Flickr Finds: Recycled materials in the Garden

Earlier today we blogged making a garden path of stepping stones. Surfing flickr, we came across another intriguing pathway, this one made from bottles that have seemingly been pressed into the ground, leaving their bottoms up. It's a pathway in Bella Madrona, the five-acre Oregon garden of Jim Sampson and Geoff Beasley that is the inspiration for the Pink Martini song, The Gardens of Sampson and Beasley. We also think, as we move from Garden Month here at AT to Green Month, that it's the inspiration for what can be done with found objects and imagination...

Bicycle tyre chairs

Named Madona, after the native trees, it consists of swamp, woods, meadow and a dry hillside with each section in the garden offering lush plantings that ebb and flow with the change of the seasons. Dotted with artistic and whimsical flourishes, including sculptures made of recycled materials and these chair constructed from bicycle tyres, it's an extravagant garden that works in harmony with nature.

A sculpture made of recycled materials

[Images via Christmas w/a K 's Flickr, with a Creative Commons License]

Comments (7)

I'm all for recycling, but I'm afraid the bottles look like garbage there to me. I think a plain natural path woud have been nicer looking!

Doesnt' look easy to walk on, but then I'm a born klutz.

I'm afraid the bottles would start a fire in a really hot and dry environment.

I think you can avoid the risk of fire by only using green or other dark-glass bottles.

As K T G already mentioned, the path will get really slippery when wet.

The other problem could be the stability of the bottoms. In gardens you often use things that are hard and/or heavy (Shovels, planting pots). And i don't want to have broken glass in my garden.

On the other hand: You would have to give a lot of partys with lots of booze to get enough bottles for a whole garden path ;-)

I can see the potential with the glass bottles. The geometry and the colors are nice. It might look neat in a garden bed?

How about bottle trees, like in the rural South? How about turning them in for recycling?

Like the chairs, the rest looks like old junk.