We make original crafts from plastic bottles for the garden with our own hands

What is needed

For creativity, you need scissors, double-sided tape, glue, metal wire and a mini drill. Depending on the size of the products, one craft takes from several hours to several days. Larger-scale projects that combine a couple of dozen decorative elements require preliminary preparation of PET containers. These can be regular 1.5 liter soda bottles and are the best choice for making lambs, tigers, frogs and kittens. Five-liter vessels are more suitable for flowerpots and flower beds. If you need to assemble a human figure with your hands, you will definitely need plastic buckets or cans with a capacity of 20 liters.

Since plastic products are weather-resistant and non-corrosive, they can be used anywhere. Other benefits include:

• a light weight;
• maintainability;
• malleability to processing by any available means;
• good adhesion to other polymeric materials;
• long period of outdoor use;
• the ability to create volumetric figures without injuries;
• 100% environmental friendliness of products, proven by scientists from the Institute of Technology and Packaging named after Fraunhofer in Germany back in 2004.

On the Internet, 1.5-liter plastic bottles are sold for 8-10 rubles apiece. When ordering from 500 items, the prices are half.

Video "Bird feeder from a plastic bottle"

From this video you will learn how to make a bird feeder from a plastic bottle with your own hands.

Functional products

PET containers make original flower beds, fences, bird feeders and even garden chairs. The minimum project budget is 850 rubles. If you calculate the costs of the same items purchased in the store, the savings are 55%.

Flowerpots and pots

Volumetric decorative vases are home to most of the lush shrubs in the country. As a basis, you can take a bottomless barrel or, for example, a flexible polycarbonate sheet. Next, you need to fill the bottles with sand and lay them in a checkerboard pattern using cement mortar. The bottom should be covered with ash, and earth should be poured on top. From the inside, the finished flowerpot can be decorated with colored glass or pebbles.

If you cut off the lower part of the vessel and cut out the ears along the contour, you get a funny pots in the form of a cat. The eyes and antennae can be drawn with a marker. After that, you need to make holes on the sides of the craft and use ropes to fix it in the window openings of the gazebo. Small-flowered heuchera, fragrant lavender, ivy and petunias are suitable as plants.

Flower beds and flower beds

The horizontally placed bottles are an exquisite enclosure for any flower garden. Several hundred 2-liter containers, cement mortar and old tires are useful in the work. The latter serve as a support for 1.5-meter structures.

If the garden is dominated by low-growing plants, in particular primroses, irises or marigolds, the bottles should be placed vertically.We bring to your attention step-by-step instructions for fencing:

1. Rinse and dry identical vessels.
2. Dig a rectangular trench 15–20 cm deep.
3. Place the pre-painted bottles in the ground.
4. Fill the gaps between the structural elements with colored stones or clay.

If you have a large number of bottles, the front garden can be decorated with artificial plants of different shapes and colors. They do not need to be watered or thinned out, which is especially important for people who do not know a lot about caring for fresh flowers.

Furniture

Outdoor sofas made of natural rattan cost from 5 to 7 thousand rubles. But for the same money, you can buy several rolls of glass wallpaper for interior decoration, and make furniture from ordinary bottles. It is better to give preference to 2-liter vessels with tight lids, and in order to avoid technical errors, study the craft scheme in advance.

Each bottle must be cut in half, then the upper parts of the products must be inserted into the lower ones. Wrap the completed "bricks" with tape, thus forming 4 sofa blocks. At the end of the work, it must be sheathed with foam rubber or soft fabrics.

By the same principle, you can make a swing chair, ottoman, table and stool.

Alcove

You can't completely build a building out of bottles. In order for it to withstand heavy winds, it will have to form a solid frame from wooden planks or metal pipes. And only after that you can start installing the walls of 1.5-liter vessels with the necks down.

A wire should be fixed on the upper harness, then the required number of bottles should be strung on it, and at the end - connected to the lower harness. So you need to act until you get a full-fledged wall that can withstand a shed roof made of polycarbonate or reeds.

Fence

Self-tapping screws, construction glue, a hammer and a screwdriver are useful in the work. Crossbars and pillars can be made of wood, and 2-liter bottles can be taken as a decorative base at the rate of 6 pcs. for 1 picket fence. Then we proceed step by step:

• we make holes in the bottles so that the wire can be inserted;
• we form a frame of 50–70 vessels of the same shape and color;
• we weld or fasten the finished spans to wooden supports;
• we paint over each element of the structure with an acrylic compound that is resistant to ultraviolet radiation.

