Introduction: How to Make a Raised Bed Garden Box From Wood Pallets.

Have you ever wanted to build or buy a garden box?  The cost of pre-built boxes and lumber itself is extremely expensive.  Fortunately you can build one for just a few dollars in nails and tools if you use wood pallets. 

Let's get started. 


Step 1: Gather Your Materials.

First, you will need to find a pallet or two, depending on how large you want your box.  A good source is to check craigslist.org in your area under the free section and search for pallets or wood.   A lot of times people give away the pallets that the pallet recyclers won't pay for. 

Step 2: Assemble Your Workspace and Tools

For this project I just did it on my backyard.  It might help if you had access to a workbench for cutting the wood.  These are the tools and supplies you need:

1. A hammer, preferably a claw type.

2. A handsaw of some type.  Here I'm using a hack saw but it would probably be better to use a fine toothed wood saw. 

3. A pencil for marking.

4. A screwdriver or crowbar for preparing the wood.

5. Nails.  You will probably need some short (about 2 inch) and some longer (3+ inch) nails. 

6. A pair of pliers to help pull nails. 

Step 3: Prepare Your Wood.

Start by taking apart the pallets with the hammer and the screwdriver/crowbar.  If there are a lot of staples in the wood, you can simply hammer them flat in most cases.  Be aware that they are still sharp and may interfere with your nails as you're hammering them in, depending on placement.

You want to make sure you have enough of the right size of planks for this.  Separate them into piles.  I used 4 planks per side along with enough wood to nail at each end. 

Step 4: Assemble the Planks Into Sides.

Take the planks and line them up for each board.  Use the small pieces and the awkward ones to make the side pieces.  Hammer 2 nails for each plank on each side. 

Do this 4 times and you should get something that looks like this.

Step 5: Assemble the Finished Box.

Stand the boards perpendicular to each other and hammer them together with your longer 3 inch or so nails.  Make sure you line the nails up to the most solid part of the wood on the thin side.  Use at least 3 nails for these one on each side and in the middle.   The final result should look like this.

That's it!  Enjoy your new raised bed garden.