Oh deer, a topiary from old Christmas lights

When the deer Christmas light forms start to rust, and the wires and bulbs wear out, spray paint that thing brown and prop it into the garden. Add a bush or vine (plus several months) and you have affordable topiary. This is a good way to recycle and save money; if you shop for topiary forms, they can cost several hundred dollars.

Add the right topiary plants for your area. Typical topiary plants yew and boxwood take a long time to grow into form, for faster results (not years) use English ivy or something similar.


Stuff the inside of the form with peat or a compost/soil mix, this might work to help the vine along. Stuffing it and planting grass on it would probably give a fun green-fur texture; add two branching plants in the head for live antlers.

I plan on doing this sometime this spring/summer, I'll post pictures if it's a success. This would be fun with other Christmas light forms too; I'm thinking green snowman or penguin.

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