Garden Challenge: Wine Bottle Border

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bottle garden outdoors
2 Comments  ·  9 Saves  ·  3 Likes :) I like this
  • wine-bottle-border
    1/2
    A wine-bottle border prevents garden beds from eroding.
  • wine-bottle-border-2
    2/2
    The solar shower that Thomas built stands beyond the bordered tomato beds.
ReadyMade

Posted by ReadyMade  
Project by Annie Thomas; Written by Katherine Sharpe; Photos by Jeffery Salter

In Gainesville, explains Annie Thomas, “it’s either monsoon or drought,” so gardeners need irrigation. She and her husband, Alexis, had been considering putting raised vegetable beds into a corner of their yard left bare by a swimming pool installation, and they’d always wanted an outdoor shower. A hose-fed shower whose graywater irrigates their garden patches accomplishes both missions. The couple poured a concrete pad, built a privacy screen from a metal roofing sheet, and coiled a black garden hose in the sun, which warms enough water for a quick rinse. The shower and garden beds are edged with 489 inverted wine bottles that Thomas collected from friends, restaurants, and wine stores, and half-buried for a neat look that helps prevent soil erosion in damp areas. 

Who: Annie Thomas, 40
Where: Gainesville, Florida
Day job: Science teacher
Why: Take back a patch of lawn wrecked by construction

Skill Level

Very Easy

Active Time

Half a day

Cost

Free

    Materials

  • Wine bottles. Lots of them.

    Tools

  • Soap
  • Steel wool
  • Gardening gloves
  • Shovel
  • Trowel
 
1

Prepare the wine bottles by removing the labels with soap, water, steel wool, and elbow grease.

2

Don your gloves and dig a trench approximately 12–18 inches wide and 6–8 inches deep around the perimeter of the area where you’d like the border. Invert two wine bottles and place them side by side in the trench, tamping soil around them until they remain upright. Continue until finished.

Comments
  • annie
    09/03/2011
    annie
    Flag Comment
    Vieux Bandit- So far, no broken bottles. The bottom is the strongest part, and I made sure to bury way past the necks. I was more concerned about mosquitoes breeding in the water that collects in them, but that hasn't been a problem either.
  • vieux bandit
    06/21/2011
    vieux bandit
    Flag Comment
    In time, won't some bottles break, causing a huge hazard and pain in the #####? (Beautiful though...)
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