How to Make Blooming Tire Planters...

Old tires in the garden. Okay, so they aren't for everyone. Hoity toity communities would choke on their own tongues if they saw one of these in your front yard, so keep in mind these are not the best choice if you live in an upscale area where people don't fart.

As I consider myself very lucky to live in the country, I have many of these 'planted' about our property. They are cute, colorful and best of all FREE. Why pay someone to do this, or even ship these things, when you can make one yourself? And yes, you CAN make it yourself, it is not hard if you choose a well worn tire

Tires. Tires. Tires. Plenty of them. Black rubber. Loads. In today's time you have to pay someone a few bucks to take them off your hands. Some companies have come up with the brilliant idea to make mulch pads out of them. Many garden hoses are made of recycled tires, what an excellent idea! If a tire can withstand travel and road conditions, surely it will be able to stand up in a garden!

Thanks to Arnell in Washington, who mentioned tires were 'planted' at every house in Idaho way back when. Worm Buds, Tire Planters, Tire Flowers, they have all sorts of names. How cool is that?

So you have a tire. Or two. Or a back yard full of them like we did. Ah, gotta love the internet. It's full of great ideas for these rounded rubber eyesores. Don't have any old tires? A local tire store will likely give them to you FREE of charge. My last stop at a small town tire store netted 9 great planters. The owner was so happy to send them down the road for free, he even loaded them for me! If you're laughing in ridicule, ask yourself what YOU are doing to help the environment.

One old tire, either on or off the rim and a few tools and you're all set to get busy.

Step 1 Gather your tools and materials...

Items required:

# Old tire, or well worn tire with a sweet spot
# Very sharp knife and possibly a knife sharpener
# Sidewalk chalk or light crayon
# Degreaser or cleaner. I use Simple Green
# A large rimmed cup or other template - used to trace circle shapes onto the tire
# Patience, determination and a good portion of elbow grease.

Please note: If you do not know where to find elbow grease, you are already in trouble.

DISCLAIMER
I will absolutely, positively, definitely not be held responsible for any accident(s) you may encounter while following these instructions. We have provided this page merely as an assistance to those wishing to learn how to make tire planters for gardening purposes. Use your head, use safety procedures and most of all, use common sense, folks. Do not try to force the knife through the rubber, you could very well cut your own fingers off. Be careful!

Muster up some determination and let's get started!
Oh, wait, forgot to mention, it's much easier to do these on a hot summer day when the rubber is more forgiving.

Comments

[mr.mountaineer]

I've seen tons of these and even have a couple but never new how to make them I've got 60+ tires i might try making some to sell and I've even got some old 10" lawn mower tires i might try. thanks for the instructable

[urbanpirate]

Glad to see you turn up here, I used the instructions from your website and a garbagepicked kitchen knife to make a few of these last year. MIght be time for some more

[WUVIE]

Hi Pirate,

Glad you stopped in. Hope your blooming planters are doing well.

:-) Karen

[vtbeachldy]

What kind of paint? Oil/acrylic? For plastics or tractors? Would love to paint some tires, but don't want to have to re-do it every year because of Oklahoma sun!
Thanks!

[WUVIE]

Hi!

We are also in the hot Oklahoma summer sun, but mine were simply sprayed with spray paint. I would imagine some of that neat new plastic / rubber paint by Krylon would be an excellent choice.

:-) Karen

[livntoasty]

Hi. We used to make and sell these. We used the Krylon H2O paint. We also decided to not use a regular knife. I opted for power and used my jigsaw while someone would spray some water on the blade and rubber. Goes a whole lot faster. But, be careful as we all know water and electricity do not mix. One more thing, a couple years ago we had tire planter plants and regular garden row with chicken wire surroundings. We noticed that the pests liked the chicken wire surroundings over the tire planter plants. In fact, I don't recall any pests eating leaves or the gems that grew when they were left alone in the tire planter. Not sure why exactly. This is a great idea (not original, but still great.). Brought back memories. :)

[vtbeachldy]

I knew you were in OK -- are you still in the gourd business? We bought seed from you some years ago.

Spray paint comes in a bunch of formula, just wondered if you used any particular kind. Thanks!

[WUVIE]

How fun, what a small world!

Sadly, we have steered away from the gourd business, but we
still love to grow them.

Good to hear from you! :-)

[porcupinemamma]

I've seen tire planters in the past, and they always seemed a little tacky to me. Yours are colouful and fun!!! I wonder if there was some way to mount them onto something that would look like a stem? Perhaps, you could put smaller and smaller tires in-layers, to give an extra peddels effect. Each layer could be planted. Mini bike tires might work, or perhaps electric scooter tires. You've got a cool idea thanks for sharing!

[WUVIE]

Thank you, Porcupine!

If you leave the tire on the rim, once it is turned inside out, it
will resemble a stem.

:-) Karen

[porcupinemamma]

Oh-cool!

[porcupinemamma]

could be added as a recycled fence if there were enough flowers

[adonze]

Me and my Husband are making these right now. they are awesome- the hradest part would be turning that sucker inside out other than that it looks great, we are letting the paint dry, then planting away. thanks for the idea we have tons of old tires.

[WUVIE]

Good to hear, it's great fun and exercise, too! Keep in touch and post pictures if you can. :-)

[Neil122373]

This gave me an idea on what to do with my old tires just lying around my house.

[WUVIE]

Thanks! I hope you will enjoy making them, and share a picture if you get to make them.

[steelnix]

Awesome!!!
I have 2 old very worn tires and living in "non hotytoty (SP) land", I have found a use for them!!!

[WUVIE]

LOL Steelnix!

Hope you have fun making the tires into bloomers. :-)