My fingers are still tender from working on my DIY bunny rabbit topiary made from a repurposed tomato cage and floral netting!

After trying six different design approaches for the bunny topiary, I finally settled on using a tomato cage as a support.

You can't beat the 2 dollar price tag and the small tomato cage frame is the perfect size to fit a 1 or 5 gallon size plant.

And so, I presented my design on the Home and Family show on the Hallmark channel where I appear as the garden design expert.

 

I love the challenge of coming up with new ideas and garden design projects every week for the show.

The bunny topiary was a challenge because it had to be easy enough for most people to do, use inexpensive materials, and be structurally viable.

I was excited when I finally thought of using a tomato cage and estatic when I put it together and it actually looked kind of cute!

 

Want to make one?

Here we go.

 

Materials for Shirley's DIY Bunny Rabbit Topiary From Tomato Cage 

• Small tomato cage (used as topiary support)
• 4 packs of green floral wire netting by  Panagea  12" x 48"-inches ( $3 each Joann's)
• 1 pack 22g green floral wire
• 1 lightweight plant container
• 1- 5-gallon African Boxwood plant (SEE NOTE)
• 3- 4"-inch English Daisies
• 1-4"-inch Festuca blue- (to use as bunny's tail)
• 1-pack "sew on eyes" (.50 cents at Joann's)
• Sphagnum moss

 

NOTE: Use an evergreen plant for a topiary frame so it looks good year-round.

Select plants with small leaves and dense, green foliage that looks good when sheared.

Examples include boxwood, myrtle, syzygium, laurel, privet, rosemary, ivy, creeping fig vine.

Buy compact varieties of these plants for small topiaries and regular growing varieties for large landscape topiaries.

 

Create the Bunny Topiary Frame

1. Check  that your inverted tomato cage fits over your plant and sits on the soil of the container.
2. Remove your tomato cage from plant and wrap with floral netting, securing with floral wire beginning at the base of cage and work your way up.
3. Pull your netting as you wrap it around so that it is not loose.
4. Cut off the metal stakes that stick up from the tomato cage with wire cutters.
5. Place the covered tomato cage carefully over your plant.
6. Reuse the cut metal stakes to secure the cage to the planter by bending them in half and inserting in soil.
7. Cut a 8"-10"- inch piece of netting and press it on top of a round object to curve it- this will become the top of the bunny head.
8. Secure the netting to the top of the topiary form, closing the gap and creating the top of the "head"
9. Cut another 8-10"-inch netting and shape on top of round object- this will become the bunny's face.

10.Secure the "bunny face to the top of the frame and "head"

Add Appendages

 

FEET

Cut 2 pieces of netting 8"-inches tall by 6"-inches wide.

Fill each piece with moist moss and fold in half lengthwise.

Close with wire and attach to frame with wire.

Bend feet upwards.

 

PAWS

Cut 2 pieces of netting, approx 4"-inches tall by 6"-inches wide.

Fill each with moss and fold in half lengthwise.

Close with wire and attach to frame with wire.

 

BUNNY EARS

Cut two pieces of netting, 12"-inches tall by 6"-inches wide.

Fill each with moss and fold in half lengthwise.

Close with wire and attach to frame with wire.

 

FINAL DETAILS

1. Attach the "Sew on Eyes" with a piece of wire onto the "face" 
2. Plant the Festuca grass where the bunny tail would be.
3. Plant a few English Daisies along the rim of planter
4. Finish with a hand painted sign that reads: "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" 

 

HAVE FUN!

 

Watch the video of my segment on Home and Family