This is such an amazing idea. I love it, and can’t wait to get started on this in my own garden.
Living in the south I LOVE the bottle trees all over (so much so that I painted one!) and this is another cool way to extend that funky vibe along the border of your garden. And bonus, it’s a great eco-friendly way to recycle your wine bottles and other glass bottles, and double bonus, create an artistic and unique garden edging for FREE!!!!
So whether you love this because if the beauty of it, or because of the eco-friendlyness of it, or because of the cost-effectiveness of it, you just can’t lose.
I first heard of this idea from Melanie, so I invited her to stop by my blog today to share a bit about how she created hers. These lovely images are from her own garden!
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- First, collect the wine bottles.
- I took the gradual approach and collected a few at a time. On the night before our neighborhood recycling pick up, my daughter and I would collect a dozen or so bottles from different houses. Soon the word got out that we were collecting wine bottles and the empties were simply delivered to our door!
Personally, I prefer the bottles without the labels, so I soaked the bottles and scraped the labels offer with a dull kitchen knife. It’s fine to leave some adhesive goo behind, since it won’t show up in the ground. Labels, however, seem to stay on forever.
- Creating the garden border was easier than you’d think. I dug an eight to six inch trench and stuck the bottles in the ground upside down. I used the loose soil to adjust the depth of the bottles so that they ended up 3 – 4 inches above ground.
- Some height is nice, so you can actually see the bottles. The more glass you have exposed, the more prone the glass is to breakage. Even so, I’ve only broken one or two bottles in the 4 years since I installed the wine bottle border. It’s no big deal to replace the bottle.
- I like the look of the darker glass, but the lighter glass (from white wine bottles) encourages the growth of some stray plants inside them.
- You can be more precise than me, but I like the variety. All in all, it took me a couple of months to accumulate the bottles and only an hour or so to install. Enjoy!”
- Check out Diane’s idea of using a Rain Chain to collect free, fresh rainwater…
- and Natasya’s idea of using vertical space in your garden…
- and these fantastic garden eye candy ideas from Diane and Gabrielle, along with tips on organic gardening by Elania!
