It was the first weekend of really lovely weather here in Michigan and we were very happy to spend some time outside in the yard. One of the projects we have underway is expanding one of our flower gardens. We are tripling the size of one of our gardens and are super excited! When we bought our house it was a dream to one day have many lush flower gardens and this gets us one step closer!
One of the projects we wanted to add to the new garden area was a walkway. We knew we wanted it rustic, because that is our style. We are not one to use factory produced pavers – we prefer natural elements or repurposed items in our gardens. Jim has a large stash of wood pallets that he uses on various projects so we decided to use the pallet wood for a garden walkway.
The pathway we wanted to create was about 18 feet long and we used 3 pallets to create it. The cost for the 3 pallets? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Free.
Here are the steps if you want to try this freebie for yourself.
How To Make a Pallet Walkway For The Garden DIY Freebie
Lay your pallet on the ground and using a circular saw cut the wood slats up the center. You will need to make a cut on each side of the center piece of wood. This will give you slats that are about 20″ long (give or take, depending on the size of your pallet).
You do not need to measure, and in our opinion the more beat up the wood the better. You can use whatever condition of pallets you want; we wanted to keep nail holes and even some nails in place to give it that aged charm.
Once you make the cut, use your hands to pry up the wood from the pallet frame. You may need a pry bar or hammer to do this. Alternatively you could use the circular saw to cut this side as well.
Once you have all the pieces cut, you are ready to tackle the garden!
We decided where we wanted the path to go, and marked the shape on the dirt so that we would stay on track as we began to lay down the wood.
Then we used a hoe and a small garden shovel to level the dirt. We started at the beginning (by the rocks) and slightly dug out the dirt the size of the wood slat. We did not want the wood sunk way down in the dirt; we wanted them to be mostly level with the ground. Because of this you need to dig out some of the ground to make room for the wood.
Once you lay the first piece you simply continue along your pathway, moving the dirt as needed to lay the wooden pieces. We mixed the different sizes of wood slats and made the edge random, for a more relaxed feel. That is our style!
This is really a simple project and it is perfect for adding charm and a casual feel to your garden. Now we are hoping for a nice rain that we know will help tamp down the dirt and set the wood slats in place.
Here is the finished project:
We love how it turned out!
PS: Wondering what is under the tarp? It’s a large metal trough that Jim rescued from the trash and sunk in the ground. It is going to be a new water fountain for this garden!
Total cost of this project: Zero
(And just a couple of hours of sweat equity).
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Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/28/that-diy-party-1-2/#Jaq42At3ihmaRZqM.99
Hi,
I am wondering how this has held up. I know it’d be super easy to replace the peices as they rot or crack, but I am thinking of doing this for our main walkway. Would you reccomend it for high traffic areas? (Im in Michigan also)
Thanks! It’s beautiful!
Cortney,
It has held up OK, but we did notice a good amount of the pallet wood curled or curved. We flip those pieces over to flatten them back out and it seems to work. If it is your main walkway I think you may find it needing attention more than you’d like. We don’t actually walk on ours very much.