Easter bounty

... Easter weekend has just begun

Easter eggs, Swiss chocolate and a house (and garden) oozing with family from all over the place are not the only joys at this time of the year. All that quaffing of wine under the trees and around the fire pit produces a bounty: a great big crop of wine bottles for the vegetable garden.

I started planting wine bottles in what would become the vegetable garden years before we actually moved into this house. So there must be thousands of bottles there now – and this project is still not complete.

Some of my friends keep their bottles for me, and even dump them over the fence when they are in the area. I don’t allow “anonymous” bottles – those from a pub, for example – into the garden. I like to think that each one contains a story for me or someone I care about.

More than a pretty face

They are buried neck first to a depth of about a third of the bottle. Of course, I think they are very pretty indeed, especially when the light catches them. This is why only coloured bottles are allowed. 

But they do more than please my eye. Packed close together, the bottles form a brilliant edging for the beds, holding in the soil and compost.

A fabulous and unforeseen benefit of all these upside-down wine bottles is that they are believed to keep moles away. I read this somewhere fairly recently, and I think it actually works. Apparently, they don’t like the sound that is created underground when the wind hits the bottles.

And as K, my bang-broek (scaredy pants) sister from Geneva, points out with a big smile, snakes can’t slither on glass. Or can they? 

Now if only someone would figure out a way to get a bottle or two to grow …