Tire Garden Experiment - Enhancing the kitchen with homegrown freshies

Well, my apologies for the lack of posts as of late. My camera went kerplunk and it’s been hard for me to invest $ in a new one when this one is less than a year old. I’ve sent it off to the happy place for a repair, but in the meantime, I’ve borrowed a friend’s camera in order to bring you this snap of the current state of my tire garden.

My goal with this garden was to be able to throw together a fresh salad in a moment’s notice, without a trip to the store or farmer’s market. So most of my veggies are salad-inspired, although several are cookable, such as zucchini and kohlrabi. And of course I have herbs.

I have a total of 10 tires growing a variety of veggies, from cabbages to radishes to arugula to onions. Here’s how it went down: I called a local tire place and asked if I they could donate some old tires for the cause; they gladly complied. I washed them out thoroughly with Simple Green to get rid of any gross road dirt or heavy metals. Then I bought a very sturdy serrated knife/saw from the hardware store and cut the outer wall of one side of each tire, in order to provide the most surface area. (Special thanks to my dear friend Michael for all the help in cutting that rubber! It was no easy feat.)

I have special circumstances in my yard: the sunlight is scant. I set six of my tires in the center of the yard, where it gets about five hours of sun. I placed four other tires in two spots that had less measurable sun exposure.

So far, predictably, the greens, like spinach, rape, and arugula, are doing well. Also, my red cabbage plants are out of control! Zucchini is also growing like something from outer space. The turnips, onions, and radishes are faring well. Also, all my herbs are looking good. But kohlrabi, peas, peppers, and tomatoes seem to be less spunky, although still looking healthy. Carrots and eggplant are having a tough time, still appearing as mere sprouts even after six weeks from sowing. I attribute the lack of success with some of these plants to the limited amount of sunlight. And will take these learnings and apply to next year’s planning.

I learned in my research for this stuffed garden space that bushing plants, as well as root plants, are best for the limited amount of space. I’ve somewhat violated this wisom by trying out some vining veggies in hopes of trellissing for maximum space utilization. So far it is too early to see how my deviations will pay off. Stay tuned!