Garden edging made from pallets ... ...

If like me you make loads of stuff out of old pallets (or any type of wood for that matter) you may have a lot of off cuts, and in the case of pallets maybe some broken bits, well here's an interesting use for them.

Garden edging can be expensive, I've seen it in pound shops though, but if you have the wood you might as well make some yourself.
You only need a few tools, a saw,tape measure,staple gun and some strimmer wire (the thicker the better) and perhaps a few other bits and bobs.


Broken bits of pallets -

These have been on my shed roof for a while.

You'll need to work out what length to make each section of edging, I made mine about 16inches, mainly because I had a short piece of wood I used as a guide, which oddly enough was about 16inches long.

Once you cut your lengths of wood you'll need to make one end of each piece pointed, this will help when hammering the edging into the ground, basically you want to make a load of flat stakes.

I made a template rather than measure and then cut each piece (I made 20 pieces in the end)

To make the template find the middle of the wood, then measure 2inches up on either side then you just need to draw a line on each side from the centre to the mark on each edge.

Like this - 

It doesn't have to be too precise.

And then you just use the template to mark each bit of wood and then get cutting, this can also be done (a lot quicker) on a mitre saw, but I couldn't be bothered to get mine from the shed.

Anyone for a stake ? - 

Just need a vampire or 2 and I'm sorted.

Next you want to line up all your stakes, it helps if you can butt them up against something, I used the back door step.

All lined up -

Now we just need to fix them together.

This is where the strimmer wire comes in, you can use metal garden wire, but it does tend to rust and break after a short space of time, where as the strimmer wire being plastic will last much longer.

All you need to do is staple the wire to each stake, a line at the top of the stakes and one at the bottom of the stakes.

Like so -

All done.

To stop the wire slipping out of the staples you can loop it round and fix it, you don't have to use a staple gun, you could use small wire clips, a staple gun is quicker though, and if some of the staples don't go into the wood all the way, just give them a tap with a hammer.

The loop - 

Use a staple or 2 to fix the wire.

And that's about it, you can make it on long lengths or short ones, the height is up to you, it's easy to make and if you already have a load of off cuts it's a good way to use them up.

I took a picture of it standing up, just for demonstration purposes, I shall be using the stuff I've made to make a raised bed or two, but one that can be moved and rolled up when it's not in use, I'm leaving the wood plain, but you can always paint it, or stain it for a nicer look, not that bare wood isn't nice.

It works ! -

You get the idea :-)

Thanks for reading.