- Hello and a very warm welcome back to the garden.
Today's video is really special
because we've got a guest on.
We've got Steve from Nova Scotia
and he has a fantastic gardening channel
called "The Optimistic Gardener" which shows you how
to do things like plan your garden
and make a lot of amazing DIY things.
Now he's relatively new and hasn't
quite hit 1,000 subscribers yet,
so let's show him a bit of love and go
and subscribe to his channel
because you'll absolutely love his content.
And I actually discovered Steve on Facebook
where in one of the gardening groups he posted a picture
of a DIY pallet seed tray that he had made himself.
And I thought it'd be amazing to do a collaboration
where he would show us how to create one of these seed trays
which are super easy and super effective and really strong.
And in return we can go and support his channel
and help blow him past 1,000 subscribers
so he can get monetized and start earning a bit of money
because he absolutely deserves it.
So here is Steve to show us how to create
a really awesome seed tray.
- Well hello and welcome Huw.
And welcome to all you guys that have not
visited me here before in Nova Scotia.
And welcome to my greenhouse, my new greenhouse,
which I've just made out of pallets
and I'm still indecently and insanely proud of.
And it's the best place to be at the moment.
As you can see outside, this is our third of three storms
we've had in the last five days,
and it's definitely not the place
to be if you're a gardener.
So, it's a little bit warmer in here.
Nowadays, like a lot of people,
I'm really concerned with the amount of plastic that I use
in the garden and I'm trying to cut down on using plastic
and buying any more plastic.
So today on the theme of pallets, like my greenhouse,
and these planters I've made out of pallets,
I'm gonna make some seed trays out of pallets.
And I've made a few before.
They're a bit rough and ready looking,
but I think I quite like the look of them actually.
So I'm gonna do some, knock some pallets up for ya,
out of some old pallet wood that I've got here.
And all we need for that is any sort of saw.
A circular power saw is a good one to have.
A hammer and obviously, some nails.
So I'm gonna make these about the same size
as your normal average plastic seed tray.
At least the one I made the other day is a bit smaller,
but it's about the same size, and that is
about 30 centimetres (12in) wide,
47 centimetres (18.5in) long.
And I've got this at about 7 centimetres (3in) deep.
Now your normal pieces of pallet are bit wider than that,
but I think that's a bit deep to have a seed tray.
You know, you end up wasting a lot of compost.
So that's why I've made it about seven centimetres deep,
which is about the same size as your average.
So I'll have to cut these down the long way,
but we'll get to that later.
First of all what I'm gonna do is cut two of these
at 30 centimetres and two of these at 47 centimetres.
So I'll be right back.
(saw whirring)
So, there we go.
Two at 30 centimetres wide,
two long bits at 47 centimetres.
Now they're rough and ready bits,
but these will be okay for vegetables.
One of the things you have to watch out for
when you are using pallet wood is
the type of pallet that it is.
Now you don't wanna use pallets
that have been chemically treated obviously,
you could use it for flower seeds et cetera, but you know,
you wanna use ones that have been only heat treated.
And if you can see on there,
it says HT.
And that means it's been heat treated
and not chemically treated so the wood
on that pallet is all okay to use
to making vegetable things.
Now this one is a ropey old pallet,
but this again had HT on it and it's got a few boot marks
on it and stuff, but other than that, it's okay.
So as I said, we've made the two sides and the two ends.
Now,
we wanna make sure
that we have them all at seven centimetres.
So what I'm gonna do is measure
the seven centimetres along there
and then cut it down the length way, each one of these bits.
It's a bit of a fiddly bit, but it's not that hard.
So I'll be right back again.
(saw whirring)
Ooh, hello and welcome back.
We now have two long bits,
two short bits that are seven millimetres (correction: centimetres) wide.
So now we're gonna get to the puttin' it together bit.
So what we're gonna do is tap the nails in.
Two nails either side at the ends here.
One nail there, one nail there, just towards the end,
so that they're nice in a little bit before we have to try
and fiddle about and bang 'em on there.
You'll see what I'm talkin' about.
So there we go.
As you can see, I've got two nails in each side.
These are one and a quarter inch nails (3.2cm) by the way,
and I've banged 'em so they're
just peeking through the other side.
And then, what we're gonna do now
is connect them to these bits.
So, it's good if you have a vice available.
And then you can put this vertical piece into the vice
and that'll be easier for you to nail things in.
But I'm gonna do it without a vice
to show you that it is basically easy enough to do.
Fingers crossed.
So what we're gonna do is get our inside piece.
And then we're gonna align
our long piece along the edge here,
making sure it's all lined up,
and then hopefully we're gonna Bosch it in.
(hammering)
There we go, one frame for the use of.
All right, so last bit coming up.
All we're gonna do is put a bottom on it.
The easiest way to do it,
you can either measure up and then cut,
or just do what I do, is line your first piece up.
Make sure it's all nice and straightish as possible.
And then just run a line underneath.
There we go, I'm gonna cut these.
And what I'm gonna do,
so I'm not gonna nail every single piece in.
You know, cut it and then nail it.
What I'm gonna do is cut all the pieces
and then I can line them up 'cause I might have to make
a cut down one of these to make it all fit.
You'll see when I come back.
There we go, one seed tray for the use of.
Like I said, it's rough and ready, but it's pallet wood.
It didn't cost me anything other than some nails
and I quite like it's got a bit of an artisan feel about it.
And if you look on the actual wood itself,
the imperfections in the cuts have actually done me a favour
because I probably won't even have to drill,
or Huw probably won't even have to drill any holes
because these cuts here,
there's nice bits of drainage.
So the water's gonna drain through there.
Now, there's been questions on how long they're gonna last.
But I think this is hardwood
and I think it's gonna last a long time.
You're only gonna have earth in there
for a few months a year.
And if you're worried about it,
put some beeswax or some linseed oil in there.
But I think that is definitely jobs a good'un
and I reckon it's over to you Huw, so have some of this.
- There we go.
Well, thank you very much.
And I mean, of course, it didn't pass through the camera.
I actually used Steve's instructions and I made one.
And it took, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes?
20 minutes if you include getting all the tools together.
But in a couple of hours you could easily make,
I don't know, six, eight, maybe even 10 of these.
And they're so easy and I'm actually amazed
how strong they are.
And so, yeah, I'm going to make a lot more of these.
And I'm really excited.
And thank you very much to Steve for showing us
how to make one of these.
Don't forget to go over to his channel and subscribe,
and check out some of his videos.
Now I'm gonna create a lot of these this year
to use not just for a seed tray to start seeds off in,
but also to keep lots of pots of seedlings together
nice and neat.
And I can see this used for so many different things.
I was fortunate enough though,
to have pallets which were just over seven centimetres (~3in)
in terms of width, but of course,
you can make yours as deep as you want
or as big as you want.
It's really up to you.
But using Steve's simple instructions,
you'll be able to create loads in no time.
Thank you very much for watching
and if you have any questions or comments
or something that you can use one of these for,
then please do let me know down below in the comment section
and I'll see you again very soon
with another video, goodbye.