So we took an old bike that was on it's way out and rescued it from the landfill.
This bike will now live out it's second life as an unconventional planter!
Here's how we did it:
Take your run of the mill junked out bike and clean it up as best you can so that you can apply a primer.
Trust us on this, you don't want to skip this step as daunting as it may seem.
Spray on the primer to the areas that you'll be adding color.
Be liberal with the primer as it will only help your color to go on evenly and with less paint.
Spray on your color when the prime is dry.
Use an old piece of cardboard to sheild any areas from paint that you don't want covered.
Next, you can start planting your basket.
We used:
Filthy Rich Gold Potting Soil
1 1gal Rooster Grass
3 4" Intenze Celosias
2 4" Illumination Vinca
1 molded coco liner
Use the liner to fill the bottom of the basket and act as a base so that your soil
doesn't fall through the wire.
Then fill the liner with soil until you've reached the correct height for the plants you'll be filling in.
Stage the tallest toward the back. In this case, we've divided (cut the root ball in half) the grass to fill the entire back side of the liner. Don't worry, it will recover from the cut.
Next place your medium sized celosia side by side horizontally in front of the grass.
Lastly, place the vinca side by side in front of the celosia and let it spill from the basket.
Make sure to water everything in with Dr. Q's Plant Tonic to avoid the plants going into shock.
For the seat of the bike (that was not there) we placed a 1/2" piece of pvc pipe about a foot long into the pipe where the bike seat would have gone.
This will act as a support for the pot that goes on top of it.
We potted up a beautiful Hacienda Creeper vine and placed the pot onto the pvc pipe, pushing the pipe all the way through the root ball and the soil.
Again, water thoroughly with Dr. Q's Plant Tonic.
Voila!
New life.