Cruisin'

When I saw this photo of an old bicycle and basket used as a garden planter from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, I knew it would be a great idea in our front yard. I thought it would be super simple...find an old bike, get a basket and fill with plants. As it turns out, old bikes are either a little hard to come by or they are the item of the moment because everything I found in antique stores and online was over $100. For an old, rusty, falling apart bike....I don't think so.

By today, I was ready to give up on the idea but decided to cruise my own bike (with a basket) into Old Roseville to see what I could find and voila! - an old bike right in front of The Tattered House. Turns out, they had just picked it up on a trip to San Diego and hadn't had a chance to do anything with it yet. I was happy enough to snap it up (for way less than $100) and finish my project.

Check out the results - and if you take this project on yourself, keep in mind that the full basket does have some weight to it, so you have to figure out how to anchor everything down - it doesn't just stand all cute on it's own. I used u-shaped stakes between the spokes of the back tire and dug a small trench to sit the front tire into.

Now, I've realized I need some flowers along the edge of the bed to add more color, but my neglected front yard is slowly becoming a bit less neglected with the addition of the cruiser planter.