Fun and Functional Garden DIY: Blooming Door Knob Hose Guards

Happy Monday, I hope you a good weekend! Mine was productive, finishing up a fun project for the garden, Blooming Door Knob Hose Guards! I’ve been looking for hose guards to add to the garden beds and along the paths around the Potting Shed. All the hose guards I’ve found have been either too pricey or a little too kitschy.

I decided to make hose guards with a little help from my hubby and some inspiration from some metal flowers I found while shopping at Hobby Lobby. These hose guards are both fun and functional, protecting the flowers in the garden beds from being crushed from the weight of the hose, while adding a little whimsy and serving as garden art!

I started with some vintage door knobs. You can find old door knobs at flea markets, antique malls, and on eBay, paying as little or as much as your budget allows. The single door knobs I picked up without spindles, ranged from $3 -$5.

The door knobs function as finial inserted on top of a piece of rebar, that’s sleeved with a piece of copper pipe. The rebar is hammered into the ground and left slightly longer than the copper pipe placed over it. The pipe keeps the hose from catching and spins as the hose is pulled by while you’re watering.

You could use the door knobs by themselves as a decorative finial for the copper pipe, but I decided to gild the lily ;) by adding flower petals to create a blooming hose guards.

You can find rebar in the building section of the home improvement store. It comes in different lengths and diameters. I used 3/8 inch by 2 foot pieces of rebar from Lowe’s that were $1.48 each.

To attach the door knobs to the rebar, my husband used his bench grinder. Bench grinders are used for sharpening, shaping and grinding tools and other manly projects.

It only took a few minutes per piece of rebar, to grind down the tops enough to fit the knobs.

A word of caution: The rebar will be hot after grinding, allow it to cool completely before touching the top.

Copper pipe comes in different diameters and lengths and is available in the plumbing section of the home improvement store. My 1/2-in diameter x 10-ft  length of pipe was $13.98 at Lowe’s. We decided on the height I wanted for the hose guards and then cut it into 8 inch sections, giving me 15 pieces out of the 10 feet length. My husband’s pipe cutter costs about $15, and is easy and safe for anyone to use, scoring the copper until it breaks.

My flower inspiration came from this metal wall art I found at Hobby Lobby. All their metal decor was 50% off, bringing the price of each of the individual flowers to around $3 a piece.

I used wire cutters to snip the individual flowers from the tree. Some of the larger flowers/branches required my hubby’s hand strength to remove the flowers.

Using a drill, make a hole through the center of the flowers. Start with a smaller drill bit to drill through the rivet in the center, then a use a larger bit to make holes large enough to fit the rebar.

The small center piece of the flower was a casualty after drilling, but ultimately it would have been hidden by the door knob after assembling the hose guard.

Grind the rebar down to the size of your door knob for a good fit. We noticed there is some variation in the door knobs, the older glass knobs had a larger threaded opening. I sprayed the flower petals with some clear matte sealer to protect the metal petals and help the color last. The door knobs are twisted down on top of the rebar to hold the flower petals in place.

Cost of the flowers, rebar and copper pipe per hose guard were around $6

Cost of the door knobs, $3 – 5 a piece, or whatever your budget allows

Cost of helpful and handy husband with tools you need–> Priceless ;)

There you have it, blooming hose guards with purposed door knobs. They add some whimsy and additional blooms to the garden while protecting the flowers from being decapitated by the weight of the hose –> not the kind of deadheading I want to do in the garden ;)

 Hope you’re enjoy some blooms in the garden where you are!

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 Metamorphosis Monday