Pedals and Petals: Old bikes in the garden

One item sought out by Flea Market gardeners is an old bicycle planted with cottagey and quaint flowers.  Petunias and geraniums seem to be the favorites, filling the front basket, back racks and even saddlebags.  How fabulous is this?

Some people may ask why you’d want a rusted antique bicycle  featured in your garden, but if you’re on this page, you need not ask why, but where do I get one!!!

How to find your garden bike

Some don’t have to go far to find their ‘garden bikes’ like Nancy K Meyer.  She was using her own childhood bicycle long before she ever found the Flea Market Gardening group.  She has also saved her two daughter’s tricycles for another hosta bed.

Nancy K. Meyer’s own childhood bike, surrounded with cool green hosta.  She says, “This bike was mine as a young girl, …my husband made sunflower from old machinery parts, and old kettle from a dear older neighbor.”

 

 

How to ‘plant’ an old bicycle in your garden

• After finding your bicycle or tricycle, consider the paint finish. Some rusty crusty ‘patinas’ you won’t want to paint, but when the finish is just plain ugly then choose a favorite color to brighten up the scene. If the bike has a pattern with white trim, consider keeping it and just paint the main color.

• Smart gardeners will line baskets with absorbent coco-fiber, sphagnum moss or burlap before planting in a bike basket. If you have a drip watering system, small emitters will insure that your ‘container’ garden survives the hot weather.
• Think about a background for your bicycle, a tree, hedge or fence will provide a neutral backdrop to focus attention on the bike.

• Securing your bicycle is easy! If you don’t have a tree or fence to lean it against, drive a three-four foot long rebar stake and wire the bike to that.  If you’d like to display your bicycle in the front garden,…get out the chain and lock it up! You never know when I might come by with my little pick up truck…
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Audrey Osborn says, “I planted my bike with some petunias. Love everything growing up around it! I have a rusty one set out in the weeds like that but I don’t plant in it, I just might have to this year.”

Filling your bike with flowers

Some bikes have baskets and racks attached.  Then, it’s easy to line the baskets with moss or burlap and add soil and flowers. Soil with moisture conserving crystals will do the trick on hot days.

If your bike doesn’t have any baskets, add wire baskets, small wire mesh trash containers, or wire file baskets to the mental list you keep when thrift and Flea Market shopping. Also check the dollar and import stores.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a bicycle in the garden?  If you do, tell us about it, how you found it and how you set it up.  ~~ Sue