Planting in Tires

[Alan in Vermont]

I have been messing with ways to use tires in the garden for the past three years. I'm lucky in that I have more equipment than a lot of folks do to make the work go easier. That ties in nicely with my being too lazy to work hard if a machine can do it for me. Hopefully somebody else ca find a use for some of my wild hair ideas.

I am gradually getting all my cucurbits planted in "tire rings." I make them by cutting both sidewalls off the tire, leaving an almost flat ring of the tread. It is pretty easy to make the cuts if you keep the rubber wet with soapy water and keep a sharp blade in your utility knife. Don'y throw the sidewalls away, they work great for ballasting tarps or ground covers

I lay out the pattern I want the hills in, then push the topsoil off 3-4" deep with the loader on my toy tractor (that's the lazy part showing up, non-tractored gardeners get their exercise by digging them in by hand). A ring is dropped at each location and the dirt is replaced around it. Excess material will be used later inside the ring.

Dig out inside each ring, stay away from the ring so it doesn't fall into the hole. Most of the dirt will probably not be real good growing soil and can either be removed to somewhere else or scattered between the rings. Dig out as much dirt as you have compost/ambition to replace (tractor mounted posthole digger makes up for a lot of ambition!) Keep it below ground level, then use some of the topsoil from outside to fill the ring just about level with the ground outside.

Pack the soil on both sides of the ring, the width of your foot is plenty. That seals it up so you can water inside the ring and not waste water. Plant your seeds and watch them grow.

 

[Alan in Vermont]

Between the rings I put down a layer of wood chips. Once the plants get a few inches high I weed and then mulch inside the rings. The first year I put plastic over the rings and ballasted it with dirt to create a micro-climate in each ring. Last year I lucked into a mess of 1/2" plastic water pipe which I cut into roughly 4' pieces. With the ends of the pipe tucked inside the rings and two pipes per ring I was able to create a small hoop house over each ring. A small slit in the plastic allowed watering and it was easy to peel the plastic off halfway on hot days to avoid roasting the plants.

I'm sure you are thinking that it's a lot of work to do all that. Yes, it is. But for the next two years all you have to do is dig out the centers and add new compost. That has the same effect as moving to a new spot. After year 3 you can move to an entirely new area or just relocate the rings in an alternate pattern in the same plot.

I think the tire rings would work fine for potatoes as they are easy to pull up. Using different size tires would allow easy stacking as more height was needed.

 

[RonsGarden]

I love your idea for using tires.
Removing the walls is a great idea and the final product looks clean and visually appealing in their simplicity!
Now that is something I might try!
Thanks for sharing Alan!

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

I had an uncle that make planters from tires...some how he would cut them and turn them inside out...then paint them...people loved them for their flowers...
I have to say I don't use them as I was always told they put off toxic gases...but I never research that...being I never uesed then to plant in...

Alan, as ron said that is very interestiong the way you have used them...love the pictures

 

[Alan in Vermont]

With virtually all tires are now steel belted radials it takes a bit to learn just where to cut to get the nice smooth "rings". You need to cut as close to the tread as possible. You will be able to tell if the knife is hitting the belts almost as soon as the blade penetrates. Move the cut just a bit further down on the sidewall. Don't try to cut through in one pass. Use a spray bottle to mist the surface with soapy water and score where you want to cut. Pressing down on the sidewall will open the score line, sprat right into that shallow cut and go around again. Pressure on the sidewall helps keep the knife blade from dragging on the rubber. Most tires succumb with two passes but light truck tires may require three. Once you get the knack of it it only takes about five minutes to get a tire into three pieces.

As I mentioned earlier, the sidewall pieces work great for ballasting tarps. If you lay them with the outside turned up they don't collect water and make breeding ground for mosquitoes.

 

[Alan in Vermont]

I'm way behing my normal gardening schedule this year. The weather messed with us at first, we had snow here on May 9. I am also working with a partially disabled left shoulder and hand as well as a torn meniscus in my right knee. Those things have made it very slow going, even with the equipment to use. I can't stay on a tractor only but a couple hours at a time, the loader controls are left handed, and the knee takes a beating from the bumps and vibration.

I had a huge pile of chip mulch that was in the way of plowing. Lots of fifty yard trips with 6 cu. ft. per trip. I'm thinking maybe 150 load/haul/dump cycles.

Before I could put the mulch down I had to dig in roughly 40 of my tire rings. Some of then I dug out with the loader. It was overkill on the hole but it was easier to put the loose dirt back than to dig out the necessary soil.

Some went where I had plowed last fall. I disced that area to break it up, and with the help of some very good friends we got the rings dug in and mulched.

 

[Randy]

You did well under those conditions, Alan.

 

[GardeningKitteh]

I've never really understood the benefit of planting in tired -- aside from the aesthetic to turning something old into something new. However, I'm not against the idea of one doing so. I'm just guessing that it would be very difficult to maneuver what has been grown already. Still...an interesting idea!

 

[Alan in Vermont]

Aesthetics have nothing to do with my technique. The tire functions as a dam to retain water right at the plants.

As for this;

I'm just guessing that it would be very difficult to maneuver what has been grown already.

I have no clue what you just said.

 

[Randy]

I use tires for a different reason. We are still having spring weather with temperatures in the evening down into the 40's. In other words, we have a rather short growing season when it comes to heat loving plants like tomatoes. I plant each of my tomato plants in a tire because that black tire absorbs heat during the day and will radiate heat back into the soil after the sun goes down. When the sun is out, those tires get so hot you can't keep your hand on one of them. I did plant one tomato plant today on the back porch in a half-barrel planter. It is a Sungold cherry tomato and I like to keep one close so the family can snag a tomato or two when they walk by the plant. I will plant another Sungold in the garden with the rest of the tomatoes. I will have about 15 tomato plants when they are all in.

 

[Kya D]

I love the idea of the mini greenhouse over each tire. TFS

 

[Randy]

I have only planted one tomato so far. The garden is still too wet to get things going there. So all my plants are still in the greenhouse.