Pallet Planter Box For Cascading Flowers

The result of this DIY project is so beautiful you have to see it for yourself. Cascading flower boxes are gorgeous. I know I have seen them before but had no idea this is how they did it. Or that I had the skill level to make one myself. Beautiful and so much easier than I thought it would be. Silly me, I thought it was a bush. Take a look at the directions and see how it is worth your time and effort. Cross my heart! These directions call for the use of used wood pallets but you can use any type of lumber if you don’t want to break one apart. It will require daily water, weekly fertilizer, and periodic spraying for bugs. Yes, a little bit of maintenance but it is worth the spectacular results. Give it a try, you won’t regret this project.

Cut List
4 – 2″ x 4″ x 40″ – legs
2 – 2″ x 2″ x 15″ – bottom support
4 – 1″ x 4″ x 36″ bottom
1 – 1″ x 1 1/2″ x 36″ bottom
40″ long pallet slats as needed
16″ long pallet slats as needed
(Note: if you do not have access to wood pallets or are concerned about where the pallets have been, you can easily substitute pine 1×4’s or cedar pickets found at stores like Home Depot.)

Step 1

This planter box is made mostly from pallet wood, for tips on disassembling a pallet, check out this video.

Measure and mark down 20″ from the top of the legs. Attach the 2×2 at 20″ with 2 1/2″ screws. Repeat for the other set of legs.

Nail or screw the bottom pieces to the 2×2 supports.

Step 2

Cut pieces of pallet slat to 40″ and attach to the legs for the front and 16″ for the sides. I originally used a brad nailer, but some of the wood started to warp when wet and I went back and used 1 1/4″ screws.

I used a 2″ hole saw to drill holes for the petunias.

Spacing the holes about every 6″ or so.

I ended up with a gap between the legs which I used weed guard to block. You can put a couple of pieces of scrap wood to fill the gap.

Step 3

Now the fun part, planting the flowers. These flowers are Wave petunias that I got at Costco, you can also rotate the flowers between regular, cascade and wave petunias. You need good potting mix and you need to add soil moist to help retain water. I put a layer of weed guard down on the bottom, because I had a few holes. You may have a little dirt wash out for the first little while, but once the plants start growing this will stop.

Add the first row of flowers, then cover with soil.

I realized that the box is kind of large and is going to use a lot of dirt (2 bags). I remember reading somewhere that you can use packing peanuts as filler, hope I remember that right. I put them in the far back where the flowers wouldn’t be planted.

Then cover with more dirt.

Add the third row of flowers, fill with dirt and plant flowers on top.

You need to water the flowers everyday, the holes let the dirt get dry. I usually water until the water leaks from the lower holes. I also fertilize 1/week.

First planted