Transform An Old Tomato Cage Into A Cool And Refreshing Birdbath For Your Garden

Outdoor décor and garden elements can be expensive when bought new, making DIY versions of things like birdhouses, feeders, and birdbaths far more budget-friendly. These projects often reuse materials you already have in your home and garage for an eco-friendly approach that keeps the items out of landfills while offering plentiful opportunities for customization exactly to your needs. One great project found online again and again uses old tomato cage trellises to create inexpensive and stylish birdbaths that will invite neighborhood wildlife to your yard. All you need for this project is a wire tomato cage, a shallow container slightly wider than the top of the cage, and some water.

This fun and easy charming DIY birdbath can be customized according to what you have on hand and how you'd like the end result to look. Great options for a shallow container include serving platters, vintage dishware, terracotta plant saucers, or wider pie tins. You can even paint the cage and container to blend in (or stand out) among your outdoor plants and décor. Just make sure to use animal-safe paint when DIYing a birdbath for your yard, like the Little Nights brand that can be used on birdcages. This is especially crucial for anything the birds will touch or drink from.

Assembling this birdbath is extremely easy. Push the tomato cage into the ground as you would when placing it around a tomato plant, then rest the shallow container on top of the topmost rung of the cage. If you're worried that the container may blow over in windy weather or get jostled, add some E6000 or another watertight adhesive around the base where the basin sits on the trellis. 

There are many ways to add some extra interest to this basic birdbath, including installing a cordless fountain, like this budget-friendly Solar Fountain Water Pump from Amazon, to keep the water fresh and in motion. This not only means a cleaner, fresher bird bath to attract even more birds to your yard, but it can also keep mosquitoes away. You could also add real vines or faux foliage and flowers around the exterior of the dish to make the bath blend in more with the landscape. If you're using a vintage glass or ceramic tray, build upward with glassware and other dishware attached with E6000 to create levels that birds can land on. Rocks could also be included in the dish for a more natural look. For another cute variation, place the cage in a pot of flowers instead of the ground. Adding red flowers can attract more hummingbirds to your space.