How a few old tyres from your local garage and cardboard boxes from the local mini-mart can get you started on container gardening!
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40 Comments
Hi Claire Wondering if the grease & auto fluids within the tires will leach into the soil ? Love the idea of the tires though. Super compact & a great idea. Wish my yard wasnt on a steep incline & north facing. Hard to grow much of anything back there. Big sigh. Thanks for the video ! Inspiring !
Tyre containers are very popular here in Oz for all sorts of growing. Good old cardboard boxes…they have been real handy for me. I built another high raised bed and also put piping across all the vegie beds..to take the covers for the heat or frost. I love Autumn for getting ready for the rest of the year. Another great vid.Thanks Claire.
Hi Claire-great idea, the school pupils will find it a useful skill during their lives to be able to grow their own veg-nothing like it. You have just reminded me to go outside and collect the leaves that have blown off the nearby tree to put in my compost bin.
@ mukwah, perhaps u can try lining tires filled w/dirt along the end of the incline to catch and build up the soil so it does not wash away and level off your property. My whole property is sloped but I am trying to level it off and I do grow veggies on the north side..its not impossible..but try to use tires as a cheap retaining wall..u can cover them over so u cant tell they are tires later and vegetation will cover them if dirt/leaves are present.
i think people worry too much about tires contaminating the soil..they have been used for years..i know my aunt when I was little used them and she lived to be 99 yrs old…she dipped snuff, too and drank irony well water so bad it was orange colored, lol..i drank it too, it was awful tasting but im still here, lol
Hi Koko Actually I CANT change the property slope at all……..I back onto Conservation lands and its not permitted to alter the elevation or anything…..but the tire idea is a great one ! Thanks
My summer tires were too bare, but I kept them so next spring I'm gonna try this I'm gona grow potatoes and put more tires and dirt as the plants grows =) Don't you just love those extra grip gloves?
You could always line the tyres with card, and by the time it's biodegraded the bugs would have gone. Give the inside of the tyres a wash with hot soapy water and leave to dry naturally. If they are left outside over winter the cold should get rid of anything nasty. The manure I put on the soil is left on over winter and any bugs are killed off by the frost and snow (if we get any?).
I used cardboard boxes one year when I only had 1 plot and ran out of room. The tomatoes did really well in them. I got them from my local Sainsbury's, they were pleased to get rid of them. We're well into Autumn now, time to start planning for next season.
All the leaves are on the ground now. The council collect them and have been dumping a huge pile at the allotment site for us to use.
I know but the sun was really bright. I can't have the camera round the other way otherwise I'll look all pale. I can't win. Still it's great to have a bit of sun, we don't have enough in my opinion.
Your aunt was obviously doing something right. As long as the tyres get an over wintering I'm sure they'll be fine. Soon find out if I'm wrong.
Potatoes are much easier grown in a container because when you come to harvest them at least you can find them all just by emptying the container. I go through so may pairs of gloves in a year. The green ones I've got seem to last the longest and can also go in the washing machine.
No I don't drill holes in the tyres, the water would drain straight down and through the cardboard. My glasses are a bit wonky I sat on them once.
Your glasses make me laugh everytime I see them =) (I have some crooked ones too =)
Did you sit on yours too?
@clairesallotment No they fell in the garden and when I found them again they were crooked
It's half term next week, so when they are back to school it'll be full steam ahead and I'll be filming more.
Hope you have a great growing year.
Claire
I grew a few things in tyres last year; worked well for herbs as it contains them from spreading, and doubled tyres up to grow carrots very successfully. Aiming to grow parsnipsin tyres as well this year.
Potatoes should work very well. Also squashes and the like. This way you'll remember where you planted them so it'll be easier to water the roots.
Have you planted in your containers yet? I do hope you filmed it!
@antfiresbetter They're ready and waiting for the beginning of June. I'll make a film of what I'm doing.
@neilston1 Growing herbs in containers is great, especially for mint, then it doesn't take over. Hope you're all having a great time.
Growing food in tires grows Toxic food!
@MrCoolahoop Mine are fine. If you're at all worried, then give them a thorough wash out before you use them. Everything that I've grown in mine have done just as well as the ones in the ground.
My Doctor says that growing food in Tires is Toxic! He told me this after I had used Tires for growing food. He said don't eat food grown in Tires. You can't just wash it off, the toxins get in side of the food.
@MrCoolahoop Each to their own opinion. If you don't want to, then don't, but I'll continue to use them. I've looked on websites in the UK and they're all for it. They're even showing them on children's gardening websites. Lots of plot holders on my site use them.
Thanks for the tips.
However, you are very attractive and I would have liked to have seen more shots of your face. LOL
@fred081646 I'll try to get in shot more on any more videos I do. However, the plants are the real stars of the videos.
Tires are not non-toxic.The rubber leachates contain aluminum, lead and zinc.thats just for starters.Plants draw all that metal up.please read up on this.you are poisoning the plants.
I'm not the only one on the site to use tyres. Mine had gone through 2 very hard winters with very hard frosts and covered in snow for 2 weeks, and the parsnips that I got out of them this year were amazing. When you get them if you need to use them straight away, then wash the inside with very hot soapy water. If you don't want to use them they find another container.
I'd like to see the "after" and how well it worked….I have some spare tires I'd like to try this with
I couldn't find anything else….how did it do? Did everything grow? Do you have pics? Thanks
They worked really well. Chard grew really well and so did the parsnips. In fact I had to remove the tyre to get the parsnip out it was so large. I'll try and take some photos this season of the allotment and put them on twitter/facebook.
you can grow anything that doesn't need a huge amount of room in them. Salad leaves, spring onions, small carrots listing just a few. Be imaginative with your planting.
Sounds like a fun idea….I think it would be neat to paint and decorate the tires and add herbs:)
Oh that sounds like a fantastic idea! Take some picture.
Hi
I had the idea of using old tyres to form a compost bin.
Although the idea would work, I was advised to 'think it out' before diving in. The reason given was that getting rid of old tyres will incur a charge, eg at the tip site. Tyre dealers pay to dispose of their tyres, so are always happy to give them away free of charge. The trouble is, if you decide the tyre idea is no good after all, you'll have to pay to get rid of them.
Yes that is true, you will have to pay to get rid of them, so do make sure you really want them first. I've still got the ones I used in this video, and they're still going strong.
Because of all the toxins that leach out of tyres they are not allowed now on most allotment sites, also banned from landfill site, definitely not a way to grow food