Garden Bells - Give your Garden a 'Tune-up'!

I love spring.  I love the changes, the greening, the arrival of spring birds, Pussy Willows, and nature walks.  I even like Spring cleanup.  The latter has inspired this blog because while visiting the children's secret garden, I saw what the winter had done in the way of damage.  

One of the casualties was the condition of the garden bells.  These are strings of bells that the children like to swat at while they are playing in the garden.  The strings the bells were attached to (and some of the branches) were worn and dead, respectively.  They needed my attention.

The best time to restore items and plants is, of course, before the full growth returns.  So I got busy taking down the bells, removing the worn string, and giving the bells a nice coat of spray paint for the new year.  I also wanted to look for a stronger rope to rehang the bells.  

I will list my materials below:

-Individual bells (check out your local craft store if this is inspiring you) I had 13   3 -inch tall bells and 9  1.5 inch tall bells.
-Parachute rope (I got mine in a camouflage design so the rope would not stand out so much.
-keyring joiners
-driftwood (for the example in the title picture)
-Twine
-Round circle screws for threading twine through
-Tremclad Hammered spray paint

Directions:

1.  For the hanging bell ropes, I used the spray paint to clean up the appearance of the bells.  They had been really shiny silver but beaten up by the winds. 

 I like this muted look a lot better.

2. 

When they were dry, I made a loop in a 3 ft length of parachute cord and strung my first bell on (about 6 inches from the top of the cord).  I knotted the cord there and strung another bell, repeating this until I had the look and length I wanted.  
I got three strings with 13 larger bells and 5 smaller bells.  I had  4 small bells leftover for a special gift for my daughter's garden.

3.  For the driftwood hanger, I screwed in 4 circle screw hooks somewhat evenly on the bottom and one on the top middle.  I hung the bells on the round circles with keyring joiners (they were already on the bells) and put twine through the top circle, knotting the two ends together.




I hope this inspires you to add some sweet tunes to your garden.  The child in you will love it!