Hügelkultur Raised Beds

[Appalachickens]

Yep, free pallets don't last long around where I live. Businesses put them out by their dumpsters for people to pick up and they are usually gone by the end of the day, or maybe the next day at most.

I actually make things with my pallets, but I do know some people just pick up pallets to burn the wood to heat their house. I'm OK with that too. At least it keeps those pallets out of the landfill.

I guess that would work if the wood isn't treated. I thought you meant she was just disposing of them in a burn pile - if it's firewood for her, that's cool.

 

[akroberts1085]

So she told me thank you for the information on the ideas for the pallets so hopefully she can get make some stuff for her yard, even if it's not raised beds.

 

[gtaus]

I guess that would work [burning pallets] if the wood isn't treated.

I have been picking up pallets regularly for the past 2 years. I have never seen a chemically treated pallet. All the pallets I have brought home are marked "HT" for heat treated. HT pallets are just dried out to kill any bugs, but they don't use any chemicals.

I sometimes wish I had a wood burning stove or furnace in the house. All my pallet wood cut offs and scraps could be used to heat us up on those cold Minnesota nights in the winter.

I mainly dump my pallet wood bits and pieces into new hügelkultur raised beds. If something is full of rusty old nails, I might just burn it in my fire ring and then use a magnetic pickup tool to take out the nails. I don't want wood with nails in my hügelkultur raised beds, although I don't think it would really hurt anything.

Anyways, there are people around here that pick up pallets just to burn them in wood burning furnaces. It's free wood for them. If they have an outside wood furnace, they probably burn the pallets with nails still in the wood. Better that than seeing those pallets sent to the landfill.

 

[Appalachickens]

I have been picking up pallets regularly for the past 2 years. I have never seen a chemically treated pallet. All the pallets I have brought home are marked "HT" for heat treated. HT pallets are just dried out to kill any bugs, but they don't use any chemicals.

I sometimes wish I had a wood burning stove or furnace in the house. All my pallet wood cut offs and scraps could be used to heat us up on those cold Minnesota nights in the winter.

I mainly dump my pallet wood bits and pieces into new hügelkultur raised beds. If something is full of rusty old nails, I might just burn it in my fire ring and then use a magnetic pickup tool to take out the nails. I don't want wood with nails in my hügelkultur raised beds, although I don't think it would really hurt anything.

Anyways, there are people around here that pick up pallets just to burn them in wood burning furnaces. It's free wood for them. If they have an outside wood furnace, they probably burn the pallets with nails still in the wood. Better that than seeing those pallets sent to the landfill.

Absolutely, I agree with you. I hate to see anything go to the landfill that can be used. I have one pallet that I put grow bags on to elevate them off the ground, and it has fading blue paint on it - that's what I meant about being treated. But good to know that's unusual.

 

[gtaus]

I hate to see anything go to the landfill that can be used.

The older I get, the more "Green" conscious I have become. I can remember growing up in the 1960's and 1970's and all our household trash was literally dumped in an open field dump down by river. I think that would be illegal today. Good thing too, IMHO. Landfills might be an improvement, but I try extra hard to find ways to reuse or repurpose as much as I can.

It has been almost 2 years since Dear Wife and I have hauled any garbage out to the landfill processing site. I shred almost all our paper and cardboard for use as coop litter, then compost. The chickens eat most of our "wet" food scraps and leftovers. The bulk of our remaining "trash" can be dropped off at the recycle center. We are down to maybe one garbage bag over 2-3 weeks which I just burn in my fire ring.

15 years ago, we had maybe 3 or 4 large garbage bags full of trash that got sent to the landfill every week. It's been a long evolution for us, reducing our trash footprint in small steps, but every positive change reduced our trash load.

I have one pallet that I put grow bags on to elevate them off the ground, and it has fading blue paint on it - that's what I meant about being treated. But good to know that's unusual.

Understand. I don't pick up pallets that are oil or paint stained. I know the pallet itself was not treated, but if I see stains on the wood that I don't know, I just pass. Let someone who burns that wood for heat outside in a furnace have it.

Some companies get pallets that are colored red, blue, pink, etc... Those pallets belong to shipping companies and are meant to be returned to them for shipping. Every once in a while, one of those type of pallets gets broken up and placed in the free pallet piles where I get my pallets. I don't take those colored pallets because most of my pallet projects are related to my gardening. I think the wood would be safe, but I prefer the natural color of wood.

Yeah, I don't want a pink raised bed out in my "manly" garden!

 

[gtaus]

Just to be clear, all the pallets I have picked up in the past 2-3 years that I have been doing pallet projects have been marked "HT" for heat treated, just drying out the wood and no use of toxic chemicals or anything like that. Totally safe for any project.

I doubt if you could find a "newer" pallet marked with "MB" Methyl Bromide, which is a highly toxic gas used as a pesticide and fumigant. You could not use MB pallets for anything around the house. MB marked pallets have been banned in the USA since 2010. Unless you are dealing with some really old pallets, you will probably never see a MB pallet. If you do, just leave it. It's not safe even to pick up with your hands. And don't think about burning it either because the toxic fumes are a health risk.

