Sharptop Visionary Garden| The Bottle Wall/Bench

There it is.....
the air conditioning unit
that needs to be hidden.
We're going to make a wall from recycled
bottles that will also serve as a bench.

We need to pour a footer before
we could make the wall. It will
be the width of a wine bottle since
that's what we're making the wall from.

Check out our garden!
The plants are filling in nicely.
The bottle wall will make a nice addition!

We dug a trench roughly 4 inches deep
and the width of a wine bottle. It's almost
ready for cement!

We embedded rebar in the cement.
This will help add stability and strength
to the wall. Now it
will cure for two weeks before
we add the bottles.

We begin adding the bottles to form
the wall. They were recycled from a local restaurant.
If building a wall for a building that needs
insulative value, this is not the way you'd
build your wall. You'd make bottle bricks that
are sealed to hold air and allow light
to pass through.

We secured the bottles with cement.
It's really easy ~ simply layer the cement and bottles,
making sure that everything stays tight.

Check it out!
What a crew!
It's almost done!

The end of the wall was a challenge.
We used vertical bottles to finish
the ends of the wall, but it was tough
to keep them in place.
It was worth it because
it looks great!

Our team's putting on the vinishing touches.
It looks terrific!
We put stones on top to make a
smooth siting area.

It's important to clean as you go.
It's really diffincult to clean chunks
of cement once its cured.
So clean the big pieces of cement
as you go. But you can scrub the bottoms with
some steel wool to once the cement's dried
make them shine!

What a day! The wall's almost
done! The bucket is holding up the
botles at the end.

On day one, we focused
on setting all the bottles.
However, their necks were left exposed.
These could break off causing a
safelty hazzard. So tomorrow,
we'll fill in the back with cement.

The bottle necks look really neat.
It's unfortunate that they need to be covered.
But the extra cement will also add
lots of structural stability.

We begin filling in the back with cement.
We've got to start at the bottom and
work our way up, packing cement between
the bottles as we go.

Check it out!
We have a wall/bench!
And now the bottles are all shiny!

We installed tunnels every few
feet along the bottom of the wall. This will
enable water to flow through when it rains.

The end of the wall turned out beautifully!
It was a challenge to set the vertical bottles, but
they worked wonderfully!

The back is all filled in!
We left the very end of some of the necks
popping through so folks could see
how we built the wall.

All done!
This wall is solid!
The bottle necks are protected
and all holes are filled!

Check it out!
The wall's done and is
lookin' good!

Wow! What a difference!
The wall looks so much better
than the air conditioning unit.
And now there's a nice place for folks
to sit and enjoy the garden!