Pallet Gardening

William Caraher has been recording pallets throughout his travels and, at one point, has even proposed a book on the subject. This spring I noticed for the first time the recycling of pallets into urban gardening. This pallet garden was on the sidewalk of S 700 Front St block, near the Cypriot restaurant Kanella. This trend has been going on for a couple of years in Philadelphia. The South Philly Food Co-Op even offers workshops on pallet gardening.

At the 4800 Baltimore Ave block, you can even see a pallet affixed over a porch railing. The transformation of a horizontal transport element into a vertical gardening container involves one invisible step, the stapling of landscape fabric around the spacings, so that the dirt won't fall down. Websites offer instructions on how to do this in seven easy steps.