Pop Bottle Greenhouse

How do they hold them together to keep them from falling out? What do they put between the bottles?
 
It looks like they've cut the bottoms and "stacked" them... and then hold them together with string. At least to me, that's what it looks like.
 
I saw one on pinterest yesterday. It looked quite interesting. You can apparently use sticks to stack them on, or run string or wire through them. Quite labor intensive, but certainly inexpensive!
 
Wouldn't there be cracks between the bottles?
 
I saw the idea a year or two ago when I was looking up inexpensive greenhouse ideas. I thought about it for a short time, even started saving some bottles, but then thought about our notorious spring (and whenever) storms and didn't want all that work of saving bottles and putting them together to be blown away, not to mention the idea of playing 200,002 bottle pickup in the yard didn't sound that appealing. lol
 
My niece has a small greenhouse made of clear 16 oz. water bottles. It's more like a cold frame as it is so small. I don't think she used the tops of the bottles like the video girl did - she just used the bottom 2/3 or 3/4 of each bottle. She was able to jam each half-bottle onto the next and it made a fairly sturdy column of plastic bottles. If I remember correctly she used 2x4s for framework and the bottle columns were stacked vertically (side by side) on the bottom 2x4 "plate" and she nailed some small lattice type boards horizontally inside and outside to hold the bottle columns in place. This thing is about 12 ft. x 3 ft. x 3 ft. tall. It sets on top of a small raised bed of the same footprint. I don't remember if she has bottles for the cover or maybe a couple pieces of plexiglass.

I do know that she was so pleased with her design that she was saving the water bottles for other garden projects.

Another thing she was experimenting with was filling the bottles with a solution of water and wood alcohol to store heat for cold nights. Alcohol is clear and it has a very low freeze temperature (about minus 133F). Automotive antifreeze is not clear and quite expensive compared to plain old wood alcohol.

She and her husband live in Norway so I don't see them often.
 
There are several ways to put them together. One way is to cut off the tops and bottoms and stack them on garden stacks another way is to cut off the bottoms and stack them together in rows and use wire or some type of sting to hold them in walls. I thought it was interesting. It self waters because of the rows of bottoms. It allows the water to drain between them.
 
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