It took me six months to get around to publishing this post, but I wanted to share the success I have had gardening now that I live in SoCal.
I have been a gardener for many years. In Seattle I gardened in both the community gardens of the P-Patch Program, and also on my own property, patio, or deck.
Now that I am in Southern California I thought it would be so easy – no need to fight for heat or sun or the normal things that challenge a Pacific Northwest gardener. But SoCal brought its own challenges, aside from no community garden space and only a teeny tiny yard!
My sister shared on Facebook awhile back 70 pallet projects – a fine example of reuse/recycle/upcycle. There were coffee tables, chairs, sofas, patio furniture…and vertical gardens.
First was finding a used pallet. My husband had started a new job for a company that has a warehouse and he found someone willing to haul home an 8-foot pallet for us because he commutes on a motorcycle! I am very grateful for that.
There were several designs. The best design in my opinion was required to stay flat on the ground for a number of weeks while the plant roots got established and the soil settled. My yard is so tiny this was not going to be feasible. And I didn’t want dirt everywhere (we installed recycled artificial grass shortly after move in to cut down on dust tracking by the dog and bugs). So we kind of did our own thing combining other people’s ideas.
I also found some great metal pots at Ikea – it was at the very end of the spring season and there were only a few left and I bought all of them. This also helped me decide what color of paint to get to add some fun and also weather-proofing to my pallet.
Because I wasn’t able to buy enough hanging pots we used roof gutters to fill in the extra pallet space! I saw something online about strawberries being grown in gutters so thought this was an awesome idea.
When buying plant containers, if they do not have drainage holes in them you must drill them. So the pots and the gutters all needed drain holes.
Once your pots are ready, then it is time for plants. If you start with seeds it costs less money, but we wanted produce this season so we bought plants.
Then you get to play in the dirt…
And finally enjoy the fruits of your labor – literally! Yum!
Now I have a new round of lettuce, kale, and other greens planted to enjoy during the winter months. And the hummingbirds are still here!
I love my vertical pallet garden!
king my commute from 35-60+ minutes to a reliable 23 minutes!! Totally worth all the trouble trying to find places to charge the car. But more on that later. I don’t have to show up at work early and not get paid for it anymore.
