A new use for old tires: A garden using tires

Backwoods Home ^ | 4-16-06 | Charles Sanders

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this Midwest outdoors and rural issues list, please FRmail me.

I've used them as planters, not particularly attractive but they work. In retaining walls, that works. Never thought of dragging them, but I think I'll try that.

[SIDENET]

Make gaedens out of old tires? Why stop there? Heck, we rednecks landscape with tires.

;-)

[SIDENET]

gaedens = gardens

[Servant of the 9]

A new use?

Obviously this guy has never even flown over the South, much less visited.

SO9

[Beagle8U]

If you have a private pond with channel catfish, a few old tires thrown in about 4-6 feet of water makes great nurseries for catfish to spawn in.

[lrb111]

Heck mine are set in pairs like the picture and then in rows for the irrigation lines.

Stacking them for potatoes didn't work.

[Dallas59]

Recycling is good!!

[PJ-Comix]

Melt them down, pour into tubes, and VOILA!!! Homemade condoms! (Coat with pork fat.)

[bluesagewoman]

I got tired of deer eating my tomatoes every year, so I started planting them upside down from a hole in a bucket hung from the eaves of the house. Works great. Before that, I planted them in old tires.

[2Jedismom]

This tire idea sounds good for people who live in the north where they need to warm the soil...I might try it for my winter garden here in Oklahoma, but it's already running in the 90s here and my radishes bolted. I don't think it would be a good idea in the summer.

[B4Ranch]

For potatoes the problem is getting water to the base of the tap root. A piece of 2" PVC that has 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom two feet works real well for soaking the base soil..

[Beagle8U]

" I started planting them upside down from a hole in a bucket hung from the eaves of the house."

Doesn't planting your tomato plants upside down kill them?

I could understand hanging them upside down AFTER they were planted and growing.

[2Jedismom]

That's a good tip! Have you had success? What was your experience?

I've been wanting to grow taters in tires for a while...

[bluesagewoman]

I thread little plants (from a store) through a 1 inch hole in the bottom of the bucket, wrap some moss around it to keep it from falling out, fill the bucket full of dirt, and then put moss on top. The leaves just turn over, and gravity "stakes" the plant. Bugs leave them alone, too, and it takes very little water. It doesn't work with the huge species of tomatoes, like Beefstake because they put on so much weight the bale bends, but works it on smaller varieties of tomatoes like Big Boy or Celebrity.

If I started tomatoes from seeds in a hot house, I just waited until they were 4-6 inches tall.

[garyhope]

And they're so sophisticated and elegant looking too!

They'll go real well with the toilet and old bathtub out on the front lawn for that Architectual Digest look!

[alwaysconservative]

Ping for a spooky GMTA moment.

[B4Ranch]

First I laid down a tire with a big black plastic garbage bag in it. The bag had a whole bunch of 1/4 inch pencil holes in it.

I used truck tires, cut the sides off with a Milwaukee Saw and placed a piece of 2 inch pipe for each plant. Using five plants I put one 6 inches away from each plant in the bottom tire then tilted then taped them all to one side to make it easy to water.

Be careful not to over water them.

As the plants grew I added another tire with more fertilizer enriched soil (fresh chicken manure I got from a neighbor) using about a 40% measurement of sand. I wanted to keep a loose soil base for the potatos to grow in. When I got it up to about five feet I quit adding tires. If I remember right the bag came up only about three feet.

I took a 15 ft piece of nylon rope and tied it around the bottom tire so that I could pull them over with my pickup when it was harvest time. Just let it hang over the top tire.

If you can put them on a rise, capture the water that drains out the bottom and use it for the rest of the garden. It is good stuff. Make sure you don't splash it on the leaves because it'll burn small leaf like carrots have.

I got about 80 to 90lbs out of each stack. The best part was that none of them were damaged by a shovel. I used the same soil for over 10 years, just adding more fertilizer each year.

[B4Ranch]

I used mine on the North side of the stables. It got good Spring sun but hardly any Fall sun. By raising the plants five feet I cheated and got an extra 45 minutes of sunshine on them.

[lysie]

While I was Googling that very subject, I happened to come across that article. Thanks for the ping.