Bottle Tree...

Many years ago when we lived in Memphis, I was at a customers house and saw what he called, "poor mans stained glass." He had taken the trunk of a cedar tree, trimmed the branches so that they were 4-6 inches long, then inserted antique bottles on some/many of the branches. The light danced happily on the multicolored bottles and I thought to myself, "Someday I am going to have one of these." Fast forward to this year. After Christmas I scurried around and collected a number of discarded Christmas trees. The goats were delighted by them, nibbling off all the needles and some of the bark. This week I was gathering the poor, naked things to put on our burn pile and I thought, "This trunk is really pretty, even though it is naked. It would make a great bottle tree!" So I nipped off the branches with my trusty garden wackers and then... I gathered up a selection of old bottles from the front porch, and... With the help of my daughter dug a nice little hole to "plant" the tree in. Then we got busy... This is a work in progress, I want to rearrange a bit and add more bottles, but I am pleased with the effort and had fun. It is nice to know, too, that the Christmas tree served many uses! Holiday decoration, goat fodder, and now garden art!