I Love Wine and Wine Bottles! How to make a Wine Bottle Flower Bed Border

Yes, I love wine.  Most of my friends love wine too.  Therefore, I have a glut of empty wine bottles laying around because I am way too environmentally conscious to throw them away and the recycling center is all the way across town.  My front junk room office became choked with box after box of empties.  So, what's a girl to do?

Build a Wine Bottle Border for my herb garden!

What you will need:

Stakes and String
Wine Bottles
Level
Shovel
Hoe or Rake
Rubber Mallet



The hardest part of this project is getting the darn labels off.  Let me tell you, I tried everything short of setting the bottles on fire and burning them off!  After a bit of research I found several posts saying that Baking Soda would do the trick.  For four hours I had the bottles soaking in warm water and Baking Soda while I scrubbed the labels off with an old putty knife.  The Baking Soda worked well for most labels but there were a few stubborn ones (on the cheap bottles) that I had to use Goof Off on.  I mixed about a cup of Baking Soda to a sink of hot water and let them soak for 15 minutes before I began scrubbing.


Choose your spot wisely.  The first step after choosing your location is either measuring or laying out your bottles to see how many you need.

Then you dig a trench 6 inches wide and  8-10 inches deep along the whole line where your border will go.

Once you have your trench dug, use a rake or hoe to break up the excavated soil really well and put it back into the trench, packing it loosely.  Following your string line gently press the bottles, neck side down into the trench. (If your ground is very hard and dry, you can fill your trench with water and let it soak in to soften the soil before placing your bottles.)  Use a level to be sure they are all even across the top.  You can use a rubber mallet to gently tap them into place if needed.  Once they are all positioned, be sure to firm up the soil on both sides of the bottles.

For goodness sake, install two stakes and some string to keep your line straight!  I had to redo mine after I realized I had derailed from the plan by trying to eyeball the line.

Once done you will have a creative and decorative border to show off to all of your friends while sparing the environment and turning trash into something useful.  I think adding some light behind the bottles for nighttime might be neat.  What do you think?

I would love to hear your creative uses for old wine bottles.  Please leave me ideas in the comments section.  Happy digging!