Old Bicycle Garden Planter

We have had this bicycle in our shed for years!  We actually purchased it from our church rummage sale for around $7 for our daughter – before she could drive – and just never did anything with it.  She never begged to have it fixed up to ride it either that summer and so it got pushed to the back of the shed.  I finally had my husband pull it out so that I could use it for a while as garden planter and decor.

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Old Bicycle Upcycled to a Garden Planter

 

 

In some previous and older posts of mine, I have shared photos showing how our view from the sun porch was directly on our neighbor’s pool shed, which meant our dogs barked at them every time they walked out to set the pool chemicals and adjustments.  Our neighbors were frustrated with the barking, we were frustrated with the constant barking, and I’m sure the dogs were confused at us yelling at them to stop barking.  Our solutions were to first put up privacy screens on the sliding glass doors.  Later we decided to build fence panels to hide the activity or workers at the pool shed.

 

 

These painted fence panels just need decorations to look at through our windows.

 

 

After building the fence panels, I decided late last summer to put in some landscaping and flower beds.  I never shared this project on the post because most of the plants got pulled up and eaten by the deer wandering through the side yard or didn’t survive the winter.

 

Whimsical garden decor is so fun in a garden.

This Spring we finally got a few plants that came back, like our hosta plants and azaleas, so I think the flower bed may one day be a beautiful setting.  This encouraged me to finally add some fun garden decor to the area, which included this bicycle we had in the shed.

 

 

Last summer we found these metal painted stars at a thrift store for $2 each.  Luckily there were three of them and we added one to each fence panel.  I also brought back out the DIY Upcycled Bird Bath I made last summer for the area.  Across from these fence panels, is the fence for the dog pen and that is where I have hung the Upcycled Bird Feeder I made earlier this Spring.  So, adding in the bicycle planter this weekend just adds to the whimsical look to this side of the yard.  But first, I needed to do some work to the bicycle to make it a planter.

 

 

If I was going to actually ride this bicycle one day, I would need to replace both tires, the chain, and the tubing for the air brakes.  Maybe that is why we never fixed it up before.  But to make it a planter, it needed a basket on the handle bars too.  It never had one before.

The first place I looked for a basket for the bicycle was Walmart, but all of their baskets were plastic ones for little girl bikes.  Next I looked on Amazon and for the look I hoped for, the baskets cost over $30.  Nope – not going to spend $30 on a basket for a bike I only paid $7 for in the first place.  Besides, I wasn’t even sure I wanted it in the garden after all.

 

Buy Your Crafting Supplies Now at The Dollar Tree!

 

On a trip to the Dollar Tree, for a different project, I found a small wire and plastic coated storage basket that was a great size to fit on the handle bar of my bike.  For only a $1 it was worth a try.

Now I needed to make it look more like a rustic basket.

 

 

Using just a spool of jute twine and some time, I recreated the $1 Dollar Tree basket in to a more rustic looking basket for a planter.

 

 

Starting at the top edge of the wire basket, I tied off the end of a cut length of jute twine.  Then I looped the twine back and forth through the holes in the basket, repeating the step with new cut pieces of twine all around the basket.  Each time I needed a new piece of twine, I would tie it to the end of another piece and keep the process going.

 

 

When I got the entire wire basket covered in twine, it needed even more, so I repeated the process again all around the outside of the wire basket until it look more like a rustic basket for the bicycle planter.

This process was a little tedious but something you can easily do in under an hour while watching something on Netflix.

 

 

Once I had a more rustic looking basket by wrapping it in jute twine, it was very easy to attach the lightweight basket to the front of the handle bars with zip ties.

 

 

To actually be able to plant something in the wire basket, I covered the bottom of the basket with wax paper and poked holes in the bottom for drainage.  Then it was just a matter of adding some plants.  I went with inpatients and sweet potato vines because the bicycle planter was going to mostly be in the shade at the fence.

 

 

The ground around the flower bed was very soft so I wasn’t able to set up the bicycle using the kick stand.  I finally had to brace the bicycle against the fence for support.

I like the original blue color of the bicycle so decided not to paint it in the end.

 

 

 

 

For a few dollars and some time, I was finally able to reuse an old bicycle for a garden planter.

 

 

I have a few more garden decor projects I want to complete this summer and finally finishing this old bicycle garden planter was a good place to start.

 

 

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”

Psalm 31:30