As I mentioned, I also take a hard pass on any pallets with chemical stains or paint stains on them. It's just not worth my time and effort, or risk, in trying to reuse them. But I seldom see any stained pallets either. So, it's just not a concern for me in real life, but I have to keep it in the back of my mind in case I come across one.

In any case, I have built many hügelkultur raised beds out of safe pallet wood rebuilds and have saved myself hundreds of dollars in lumber costs.

 

[Appalachickens]

The older I get, the more "Green" conscious I have become. I can remember growing up in the 1960's and 1970's and all our household trash was literally dumped in an open field dump down by river. I think that would be illegal today. Good thing too, IMHO. Landfills might be an improvement, but I try extra hard to find ways to reuse or repurpose as much as I can.

It has been almost 2 years since Dear Wife and I have hauled any garbage out to the landfill processing site. I shred almost all our paper and cardboard for use as coop litter, then compost. The chickens eat most of our "wet" food scraps and leftovers. The bulk of our remaining "trash" can be dropped off at the recycle center. We are down to maybe one garbage bag over 2-3 weeks which I just burn in my fire ring.

15 years ago, we had maybe 3 or 4 large garbage bags full of trash that got sent to the landfill every week. It's been a long evolution for us, reducing our trash footprint in small steps, but every positive change reduced our trash load.



Understand. I don't pick up pallets that are oil or paint stained. I know the pallet itself was not treated, but if I see stains on the wood that I don't know, I just pass. Let someone who burns that wood for heat outside in a furnace have it.

Some companies get pallets that are colored red, blue, pink, etc... Those pallets belong to shipping companies and are meant to be returned to them for shipping. Every once in a while, one of those type of pallets gets broken up and placed in the free pallet piles where I get my pallets. I don't take those colored pallets because most of my pallet projects are related to my gardening. I think the wood would be safe, but I prefer the natural color of wood.

Yeah, I don't want a pink raised bed out in my "manly" garden!

We did things differently in the ‘60’s and 70’s, didn’t we? But my mom was in the early wave of environmental awareness. As kids we had a board game about ecology that I loved and ecology and peace stickers on our car. In the mid-70’s I would go with my mother to help divide up organic food in the food coop we belonged to (never did like those carob brownies we made, though). I’ve been composting since I finished school and also take as little as possible, a smallish bag at most a week, to the dump, with the rest getting recycled. As for the painted pallet, that was part of a load of something we bought at Lowes or Home Depot, so not something I’d have chosen. But it makes a reasonable stand for the grow bags. The pink bed made me laugh - I remember my son requesting a lap desk in high school and I called from the store to tell him the only one they had was pink. He said, “Get it. I’m secure in my masculinity.”

 

[gtaus]

We did things differently in the ‘60’s and 70’s, didn’t we? But my mom was in the early wave of environmental awareness.

I never gave it a thought until I lived and studied in France in the 1980's. They had a Green Party pushing environmental issues. I thought it was pretty fringe at the time, but here I am all these years later finally thinking more "Green" in my lifestyle.

I’ve been composting since I finished school and also take as little as possible, a smallish bag at most a week, to the dump, with the rest getting recycled.

There are obviously a few things that I cannot feed to the chickens, recycle or repurpose at home, recycle in the bins, or burn in the fire ring. I'm thinking small stuff like empty aerosol cans, shaving cream cans, etc... What we do is just put them in a small bag and toss them into the trash bin when we go to WalMart or stop to get gas in the car. But I am talking about really small bags like you might have in the car for trash. We maybe have an empty aerosol can maybe once in 3 months. It's not a big deal.

As for the painted pallet, that was part of a load of something we bought at Lowes or Home Depot, so not something I’d have chosen. But it makes a reasonable stand for the grow bags.

Yep, I have a number of pallets sitting on the ground with bags of mulch on them, equipment that I don't want to store on the dirt, etc...

The pink bed made me laugh - I remember my son requesting a lap desk in high school and I called from the store to tell him the only one they had was pink. He said, “Get it. I’m secure in my masculinity.”

No doubt the younger kids have a different view on life. I would not be caught dead with something pink! I suspect it's a generational thing and most guys my age would feel the same.

In any case, all my raised garden beds are made out of natural wood colors, nothing stained, nothing painted. So, any color, pink or otherwise, would look out of place.

 

[Molpet]

I would not be caught dead with something pink! I suspect it's a generational thing and most guys my age would feel the same.

At work the guys would borrow my tools, that the college bought, and forget to return them. We all had our names ingraved on our tools so I would go around the substations looking. I started painting tools and tool buckets pink and purple. I did buy a few pink tools when they started coming out in Menards. Most were jumk. But anyway the pink and purple tended to stay in my tool box and were easy to find.

 

[akroberts1085]

That's hilarious about the pink. My favorite color is pink. My husband bought me a tool set in pink for my birthday. I will definitely get a picture posted. I think that maybe using a mix of food coloring and vinegar could make a nice stain for the pallet beds.