00:05 Speaker 1: G'day knuckleheads, Uncle Knackers here.
I'm in the car today on the hunt for some recycled timber pellets.
I'm going to make some raised garden beds for my veggie patch.
Nothing like fresh veggies.
And recycled timber pallets are the ideal material.
And the best thing is, is that you can pick 'em up for free.
Just go on down to your local industrial estate and ask in the shops there.
They're always throwing pallets out.
Anyway, wish me luck.
There you go, just over there.
What did I tell you.
Bingo, here we go.
Couple of freebies.
Just asked the guys inside, and they said no dramas.
Happy days.
00:46 S1: Now that you've got the pallet home, you've got to pull the bugger apart, and it
can be a little bit tricky.
So to save the old back, what I do is I stand it up against something.
I've got it up against my old saw bench here.
And to remove the slats themselves, some guys get a power saw and they chop through here.
And that way eliminating removing those nails.
But personally, I actually like the nails.
I like the nail holes.
It adds a bit of rustic charm.
So what I like to do is grab my old chisel, just an old Bertha, if you don't mind damaging
it a little bit with my hammer and the objective is to separate this paling over this slat
away from the 4x2.
Just a little bit.
I get my chisel, tap it in bit of a lever, go all the way along.
And all I do now is get my reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade, and run that along
the gap that I've created with my chisel and hammer.
01:46 S1: Now, some blokes are obsessed with getting it done fast and all that sort of
stuff.
Don't worry about it, take your time, save your back, it'll get done.
Okay?
Here we go.
[background noise]
02:15 S1: How easy was that?
And not one bit of stress on the old back.
And just repeat that process for the other side.
[background noise]
02:30 S1: Too easy.
Now time for the center rail.
Now it's been cut on either end and the other boards are swivelling from the center point.
So you need to remove these nails.
So all I do is grab a crowbar, a Jemmy bar, something like that, put it underneath the
slat, and give it a tap with your hammer.
Now give it a gentle lift, don't be too violent, because pallets are prone to splitting.
So just gently lift off.
Bob's your uncle, pretty easy.
And your back's still in one piece.
03:06 S1: Now to remove the cut off nails that are left in the board, all you have to
do, get a punch and a hammer and punch 'em out.
And now, you're left with a couple of beautiful, rustic old nail holes.
I reckon that looks fantastic.
Like this old board here.
You can't replicate that.
I love it.
That's why I don't chop it off.
Okay, let's move on to the next step.
03:37 S1: Now, one of the main reasons why I like to use old hardwood pallets for this
job, is that not only is it durable, but underneath it's exterior is beautiful Aussie hardwood.
So I'm just going to wear kind of some protective equipment and get my planer, and just give
it a bit of a light plane, just to bring out some of the colour, and knock off some of
those rough edges.
Let's do it.
[background noise]
04:09 S1: There you go.
Look at that.
Absolutely beautiful.
Look at those nail holes.
Very, very rustic.
I love it.
And it's also done a good job of taking off some of those rough edges.
So when the kids lean over to pick their carrots, they're not going to get a splinter.
04:24 S1: We've planed and de-nailed all those boards.
Now, it's time to cut to length.
Now, you can cut your board to any length that you desire, depending on how big you
want to make your garden bed.
In my case, I want to maximise the length of each of these boards, because I want to
retain some of this character.
I don't want to cut that off.
Now each side of my garden bed, my vegetable patch, I'm going to have four of these wider
boards, and two of the narrow boards.
And on one end, I'm going to have two of the wider boards, and one of the narrow board.
And on the other end, well that's a surprise.
You've to keep on watching this video to see what I'm going to do there.
05:07 S1: Anyway, I'd better get cracking, and cut some of these boards.
Don't forget, earmuffs, goggles.
Okay.
[background noise]
05:45 S1: A great way to get the panel tight is to use
a clamp like this.
Beautiful.
Now, this is a really good tip.
To ensure that your panel is going to be straight and square, set it up on top of an old table
or a workbench and line the edges of your panel up with the edges of the table or workbench.
And what that'll do is that it'll ensure that this is a nice 90 degree angle.
