Trimming my waste: Week 21 (bottle borders)

Goals - Week 21:

• Never stop being inspired by what I see around me 
• Pause. Notice. Share.
• But be real about upcycling. Most ideas have their pros and cons.

This past weekend was a long, sunny one. Four days off work... and Chicago was celebrating the beginning of summer and Memorial Day. On Saturday afternoon, I still had no idea what this week's post would be about. I really didn't want to be inside making, or photographing, something. I certainly didn't want to be staring at a screen doing research. And then, wondering down an alley behind a residential condo building, I happened upon this vegetable garden. And because I was with a pro photographer, I have beautiful pictures to share with you! 

I've seen lots of images on Pinterest of gardens edged in bottles. And I've always thought it looked good. Seeing it in person, I have to tell you, it's better than good looking. It's really beautiful; especially when it's done as well as this one is. The beds are laid out beautifully. And the bottles also serve to anchor an irrigation system that strikes me as pretty damn sophisticated for an urban, alley, veggie patch!

Other pros to wine-bottle garden edges?

• Great way to repurpose a glut of bottles (and not just wine bottles)
• Apparently the small amounts of water that collect in the bottles turn them into butterfly water stations!
• they LOOK really pretty in the sun
• it's a really easy DIY - here's the video to prove it

For more info from someone who loves her wine-bottle garden edging, read this. 

The cons then. Well, I'm no gardener but these do sound like real concerns:

• Glass deteriorates in the sun and with fluctuating temps. If you're using them around a vegetable garden, broken glass will be a real risk once they've withstood a season or two.
• Any kind of edging like this makes it harder to kneel at the edge of the garden to work
• After a winter of real snow, nice tidy lines are no more. You have to be ready to put everything back in order... and look out for cracked glass. 

More from someone who's not such a fan of this idea. 

Images: John Sisson Photography

So there are pros and cons. But it looks really good, right?  And did you notice the old tire that's now a strawberry patch? 

Have any of you tried this? How did it go?