I love building useful things from junk, like this root cellar and smoker built from old refrigerators, or this efficient dryer from a cardboard box, or even a generator from used car parts and mower engine, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that my survival garden would continue in the same tradition. I am sure some of you are wondering what in the hell is going on here. What has Creekmore been smoking? Working on a garden in December? I have never been a procrastinator; I prefer getting chores over with as soon as possible. The quicker I get things done and over with, the sooner I am free to loaf.
Come planting time all I need to do is start the seed and transplant the seedlings to the garden area. No need to be rushed digging up the soil or working in compost etc., and by starting early I can be assured any organic matter added to the soil will be fully composted before the start of the growing season.
The dirt at the homestead kitty is hard clay and rock, the topsoil was striped away years ago by the mining company. My only option if I wanted a garden was to put in raised beds. I needed something free and permanent, using old car tires for planners made sense. I found all the tires I wanted for free and they are permanent.
After hauling the tires up to the homestead kitty, I started the generator and plugged in the jigsaw with metal cutting blade and cut out the top around the tread of each P235/75R15 tire, leaving one side of each tire intact. This side will act as a reservoir to hold water, while allowing the roots to grow through the center and into the ground under the tires.
Each P235/75R15 tire has six squire feet of growing space when you cut out one side up to the tread. A garden of seventeen tires will have a growing area of just over one hundred squire feet. Anyone who has ever worked a raised bed will tell you more produce can be grown in a smaller space, because the whole area is being used, with no wasted space for rows and the plants can be grown closer together.
I made cages from five foot tall concrete reinforcing wire with six-inch squire openings, for several of the planters. These will be used to grow tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and squash. Large trash bags can be thrown over the top of the cages to act as a greenhouse (clear bags) or to protect the plants from frost, early in the season.
Survival 101
My brother turned me on to tire's year's ago.Plant potatoe's in a tire..as it grow's,stack on another,fill with dirt,so on,so on..At the end of the season,knock over the stack! No digging,plowing whatever!
I had totally forgot about this form of gardening until reading your post. Sounds like just the thing for me to use when I move to the desert!
Thanks for reminding me of this jewel...
HermitJim
I am always glad to be of service. Tire gardens should work out well in the desert. Let us know how it turns out.
You are apparently not worried about chemicals leeching from the tires into the plants?
HermitJim, Like any raised bed, you'll have to water it more or mulch the heck out of it. I recommend mulch, smothers the weeds too.
Growing in tires is safe and proven, though it might be a good idea to rinse them with soapy water before filling. There's actually less incidence of chemical leaching from tire rubber than there is from the toxic "treated" lumber so often used to construct raised garden beds. I wonder though how hot they might get in a sunny desert climate...black stores a lot of heat (a good thing in a more temperate climate). Maybe this could be mitigated by painting them a lighter color if they were found to be getting too hot.
I've read that a texas U did a study on leaching of treated lumber and the results were that it wasn't a problem. I'm not going to worry about tires either.
However [in my area] i've gone with what seems to me to be a better set up for the taters. posts in the ground boxing in a center hole with "junk" tree branches. Layer them up as you go and trim the excess of the ends off. I also hang 5 gall buckets on the posts to collect a little additional rain water.
Mayberry how did you cut the tires? various methods I've tried were "there has to be a better way" methods---- sawzall[ various blades], chisel[s] blade tools, a 4 in grider with stones and metal wheels.... very frustrating to me. band saw seems to be the answer for small pieces of tire for concrete mixer blades. c57asey
On a recent trip to a tire shop I was impressed with the method being used by the workers there to dismantle the tyres for recycling. They simply stabbed the tyres through the wall with a sharp heavy knife (about a four inch blade) and rotated the tyre by hand cutting the wall free, flipped the tyre over, and did the other side. Less than 2 minutes per tyre!!!
Check this site out about the toxicity of using tires...scroll down to the bottom of this page a read the short little article...very interesting and very good points. These guys have been using tires for something like 30 years and even have a pond made from tires and have fish thriving in it(for almost 20 years). I personally have been using tires for gardening and love them. If I thought tires were toxic I don't think I would be using them, but most of the research I have done points in the direction of tires being mostly stable, with the exeption of zinc and trace amounts of cadmium. Please read!
http://tireprojectsforhawaii.com/gardening.aspx
Does anyone know which type of chemicals are used to manufacture tires?
Vulcanized rubber primarily I'd guess, but your guess is as good as mine when it comes to dye, release agent, UV resistance agents and whatnot ...