I don't know about you but I have had spring fever since the middle of February. Our grass is finally green the poppies are starting to grow. I am itching to plant some flowers in our flower pots. The lilac bush is in full bloom and my little mint patch is starting to grow, which brings us to today's upcycled project.
I love the smell of mint and the bees that it attracts to our yard. Maybe this year I will even use some of it to make a mojito or some mint tea. Anyway, for the first part of the summer it grows nicely in its little designated corner of our yard but somewhere along the way it get a bit too tall for it's own good and flops over onto the flagstone in a pitiful little mess. Last summer I was determined to get some wire fencing to reign it in but I never got around to it.
A few days ago I decided to try to upcycle something to manage my mid-summer mint monster.
Here is what I came up with.
Upcycled Garden Edging from Wire Hangers
For this upcycling project you will need.
6 wire hangers per section (I needed 3 sections for this project)
Some low gauge wire (I used florist wire)
Wire cutters
Needle nose pliers
Tin can lids, bottle caps, Hot glue and or E-6000 Glue (optional)
Step 1 - Basic shape - Link the hanger hooks through each other to hold the two hangers together.
Step 2 - Lay a duplicate hanger pair next to first pair.
Step 3 - Lay two more hangers on top and bottom of shape.
Step 4 - Use twist ties to hold corners and center section together. Don't worry about securing tightly or lining up corners and edges with the twist ties. Starting with the corners secure with low gauge wire lining up corners and edges as you go.
Step 5 - Then secure the center pieces to the top and bottom hangers. At this point you may need to pull on the corners to get the hangers into a more square shape. Once the hanger shape is fairly square you may want to secure some additional points with more wire.
Step 6 - Use needle nose pliers to crimp the hanger hooks into a tighter c shape.
Step 7 - I needed my edging to be curved so I used the needle nose pliers to bend the top and bottom piece of my fencing. This is the first section that I completed.
Some of my hangers were different sizes so I had to improvise a little bit and my center section ended up a little taller than the two side sections.
Step 8 - Cut the bottoms off of hangers using wire cutters to make the spikes. (I only used three on mine) Use the needle nosed pliers to bend a hook shape at the top.
Step 9 - Hook the spike to the middle (top to bottom) of the fencing where two of the sections meet.
Step 10 - The spike piece should be at least 3-4 inches longer then the fencing. Use wire to attach the spike to the fencing and to hook the sections of the fencing together. Repeat until all sections are attached together and have spikes to secure them into the ground.
Step 11 - You could stop at this point but in the spirit of upcycling I decided to see what else I could use on my project. I decided on bottle caps and tin can lids. I used my hot glue gun to secure the wires to the backs and then wired the items on to my fencing.
One note on the glue. In some cases as I was wiring the items onto the frame, the hot glue didn't hold up so I used E-6000 glue to repair the glue job. I am not sure how well either of these will hold up in the great outdoors but time will tell :-)
Happy Upcycling
(Don't forget Monday is Earth Day)