Uses for Wood Pallets

Elevated Garden Beds

• Gardening as a hobby is becoming increasingly popular with millions of Americans, according to the National Gardening Association. Raised bed gardens can be made easily in even a small yard. Use pallets to elevate your garden, since the soil can be worked more easily and efficiently. Gardening in raised beds leads to fewer problems with wild grass and weeds. Simply place the pallets where you want your garden bed, pack soil inside of the pallets and layer more soil and compost on top of that. You will have to craft a wall around your garden to hold in the soil and pallets can come in handy there as well.

Build a Shed

• Everyone needs a shed in the yard to hold tools. Or, if in a suitably rural area, make a shed for goats, a chicken coop, a hog pen, even a great little home for your dog. Instructions for building a simple shed using wooden pallets are available at many websites.

Make a Compost Bin

• Many gardeners make their own compost using kitchen scraps, grass clippings and other organic material such as cardboard. And many prefer the neater appearance of compost bins over a loose compost heap. Build a compost bin using wooden pallets. Use four wooden pallets to form a box, nail them together and proceed to create your own garden-ready compost. Your soil will reward you with bountiful flowers and vegetables.

Create Birdhouses

• One way you might be able to make money with free wood pallets is to build birdhouses. Cute, rustic birdhouses are an attractive product that many people would buy. The wood is free, the work isn’t difficult, and the birdhouse can be sold for whatever the market will bear. Rick Brentlinger in Backwoods Home Magazine reports getting $10 to $20 for them, selling his birdhouses to gardening centers, craft stores hardware stores and occasionally antique stores.