Using Old Tires in the Garden

There are old tires cluttering up dumps and landfills. You do not need to add more to that pile, because there are plenty of ways you can use used tires to improve your garden. Simply ask to keep your old tires when you get new ones, and save yourself the disposal fee. You could also ask your local car dealer, tire center, garage or recycle center for some old tires. Before using tires to plant with, remember to clean the well to remove any residual oil or contaminants. Remember that with any of the ideas below, you can paint the tires so that they look nicer or fit your garden's look better. However, try to stick o dark colors so that you do not lose the heat retention benefit of the normally black tires. Do not be afraid to try something new, especially if it means keeping more waste from our landfills.

Potatoes can take a lot of work, and space, in your garden. If you want to grow potatoes but have limited space for the necessary mounds of dirt repurposing old tires can solve your problem. A stack of used tires will allow you to grow up rather than out as your potato plants grow. If desired you can cut away the sidewall of the tires before use. It will make maintenance easier in the long run, but is not necessary. Start by placing one tire on the spot you wish to plant. I suggest a spot that will receive full sun, or as close as you can get. Fill the tire with loose, rich potting soil. Plant your seed potatoes in the loose soil and wait for the potato plant to sprout. When the plant begins to show add another tire and more loose soil, repeating the process whenever you see potato sprouts poking above the top tire. Add the soil slowly to cover the plant up to the top two sets of leaves. It is the covered portion of the stem that produces the potatoes for your future harvest. Stop the stacking and soil addition process when the stack becomes difficult to water and care for, threatens to become unstable, or you run out of tires. As time progresses through the growing season be sure to check the soil regularly to see if it needs water. The black tires absorb and retain heat, so the soil housed within will dry out much faster that a regular garden or container. When it is time to harvest, simply dig in and unstack the tires one at a time to gather your bounty. The size of your harvest will depend on how high your tire stack gets, but it should always be more than if you planted the same amount of potatoes in the ground.

A tire can also be used as a hotbed in order to start some plants early. I do suggest cutting away the sidewall to increase growing room and ease of tending to te young plants. Just remember to be very careful when cutting away the sidewall. Fill up the tire with quality soil, compost and/or manure then plant your desired seeds. The black rubber of the tire will absorb and retain heat very well. If you use manure in your tire it will produce some additional heat. For best results I suggest covering the seedlings with old storm windows, clear plastic, or other material that will shield the young plants from the elements but let in significant light Tires can also be used during the normal planting season as small raised beds. If you use a number of tires as raised beds do not waste the space between them, instead ad compost to those gaps and plant there as well.

If you happen to have the smaller tires from all terrain vehicles or riding mowers, you can use this as well. One of these smaller tires, or a creative stack of many sized tires, can act as a unique planter for your patio or deck. A layered planter d different sized tires would be great for growing strawberries, bush cucumbers, and invasive herbs that might otherwise take over your lawn and garden. A bonus in using these tires for container planting is that if you happen to run into them with your mower somehow, there will be no damage done. If you do not have access to any of these tires already, a stop at a tire dealer, ATV dealer, or lawn tractor dealer to ask for any old tires they might have.

Tires can also be stacked to create a perfect home for a worm compost bin or verminculture. The tires will absorb heat and provide insulation for the worms in colder weather. Worms will survive a winter in a tire based home through most winters, even the harsh winters in the Northeast. Simply stack up tires, I recommend four to six tires in a stack, pausing to fill up each tire's rim with old newspapers. Layer shredded paper, kitchen scraps, and indoor and outdoor organic matter in each tire as you so, adding some red wriggler starter worms in between layers toward the bottom of the stack. The worms will go about their business, reproducing and making compost as long as they have enough organic material and moisture.

If you have cut away the sidewalls from the tires in any of these projects, or in one of your own making, there is no need to toss away the left over hunks of tire. You can use that scrap to create garden borders, shred it to make playground mulch, or create another project to put it to good use. Use your imagination and create your own uses for items that would otherwise fill up landfills for years to come.