Garden Planter Project

It seems to be that everything lately has to come with the prefix 'Rustic'.

From Ikea's glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of... wherever. .to the latest recipe for warm dairy free, egg free, nut free Tuscan Salad.

It seems the more simple, artless, or unsophisticated something is, the more detailed, artful and cosmopolitan it becomes.

I've been searching online trying to find ideas for recycling the wooden palettes that you see stacked up behind every supermarket or warehouse. Most of the time these palettes are collected by hordes of kids once a year and given a proper viking send off every Halloween. But there's some great ideas online and here's one that i found over at esprit cabane which truly is Rustic and is very simple and artless. Whether it's unsophisticated or cosmopolitan - well that's your choice.

You could use it for plants or why not try grow some of salad leaves, Spring onions or maybe a herb or two?

Here are the instructions:
Step 1: Mark your cutting lines on the pallet before you start sawing.
The boards used in this example are ¾ in (2 cm) thick and cut to lengths of 6 - 1 ft (30 cm) lengths and 7 - 10in (26 cm) lengths.
Use a handsaw or power jigsaw to cut the wood.
Sort the boards by length; 1 ft (30 cm) to one side, 10 in (26 cm) to the other. Smooth the edges with sandpaper.

Step 2: Assemble the 1 ft-long boards to make two planter sides of the same height.
Nail the boards to two battens that are 2 in (5 cm) longer than the height of the planter.
Nail each batten ¾ in (the thickness of the boards) from the end. Once you have assembled the first two sides using the 1 ft-long boards, nail the shorter 10 in-long boards to the battens.

Word of advice: If you are going to grow herbs or vegetables in it, protect the wood and your herbs by lining the planter inside with plastic, fixing it with small nails. Make drainage holes before filling it with compost.

If you're feeling more ambitious though have a look over on the Gardeners' World website where there are some plans to build a bigger planter box.