Already asked friends for pallets! Can't wait to get started!
just found your site and it is just what I needed. Now to get some pallets!
Great vid, I love this idea!
excellent project providing both shared fun experience making and a few years of great veggies and herbs
Niice! I have to build some for my garden!