Birdhouse

Artificial nesting can be made in a few hours. This requires 3 plastic bottles, pliers, scissors, sandpaper, hot glue and pin pins. A mini drill can be used to make neat holes in the caps. In the absence of a professional tool, any metal cutting device will do.

First you need to make a hook for the birdhouse using wire. Then cut off the tops from the two bottles and prepare the base for the roof. After it falls into place, small gaps will appear, which will have to be hidden with a third bottle.

At the very end, it is important to make a hole for the perch, install the pin and once again fix the structural elements with hot glue. The surface of the product can be painted with paints together with children.

Drip irrigation

Plastic irrigation systems promote the rapid development of plants in vegetable gardens and greenhouses. At the same time, their owners do not need to weed the beds every day and bring water under each nightshade bush. Constant control over the state of the future harvest is needed only in the heat.

For a completely open area, a lid-up sprinkler system will work. It can be made from a 5-liter eggplant, puncturing from 8 to 10 small holes in the bottom of the vessel. The narrowing part of the bottle should rise above the ground, so a hole should be made near the cucumber lashes. Then you need to put a tissue-wrapped eggplant there, fill it with water and close it with a lid.

To prevent the container from deforming, it must be regularly filled with liquid.

Decorative crafts

This is the most original version of the decor of garden and park areas and outdoor terraces. For example, windows in a half-open gazebo can be decorated with plastic curtains, and figurines of mermaids, pirates, elves and unicorns will look good on the playground. The shelf life of such open-air crafts often exceeds 10-12 years.

Birds

If you need to decorate the entrance to the main building, make swans or peacocks out of bottles. Graceful birds with large wings and fluffy tails will become a worthy decoration of a pond, the area around a fountain or a flower garden.

It is better to "settle" wise owls in the front garden, symbolizing secret knowledge. To make a night predator, you will need 5-liter bottles and plastic cans. The convex part of the bottoms will serve as the basis for voluminous feathers, and the claws can be formed from aluminum wire.

Now let's look at the stages of the craft in more detail:

1. We form the frame of the owl using a chain-link mesh and a transparent eggplant. The 5 liter container is ideal for breasts.
2. We sew the paws and attach the feathers to the base with wire.
3. We make the body ovoid, and leave the back open for further fixation of the flying organs.
4. We strengthen the homemade structure with PVC pipes.
5. We attach a head made of foam plastic with a thickness of at least 12 cm to the central part of the body. For a wide nape, you will need an additional 5 liter bottle.

At the last stage, the bird is painted and the installation of the tail is completed. Beads are needed to imitate keen eyes.

Trees

A wooden stick with a thickness of at least 2 cm will serve as a frame for a New Year's tree, and the largest bottom will be needed for a stand. First you need to prepare 10 to 30 identical bottles. It is necessary to separate the lower part of the products with a clerical knife and cut 2 cm strips from them for twigs. The area around the neck must remain intact.

Neat cuts are left on the sides of each line. The "needles" obtained in this way are bent. Do the same with other PET containers. Then the finished elements are strung with the neck down on the frame. A hole is made in the left bottom to fix the green beauty with nails and a cork. In the same way, they strengthen the base from above.

For a small 1.5-meter palm, you need 40 brown bottles and about 20 green ones. The frame can be made from wire, and the branches from cork. To imitate bananas, you need yellow vessels with a capacity of 0.5 liters.

Animals

For a bunny figurine, you need 2 bottles. A five-liter vessel is for the torso, and a two-liter one is for the ears. To prevent the craft from being blown away by the wind, the container must be filled with sand or water. First, the ears are cut out on the smaller bottle, leaving about 5 cm of plastic for further attachment to the head. The eyes, mouth and teeth of a hare are drawn on a large eggplant. At the very end, the dried parts are connected, and the finished figurine is installed in the garden. Similarly, you can make a pig, a raccoon and a cat.

The figurines can be placed on a tree, fence or porch. So that the painted elements are not exposed to the negative effects of ultraviolet radiation, the crafts are varnished.

Flowers

Plastic bottles make beautiful roses, lilies, poppies, lotuses and freesias. In the work, you can use vessels of different shapes and shades.

At the first stage, you need to cut the inflorescences, stems and leaves according to the template. Make holes in the center of the blanks, and process the outer part of the plants with a candle flame. To attach the outer shoots made of plastic, you will need electrical tape. To make the flowers look as realistic as possible, they should be painted in several layers with waterproof compounds.

Such crafts can decorate the walls of the gazebo, garden fence, area near the fountain and even the roof of the main building in the country.