Bicycle Planter Garden Feature

Have you seen painted bikes around town? I have seen a few-plus lots of pictures of painted, planted, garden bikes on Pinterest and at last I’ve made one for myself!  Here it is!

We have really being trying to put an effort into our back garden this year. In return we will want to be out there visiting with friends and family. We are off to a good start with our effort to spend a bit of time nearly every day to pull weeds and water the gardens….and spray paint a few things along the way…let me tell you about that!

How to Upcycle a Bike into a Planter!

The first step to this project is to get a used old bike. I have found a few at the used sports store for $30 or more and I thought how sad is it to wreck a good working bike. So I waited to find a cheap one on Kijiji.ca which is a buying and selling website that is very popular in my area. I found this beauty for $15.

If you look closely you can see the rubber on the wheels is actually peeling apart. The bike doesn’t turn right or left so I felt okay about painting it and ending its time on the open roads to be part of my backyard.

Besides the old bike you will also need:

• safety glasses
• a damp rag
• fine sandpaper
• spray paint (2 or 3 cans)
• baskets
• plants
• plastic bag or coconut coir lining
• quality potting soil

To prepare the bike for painting the first thing to do is wipe it down. This bike was covered in dirt and cob webs from the previous owner. Next, using a fairly fine sand paper …100 grit maybe…sand lightly the surface of the metal. This removed some rust on the fender and frame of the bike. You don’t want that in your eyes so pop on a pair of safety glasses first. If you were painting a gorgeous looking bike or a bike you would want to ride around town – you should pay a lot more attention to detail. You would take the wheels off and make sure everything is smooth. However, this bike was already in rough shape so I just gave it another wipe with a damp rag to get the dust off and moved on to the spray paint.

I had a hard time choosing what color to paint it. After much deliberation I decided on this brand “Beauti-Tone” of spray paint in red on some Muskoka chairs and loved how it sprays. I chose a satin “Sunshine” yellow.

Spray paint is amazing for covering over all sorts of blemishes. I had thought that I would peel off the old stickers on it but then couldn’t be bothered and painted right on over it. I used an old sheet for a drop cloth and needed a can and a half of spray paint-so buy 2 cans!

Follow the instructions on your spray paint. Spray paint outdoors if possible on a non breezy day.

Recently I popped into the Goodwill charity shop. I was looking for bowling balls to paint into decorative gazing balls for the garden. (I’m so excited to do that project soon!) That day there was a slew of beautiful baskets and other odds and ends that looked perfect for some of my future projects.

What great finds! Everything I got was around $3 each. These wicker baskets could have been painted to match the bike but I like the natural brown. I just LOVE baskets!

When I was a kid, my grandfather would pop around to our house with a basket whenever he found berries in season or a pie for desert. He would knock at the side door and my sisters and I would run around the house shouting Grampa is here! Such a favorite visitor. He was very generous with his love and baskets of berries. So thoughtful. I think that’s why I love baskets, I love Grampa gifts that come in the baskets!

I thought this basket would be great zip tied to the handle bars or on the luggage rack at the back.

You can’t simply put dirt into the basket because every time it gets watered or rains it will seep through the cracks. Using a natural basket in the sun and rain is going to age it fairly quickly. Before adding the soil you might want to use a clear spray paint on the basket to help it last longer.

You can line the bottom of the basket with a plastic (garbage bag), newspaper or coconut coir liner. If you use plastic there won’t be any drainage allowed so you might want to poke some tiny holes in the plastic. Add some good quality soil and then the plants.

If you can find a pot that fits inside the basket that would be even better for packing things away at the end of the summer.

I was tweaking the photo above and turned the bike vibrant bright yellow. I really like it brighter so I might change it next year to a darker yellow or red. Ooh la la!

When your planters are ready you can you use plastic zip ties to attach each basket to the bike. I also used gigantic zip ties to attach the bike to the fence. I purchased my zip ties from the dollar store. Make sure it is fairly steady. The weight of the dirt in the baskets was surprisingly heavy. I would hate to see the bike topple over in a big wind storm-what a mess! I placed my bike planter right onto a concrete patio, but many put it in the flower gardens. In this case you could dig holes for the wheels and bury the bike a bit so its actually in the ground.

Wondering what I did with the other items on from the thrift store?

I simply glued the silver plated tea pot to a black candle stick with E6000 Glue. Then I took a string of pearls ($1.25 The Dollar Tree) and glued it to the base of the tea pot. Why not?! Express your whimsical self with color and fun items.

Next invite friends over for a backyard visit and root beer float! There are lots of conversation pieces decorating the garden this year. I’ll show you some other things I’ve been up to soon!