Vertical Pallet Garden: How to Build and Plant a Pallet Wall Garden
The notion that building a vertical pallet garden requires carpentry skills or expensive supplies puts a lot of people off before they start. In practice, a basic pallet vertical garden involves no cutting, minimal tools, and materials you can often get for free. A single wooden pallet turned upright, fitted with landscape fabric backing, and filled with potting mix gives you a planting surface that holds a surprising number of herbs, flowers, or strawberries in a footprint the size of a door.
A pallet wall garden works on a fence, deck railing, or exterior wall — any vertical surface that gets enough light for your chosen plants. Vertical garden pallet projects have become popular precisely because they solve the space problem in small backyards and urban settings. And pallet garden projects don’t have to stop at a single panel: chain several pallets together along a wall for a living green screen that’s both functional and attractive.
Building a Pallet Vertical Garden
Choosing and Preparing the Pallet
Not all pallets are safe for food plants. Look for the IPPC stamp on the side boards — HT (heat-treated) pallets are safe; MB (methyl bromide) pallets are not. Avoid any pallet that looks stained, discolored, or has an unexplained chemical smell. Heat-treated pallets are the standard for most pallets in circulation today and work well for any pallet vertical garden project.
Sand rough edges with 80-grit paper before assembly — this protects hands during planting and maintenance. Apply a coat of exterior wood stain or sealant to the front face and slats if you want the wood to last more than two or three seasons outdoors. Untreated pine pallets can deteriorate quickly when wet soil contacts them repeatedly through a growing season.
Adding Backing and Filling
Cut landscape fabric to cover the back and bottom of the pallet, then staple it into place. This fabric holds the growing medium while allowing water to drain. Lay the pallet flat, fill the spaces between the slats with a lightweight potting mix — never garden soil, which compacts and clogs drainage — and compact it gently. Add more mix until each planting pocket is filled to just below the slat surface.
A pallet wall garden planted flat needs two to three weeks of horizontal time before it stands upright. This lets plant roots establish before gravity pulls the growing medium away from them. Once the roots hold the mix in place, lean or hang the pallet vertical garden against its chosen support.
Planting Your Vertical Garden Pallet
The best plants for a vertical garden pallet are shallow-rooted, compact, and appropriate for the light level. Herbs — thyme, oregano, basil, mint — are ideal choices. Succulents work well in sunny spots with very free-draining mix. Strawberries are popular in vertical garden pallet projects because their runners hang attractively over the slats and the fruit is easy to pick.
Avoid large vegetables like tomatoes or squash in a pallet wall garden — they need deeper root runs than the slat pockets provide. Lettuce, radishes, and small kale varieties stay compact enough to thrive in a shallow-pocket vertical setup. Plant densely: the pockets look better full, and the close planting reduces water loss from the exposed growing mix surface.
Maintaining Pallet Garden Projects
Vertical garden pallet setups dry out faster than ground-level beds because the surface area exposed to air and wind is proportionally larger. Check soil moisture daily in warm weather — push a finger into the mix and water if it feels dry at the first knuckle. A slow-drip irrigation line run behind the pallet and fed through individual drip emitters into each pocket eliminates daily checking entirely.
Fertilize regularly because the limited soil volume means nutrients deplete faster than in a ground bed. A diluted liquid feed applied every two weeks through the growing season keeps plants healthy. Most pallet garden projects benefit from a complete refresh every two seasons — replace the growing mix, check the structural integrity of the slats, and re-staple any loose fabric backing before replanting.