Hence, your panel is going to be square.
06:20 S1: And to get these edges all nice and straight, just grab your straight-edge
or a square like this, and tuck them up.
Screw this off.
Then we're ready to assemble some panels.
Happy days.
06:33 S1: So I've been busy and have knocked out one of the sides.
Oooh-wee!
Looks pretty cool, doesn't it?
That's all held together, the framework of old pallet boards that are screwed to the
back here.
Now, I've got an extra long one along the top because I wanna screw some capping to
this, and the extra board gives me some extra width, which gives me some extra room to screw
my screws into.
Anyway, enough of that, but two more layers to do, so I better get cracking.
07:05 S1: Now to save you the boredom of watching me screw sections of timber together, because
seriously it is ridiculously easy, I've gone ahead and I've assembled a garden bed.
Now, I must admit, I did have a little helper.
07:18 S1: "Oh, good job mate.
It's nice and smooth?"
07:20 Speaker 2: Uh...
Not yet.
07:23 S1: Okay.
Keep going.
07:26 S2: Yes, I've got to check it first.
07:27 S1: Alright mate, you check it.
Yeah, good job.
07:33 S1: Now, this is what I call a garden bed.
Good magazine.
07:40 S1: Well, there she is.
Looks pretty good, doesn't it?
Now check out these features.
First of all, that as it stands cost me 22 dollars.
The timber was free and the $22 was for the screws.
Secondly, it's made out of beautiful Aussie hardwood.
That's going to last for years.
08:03 S1: Now, I've excavated around the perimeter of the garden bed so that it now sits nice
and level.
And I've also I orientated the garden bed so that it faces north and south.
That way, we can utilize the full effect of the sun.
This model also comes with two torsion bars, timber torsion bars, that stop the old girl
from spreading apart, when is full of dirt.
And how's this for a feature?
One of the ends of the garden bed is a full pallet, and we're going to use this as a climbing
ladder for our peas and beans.
How good's that?
08:37 S1: Now check this out.
I wanted to utilize every aspect of this old pallet.
So between these two top slats, I dropped in a floor out of a piece of old timber, and
I drilled a series of holes to act as drainage.
And what I'll do next is I'll put some garden matting down, fill it full of soil, and grow
some beautiful herbs.
That'll be fantastic!
And what's this I hear, you say?
09:03 S1: And how's this for a tricky little feature?
I knocked it up out of another pallet board.
Put it at the top and a couple of braces, one there and one there.
And the holes I drilled with a hole saw that I use for cutting out door handles.
So put a series of holes in the top, just like that, and the purpose for this is to
put in my garden tools.
09:30 S1: What a ripper!
Another feature is that I've put in some capping and I've also rounded the edge on the corners
to make it a bit safer and check this out, I've even named it!
I've got a stencil off the Internet and spray painted the name of my vegetable patch.
Love it.
09:51 S1: Now just the top things off, I'll put down some garden mat to stop the weeds
from coming up.
I also ran it around the sides of the garden bed as well just to help protect the timber.
And you'll also notice that I've screwed a bit of 25 mil poly-pipe to the side of the
garden bed with a couple of clamps.
There's four in total; one here, one over there, one down there, and one across there,
and the reason for it is if you have a bird or a pest problem, get a piece of 20 mil pipe
and insert it into a 25 mil piece of poly-pipe.
What that creates is a hoop, just like that.
So one here, and one here.
10:41 S1: Now, all you do is throw your bird netting over these hoops and that protects
your plants!
Fantastic!
10:49 S1: And finally, I applied a coat of water-based decking oil to the outside of
the garden bed, just for a bit of added protection.
So there you have it, how to make a raised garden bed out of old pallets.
Great tip!
Knackers!
And as per usual, if you enjoyed this video or found it useful, subscribe to my channel.
The button's just down there.
Thumbs up, the button's down there.
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It's a ripper!
11:19 S1: I almost forgot.
For costings, materials required, and tools required for this job, I've made a list in
the description box, so check that out.
So anyway, until the next time, happy gardening!
I'm out of here.
Cheers!
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