I’ve always wanted an herb garden so when we purchased our house we started brainstorming ways to make it happen. If you know me, you know I love pallets and finding new uses for them. We decided to make a vertical herb garden using a half pallet. This is a great solution for anyone with limited outdoor space and could even work for an apartment balcony.

Step 1: Find a half pallet.

Step 2: Determine how many bed rows you want [I chose 3].

Step 3: Remove any unwanted boards with a sawzall. Also remove any boards that are not entirely parallel with the front boards that will serve as your garden beds.

Step 4: Nail any removed boards to the back of the pallet to create the back of your beds [we used a nail gun, but a hammer or drill will work just as well].

Step 5: You need to cut the remaining unused boards to fit underneath your bed rows. Any scrap wood will work on the bottom if you don’t have enough pallet boards.

Step 6: After you cut the bottom boards to size, drill 2-3 quarter sized holes into the boards [this will allow water to drain from the beds].

Step 7: Nail the bottom boards to the bottom of each row bed.

Step 8: Plant your herb garden. When choosing where to plant your herbs, be mindful of which herbs will grow taller and which herbs need more or less sun.

Step 9: Use a white paint pen to mark what you planted.

We ended up installing a drip irrigation system throughout our backyard to ensure all our plants got the attention they needed. We were able to continue the drip system to the pallet garden by using giant staples to attach the tubing on back of the pallet. So far it’s working out really well and we are now able to enjoy homegrown herbs in our home cooked meals!