Old Bicycle Garden Planter

We have had this old bicycle in our shed for years!  We 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 as garden decor.

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Old Vintage 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 of our outdoor space looked directly at our neighbor’s pool shed.  Which meant our dogs barked at them every time they walked out to the shed to maintain the pool.

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 of any workers at the pool shed even more.

 

 

These painted fence panels just need decorations and some beautiful flowers to look at through our windows.

 

 

After my husband built the wooden fence panels, I decided 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 deer wandering through the side yard.  Most didn’t survive the winter either.

 

 

A bicycle planter idea is a creative way to make beautiful garden art.

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 the vintage bicycle we had stored in the shed.

 

 

Previously, 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. 

Over time I have created several DIY projects for our outdoor space to save money.  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 a bicycle planter as a garden decoration is a great idea to enhance the whimsical look of this side of the yard. 

But first, I needed to work on the bicycle to give it a new lease of life as a flower planter.

 

 

If I was ever going to ride this bicycle one day, I would need to replace both tires, the chain, and the tubing for the air brakes.  Obviously, that is why we never fixed it up before. 

But to make it a flower planter, all it needed was a decorative basket on the handlebars. 

The first place I looked for a basket for the bicycle was Walmart.  Unfortunately, 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.  

 

 

 

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 handlebar of my bike.  For only $1 it was worth a try.

Now I just needed to make it look more like a rustic bicycle basket for my vision as garden decor.

 

 

Using just a spool of jute twine, I upcycled the $1 Dollar Tree storage basket into a more rustic-looking bicycle basket to be used for garden decor.

 

 

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 inside of the wire basket covered in twine, it needed even more layers, so I repeated the process again all around the outside of the wire basket.  I just kept looping in twine until the storage basket looked 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 easy to attach the lightweight basket to the front of the handlebars 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 through the wax paper for drainage.  Then it was just a matter of adding some plants.  I went with impatiens and sweet potato vines, some of my favorite flowers, because the bicycle was going to be in the shade at the back garden fence most of the time.

 

 

After much thought, I decided that I liked the original blue color of the bicycle so didn’t use spray paint to update the vintage bike even more for this DIY project.  That may change in the future as our outdoor space continues to evolve and change. 

 

 

 

 

 

Antique bikes or any old-style bicycle found at estate sales or great flea market finds can become a quick makeover project for lovely bicycle planters with baskets filled with beautiful flowers.  They make a great focus point of a beautiful garden area against a garden fence. 

 

 

As you can expect, I have a few more garden decor projects I want to complete 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