Traditional Backyard Garden Plot Plan
Greg grew most of his family’s food for the year in his backyard garden, building raised beds out of pallets and old shingles! See his garden layout plus some beautiful garden photos for ideas and inspiration.
Greg Morse from Bagley, Minnesota created a large 34’ 11” x 34’ 11” backyard garden using both traditional rows and raised beds made out of pallets. His garden also included mobile pallet planters as well as drip irrigation, row covers, and a hoop house. As you can see from the photos Greg submitted, it’s been a very productive garden! He’s be happy to hear from other northern gardeners.
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Greg’s Vegetable Plot Plan
The raised beds were made out of shingle pallets cut in half, height 20”. The rows and square foot gardening was incorporated all together with lots of plasticulture used to extend cold, short northern growing season.
Vegetable layout designed with the Almanac Garden Planner. See his full plant list here!
Greg’s Garden Photos!
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Catherine Boeckmann
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Where did he get the soil to fill his beds??
To fill those beds, you’d want a mix of compost and potting mix. Not soil for containers. Some cities have free local compost facilities. Or, many gardeners make their own compost at home. Or you can buy bags. If you have deep raised beds, it can get pricey, so you can put pottery or bricks or even recycled plastic jugs on the bottom of the bed if you don’t need that much space for the roots of whatever you are growing. Here is a good article with video on how to use less potting mix to fill your beds. https://www.almanac.com/ways-use-less-potting-mix-fill-pots-and-raised-beds We also have a lot of articles on how to make your own compost. Use the search box at the top of this site!
Sure would have been nice to have a link on how to build these pallets into a garden. Beautiful design!
If interested, there are many articles on how to build raised beds (with pallets or other materials). Just go to the search box in our site and type in what interests you. Here is one good article: https://www.almanac.com/content/how-build-raised-garden-bed
What mixture of soil, compost, etc. and ratio Is used in the vegetable plots?
No soil. Half compost, half potting mix.
Hi, I was wondering how they dealt with the gaps between the wood planks of the pallets, didn't the soil escape through those gaps? Please let me know, I want to do this and I have plenty of pallets. Thank you!
I made a similar bed a while back and stapled black plastic 4 mil sheeting to the inside to keep the dirt from falling out. It's hard to tell but looks like that's what he did.
Does Greg line the sides of his boxes with plastic?
Yes, Greg lines his beds. Lots of plasticulture used to extend cold, short northern growing season. In his plan, Greg says that he welcomes questions from other northern gardeners at: Greg.Morse@rocketmail.com
