Beer Bottle Border

I think it all started with a conversation with my neighbor about my bottle tree. Anyway, she was telling me that she had seen flower bed borders in Italy that were created from wine bottles. The bottles were buried about half of the way, top down, into the ground along a garden edge to create the border.

Well, I just knew I had to take this idea and run with it. I love my wine, however I always drink the really fine wine that comes in a carton with the tap to prevent oxidation; therefore, I did not have a good source of wine bottles from which to work. However, I do like beer and I like it in a bottle; one of the greatest pleasures in the world is an ice cold beer after cutting the grass on a hot summer day.

Ironically, about this same time, my local recycling service quit collecting glass- so I just started saving the bottles that would otherwise have gone into my recycle bin. After a while, I figured it was time to proceed with this new project.

I had scouted out the perfect location - an area that ran parallel to my fence that separated some garden beds from my vegetable garden. I had stepping stones here already and I felt I needed a border to better define the area.

I got out my hole-diggers and dug a little trench about 5 inches deep and inserted the bottles top down. I then filled in the spaces between the bottles with the extra dirt. It took a couple of rains for the dirt to settle well in between the bottles, but I am pleased with the end result. I did not have enough bottle to do the entire area on my first run - but all the more reason to have another beer and save the bottle!

I usually drink either Corona Light (a clear bottle) or Amstel Light ( a brown bottle). I decided to just stick with the brown bottles for this project. Certainly, a nice imported beer gives my border a little more class! Really, I think green bottles would be prettiest.

Incidentally, when reading a book, African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South, I discovered that my idea is not so original. Blue and brown snuff bottles, brown Clorox bottles and soda bottles filled with colored liquid were used to line the walkways in African-American yards in the rural south.

From the kitchen

No, I'm not sharing a favorite recipe. Anyone that has ever eaten my cooking is thankful. While I'm not an accomplished chef, I detest fast food, junk food and TV dinners. After years of being a road warrior, I prefer to eat in rather than eat out. Since my Mama lives too far away for me to pop in at supper time, I somehow manage to do okay in the kitchen - at least I can eat it.

This past winter, after cooking some beef stew, I saved the carrot tops. I tucked them into my garden in some of the more bare spots left from my unsuccessful attempt at growing lettuce and brussel sprouts. (I don't really think they are genetically designed to live happily in Coastal Zone 9). A few weeks later, I saw green peeping through and fortunately remembered the carrots before I hit them with Round-up. Now, I have one carrot plant this is almost as tall as I and several more that are trying to catch up with it.

I made one unsuccessful attempt at growing carrots before. I am not really sure when to harvest -if there is indeed anything to harvest (which I can't know without pulling them up out of the ground). I've decided to let them be until the foliage begins to deteriorate - and then see just what is growing under there. If anyone has, any advice, I welcome it!

One addiction I have learned to overcome is planting the seed from avocados. I absolutely love avocados and I like to plant what I love to eat. I didn't think any of them would survive. We get a hard freeze every couple of years -and it is usually enough to erode any progress any seed has every made. However, I went through a spell where I had avocado trees all over the place. Now, one must be at least 20 feet tall. A few didn't survive, but I have three trees in all. I quit planting the seed. My yard is not that big. I have yet to have any blooms or fruit, but I remain optimistic. Even if they never produce, there is a satisfaction that comes from seeing the results of minimal effort and my kitchen recycling.

My next goal is to start recycling my leftovers into a compost pile - or a worm farm, something I want to investigate and learn a little more about.