USED TIRES are as valid as anything else recycled for planting stuff. Welcome to another non-for-profit link from Felder Rushing's Website_
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USED TIRES are as valid as anything else recycled for planting stuff.
To say otherwise, is pure snobbery.
I mean, folks have long planted flowers in baskets, discarded kitchenware, old wheelbarrows, even whiskey barrels. Why not tires as well? Is it a slippery slope towards using toilets and bathtubs for planting, or just another perfectly good way to reuse something in a productive way?
An old tractor tire that used to be in the back yard of old friend Terry Conner (The Write Gardener, of Grove City, Pennsylvania, who gives demonstrations on making tire planters). He and I have turned many a tire together, proving it ain't just a Southern tradition. Terry told me, about this old tractor tire, that he "got tired of mowin' around the dern thang, and never got around to paintin' it white so I yanked it out! It's layin over in the woods, behind my shed. I think there's a little oak saplin growin out of it now..." |
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For that matter, one of the many "henges" I have photographed all over the world, my favorite is Carhenge, in western Nebraska - made entirely of cars.
The trick is in doing it with panache - as Maureen Conner did in her Grove City, Pennsylvania herb garden, using her stenciling skills to create a mini-masterpiece.
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Elaine Timulak's tire planter in Mercer, Pennsylvania |
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FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON MAKING A PLANTER OUT OF A TIRE
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Texas fence and planter
Tire chairs on Felder's front deck
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Felder's Valintine tire |
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And besides, who says we can't use tires for all sorts of stuff - including as dirt-filled retainer walls, low fences, and even garden art?
Tire turned into parrot planter in Felder's garden |
Felder's front yard "rubber tree" decorated for Christmas |
...and his tire Jack o'lantern |
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Single tire with gladiolus - retrieved, stood up, painted, and planted. Shows all sorts of artistic intent, using readily found materials ("alternate media")... |
Michigan art garden featuring bits of tires... |
Tires used in sculpture in art garden of Alfonso Ossario - East Hamptons, Long Island...
... and tires as finials in upscale Cold Springs Harbor, Long Island 
Low fence, Mississippi Delta |
Tire sculpture, Canton, Mississippi |
Colorful tires in Wyoming |
Let's hear if for the RED, WHITE, and BLUE!
Itta Bena, Mississippi Deltat |
 Detail |
 Tires as hose rollers |
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TIRES AS PLANTERS
By the way, it has never been proven that planting in tires poses health problems, despite the shrill insistence of naysayers (who base their ignorance on a tiny slice of a very narrow research project using tire crumbs as a planting mixture). And on top of that, any toxic minerals found in the buried wires in tires, is not absorbed into plants anyway. At any rate, Disney and many schools use shredded tire bits as playground sofeners and walkways - and I daresay they - and their lawyers - are determinted to be as cautious as anyone about the health of children and environmental issues!
Anyone who wants to debate this, send me an email and I will explain the fallacy in more detail. However, if you are still concerned, simply plant ornamentals in the tires, or paint the insides of the tires.
Near Bournemouth, in southern England |
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Childrens' garden, Lima, Ohio |
Norfolk, Virginia zoo |
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Planted tires in childrens' garden, Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden, Rickmond Virginia |
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Upscale garden outside Philadephia, Pennsylvania, with a surprising addition (look closely at larger photo, and see the tire planter shown in the closeup) |
Detail showing planted tire |
Eden Project's environmental teaching garden, south England
WANT TO KNOW HOW TO TURN A TIRE INTO A PLANTER - WITHOUT GETTING A HERNIA?
Tire Planter in posh Frenchtown, New Jersey garden
