Save Tires and make a Garden !

Tires which are made of rubber are really hard to decompose and reuse due to the fact that it is not bio de-gradable. So i had a lot of tires lying around the house so i thought to make a green use of it and do some cool thing with it that may reduce carbon emission and at the same time recycle old tires. The project we are going to carry out here is called The Tire garden, which in fact is a really easy project and fun thing to do with your kids and family members which contribute to the beautification of your environment. So lets get started and collect all the things you need.

Step 1: Materials

Due to the fact that i used a phone camera i missed some of the process in the making put you can get the basic idea. Here are what we need to make your very own tire garden.

Materials

- A small garden or land
- As many tires as you can get
- A tin of white or and rainbow colored paint.
- Some soil , needs to be loam soil (have clay soil and little sand)
- flowers of your choice.

Thats all you need for your beautiful garden.

Comments

[asterixoder]

well done

[Master Beorn]

Earthship.com. That's a GREAT way to use up tires.

[Maverchick]

I LOVE the fact that you're taking an old useless waste product and reusing it!! Thats awesome!! and your garden is BEAUTIFUL!! But please, don't grow any food in old tires- stick to flowers! There are all sorts of chemicals and carcinogens (substances that cause cancer) found in tires. Washing them will take care of toxins on the surface but its possible that these substances (found in the rubber itself) could leech into the soil and be absorbed by the plant- and if you eat part of that plant that could be bad!

[arylic]

yes i am aware of that

[Maverchick]

My apologies! but now everyone else is aware, too. ;-)

[PlayPatterns]

they should make an entire instructables site on how to use old tires...this is a great idea for them- they are so massive and dependable, yet so quickly discarded.

[arylic]

ill make some more

[hvacmann]

I've had a garden in tires for several years now. If you get a chance you can check it out at www.redneckgarden.sampa.com Thanks Dale

[arylic]

Looks sweet. Thanks for the referral.

[Gorfram]

Cool - I especially like the layout with the tires lined up along either side of the driveway. Assuming that there is not a tire recycling plant on any of the Fijian Islands, the closest one would probably be in New Zealand or more likely Australia, 1100 -1500 or so miles away. By the time you'd barged the tires that far and then spent the energy needed to actually recycle them, my guess is that the best you could do would be to come out even, and even that's not too likely. And, if I understand right, most of the soil on the Fijian lowlands is very sandy/stony and lacks the loam and nutrients needed for good plant growth. So gardening in a raised bed or container that will hold the good loamy soil right around the plants (but still drain freely) makes perfect sense. I personally might paint the tires dark green or brown so as to have them blend more into the garden itself, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and these tires are being beheld in Fiji. (Admittedly, the tire-as-raised-garden-bed idea has been used in the US, and at one time was so widely used among lower income households that it came to be seen as a marker of lower-income status. As someone whose own "white trash" relatives have never (not to her knowledge, anyway) shown the enterprise to clean up an old tire and plant something nice in it, I say: to each his own.) I also gather that Arylic has another under-utilized resource - the ever-plentiful energy of any number of young kids in and around the household - that this sort of project helps put to good use. Good on ya', Arylic!

[arylic]

Gorfram - I really appreciate your comments, you really reached into my mind and dug out every bit of information. Young teen like me have fun doing this things which at the same time have really good exercise.

[Gorfram]

Thanks :) But don't worry, I'm not actually psychic (so you can relax - I have no idea what you were thinking about that girl who sits in front of you in French Class ;). I did read your profile page and one or two of your other Instructables, and (just because I was embarrased to realize how little I know about your country) skimmed those parts of the Wikipedia article on Fiji that might give me a clue about it has, or doesn't have, in the way of naturally fertile soils and heavy industry like tire recycling plants. (That, and I can very clearly remember what was like to be a kid who was totally free to embark on any sort of creative project I could dream up - just as long as it didn't cost anything.) You seem like a really cool kid: I bet your family is very proud of you. :)

[arylic]

Thank you very much for your great concern towards my country and towards me my good friend. I am just a normal guy who likes some good time projects to carry own and make original things to show people what i have and what my abilities are. Yes my family is proud of me and i have done my parents proud. By getting good grades and also helping around the house , my parents can't wish for anything more.

