making landscaping beautiful and beneficial

If you love wine, you know there's nothing like opening a new bottle and enjoying the aroma and taste. Once you've enjoyed the wine, the bottle can still serve a great purpose around your home and garden. In fact, you can use those bottles to create an herb garden, to hang in various spots to enhance your landscape. This guide will show you all the required steps for completing this fun project. 

Step 1: Collect the Needed Supplies

• newspaper
• a tape measure
• a bottle cutter
• a wine bottle
• jute
• a wine cork
• a rubber mallet
• a marker

Step 2: Set Up Your Workspace

Lay out the newspaper to cover your workspace. This project can create a little bit of a mess, so the newspaper makes the clean-up process simple. Make sure that you have all the supplies within reach, so your project can go quickly and smoothly.

Step 3: Cut the Bottle

Cut the wine bottle using the bottle cutter. Depending on the size of your bottle and how you want it to look, the location of your cuts may vary. Use the tape measure and marker to mark the space just a couple of inches from the bottom of the bottle, and make your cut there.

Step 4: Cut Pieces of Jute

Cut the jute into several long pieces that reach around the bottle and hang down several inches, so that you can create the handles. Fold two of these pieces in half, and then place them around the neck of the bottle. Fasten them with a regular knot.

Take two more pieces and repeat the same process just below the neck. Continue placing pairs of jute on the bottle, working your way down from the neck, and leaving just a small space between the pieces of jute.

Step 5: Knot the Jute

Take two pieces of jute that are hanging next to each other and knot them together. Continue tying adjacent pieces of jute around the bottle. This motion creates a pattern around the bottle. Once you reach the bottom of the bottle, braid the remaining jute. Tie the braids together to create a handle from which to hang the bottle upside down.

Step 6: Insert the Wine Cork

Place the wine cork in the mouth of the bottle and use the rubber mallet to tap it into place. Be gentle with the mallet because very little force is required.

Step 7: Plant Your Herbs and Hang the Planter

Pour some potting soil into the bottle, insert your herb plant, and cover with more potting soil.

Hang your herb planter on your fence, patio or any other area of your landscape where you feel it looks good. Water your herb plant according to its specific needs.

Expect this process to require patience and precision. The knots you tie with the jute will be critical to the decorative appeal of the herb garden as well as the security of the hanging bottles. Ask a landscape professional, like those at Glynn Young's Landscaping & Nursery Center for tips for planting; growing and picking the herbs that come from your wine bottle planter.