How to DIY Raised Garden - Pallet Style

You might like to know that doing this project with pallets saved us about $100 per box.
Here's the breakdown:
Approx $100 dirt
The pallets were free and we spent a few dollars for nails and screws (which we already had on-hand).
Posts cost about $3 each.

The first thing to do when planning how you want your garden boxes is to decide where you want it to go and how big it will be. Since our new backyard is completely unfinished, I've looked at the yard - which way it slopes and where it will be shaded or not in the summer - and I've drawn it all out on graph paper.

After choosing your location, take a look around and make sure that it looks good. We picked the location, dug the holes, and then noticed it was directly under a window. So we had to move the holes over a little bit to center it with the window.

Dig the holes so you can put the posts into the ground one foot deep:

 In our case, center the garden under the window:

Place your four corner posts in the ground and make sure each one is level in all directions:

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the pallets. All you have to do is cut the boards off the pallet and use the salvaged wood to build the garden box however you want to do it. Ron built it in three sections because our garden box is quite wide. He had to reinforce the backside with extra wood on the bottom to hold it all together. He also lined the box with cardboard so the plants won't touch the posts and also to keep the dirt from falling out the cracks in each section.

 Here's a picture from the other direction:

 And the final product - filled with dirt by sunset. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It fits in with the house and I like the rustic look. Now we can plant our peas, carrots and potatoes!

(One other note: we were going to just put the garden box up against the house and then found out that's a bad idea. So we put it one foot away from the house instead).