[S1L3N7 SWAT]

Hmm.. Actually, tires are very recyclable. The entire tire, right down to the steel belts are recycled in large quantities in the U.S. The recycled rubber finds its way in to a surprising amount of everyday items and applications. They use ground up tires in playgrounds in place of sand and on some horse racing tracks. They even extract the gypsum and other minerals in the rubber to make concrete. Some may see this as "decorating garbage". No offense, but it's still the same as a tire lying in the woods somewhere, except this one is painted and in your yard.

[arylic]

But according to my analysis and calculation towards the upbringing of this project i have made a small calculation and here are the results: carbon out put - 0% time required - 2% carbon reduced - 2% per tire environment reincarnation - 98% oxygen output - 5% so the total benefits from this project is : 67% out of 100% That's if we have people practice this in their home it would increase surprisingly by 3% per home.

[Kiteman]

In many areas, recycling centres charge to take tyres off your hands.

The unique properties of tyres also make them ideally suited for "sensory gardens" - gardens with raised beds separated by smooth pathways to allow disabled visitors (frequently blind and/or have extreme learning-difficulties) to interact safely with carefully-selected plants, typically by feeling their textures and smelling them.

So, far from "decorated garbage", this is instead a useful addition to the site and any garden.

[arylic]

Thank you for the comments kiteman.

[Kiteman]

You're welcome.

[gmjhowe]

Well, nice one for destroying the be nice policy. Not one bit of constructive criticism in that comment. Personally. I think its a good idea, and is more carbon friendly than buying new big plastic plant pots. Obviously, no energy is needed to recycle these, unlike the process you describe. For someone with a few spare tires, in need of some planters, this is a great idea. They can always recycle them at a later date, and i feel that they most probably would.

[S1L3N7 SWAT]

I should clarify a bit. I did not mean to offend, as you see I said "No offense." I like the idea and I've seen it done in other places too. As for the "decorated garbage" remark. I would almost guarantee that someone who may be a die hard environmentalist or "green snob" may look at this and make such a comment. I personally do not hold that sentiment, and I commend him for his efforts. Sorry for any trouble it may have caused.

[gmjhowe]

Its fine, just try and take a moment to re-read things before you post.

[arylic]

Thanks for the great back up mate. you should try it at you place or resident.

[S1L3N7 SWAT]

Oh, I'm sorry. I clicked your profile to check out your other Instructables and discovered that you live in Fiji. That may throw a wrench into the recycling idea, I'm not sure if Fiji has a recycling program, if they don't then of course there would be quite a lot of tires lying around.

[evan_124]

even if there were a recycling program in place, there is the saying "renew; reuse; recycle" which puts renewing and reusing items ahead of recycling them cuz of the energy it takes to recycle them. if you can extend the lifetime of a product by a few years and put it to a new use rather then have it torn apart and rebuilt into something new, you are going to do some real good

[Mr. Thrak]

I think that's "reduce" instead of renew there. Or that's how we learned it in Indiana.

[evan_124]

ya i know... i realized it after i submitted the post, but got lazy and didn't change it. almost the same idea tho

[arylic]

No recycling program here but people have adapted to reuse them and in some places tires are rare to see.

[gmjhowe]

I like the idea you have here, i know your a little limited by your photos, but i feel you could probably pad it out a little, i think that step two could probably be split into two steps. (one about preparing and washing, the second about planting) What might also make a great addition, is to add a small diagram of an above view, showing what is a good way to place these.

[arylic]

Ill take you idea into practice thanks a lot mate and i am on it.