Tuesday, January 14, 2014

In defense of our tire garden

Even though it's the middle of winter and spring seems a long way away, I'm already planning the garden (in my head). I intend to expand it by putting in new tires for planting.

Along these lines, I thought I would show pix from a month ago, Dec 11, in which we had some tractor tires delivered, the last tires of the year. The fellow who delivered them said they were doing end-of-the-year cleanup of their facility. He called first and asked if we wanted the tires, and of course I said yes.


The question was where to put them until spring. We decided to split the load -- put some in the back of the barn, where we already have a bunch of tires stacked up, and put others in the clearing by the house. These tires are all piled up, waiting for appropriate weather when we can finish putting tarps and gravel on the garden, split these babies in half, and fill them with dirt/compost/sand and plant.


So the fellow pulled his rig behind the barn and got ready to unload.


Matilda and Samson watched with great interest.


So did a neighbor's horse.


He unloaded about half the tires behind the barn.


Then he moved his rig and unloaded the rest of the tires by the house.


I asked him how much these tires cost to replace on a tractor. These particular ones, on an average tractor, cost around $14,000 (for all the tires, not just one).


"That's on a million-dollar tractor, right?" I asked.

"No, that's on a $35,000 tractor," he replied. Then he told me something interesting. He said the cost of tractors is going down, but the cost of tractor tires is going up. So often farmers have to make a calculated decision about cost/benefit, and often end up buying a new tractor. For that they get a new set of tires as well. They sell their old tractor to offset the cost, and amortize the difference over the next five years or so. Such is the cycle.

Now I want to address another topic based on a comment I recently got on my first post about tire gardening. Someone wrote as follows:

You have made a terrible mistake, the role of all gardeners is to create a better world - even if its "Back in your own backyard". When the novelty wears off getting rid of these tyres will place an enormous strain on you, and your family. You could have created a floral landscape, a Dutch Masterpiece, an English Rose Garden, a French Formal Garden, and you chose Fords-Ville, Michelin Man, and polluted Mother Earth. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones, but tyres no. Are you sure the food grown will be free of carbon rubber tyre oil moisture? A carcinogen?

I would like to address these issues in order.

1. Please review why we're gardening with tires. For nine years -- NINE YEARS -- I fought our heavy clay weed-infested soil and got nowhere. We are striving toward food self-sufficiency on our farm, and clearly a garden is a critical part of that goal. In the end, raised beds were the answer. Tires are nothing more than raised beds. By growing food, we ARE creating a better world since it means we get homegrown organic produce.

2. Tires aren't a novelty. They've been around about a hundred years or so. They're ugly, they're ratty, and they're hard to recycle. What we've done is taken hundreds of tires, kept them out of the landfill, and turned them into something useful -- namely, food-producing units. There's a certain beauty in that.

3. Sure, we could have created a floral landscape, an English rose garden, a French formal garden, or some other useless water-eating bit of nonsense. But here's an inescapable truth: YOU CAN'T EAT ROSES. Besides, if I couldn't grow broccoli or corn in this suboptimal soil we have, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to grow roses.

4. We're not polluting Mother Earth. In fact, it might be argued that we're reducing the pollution on Mother Earth. We did not commission the manufacture of hundreds of old tires. Instead, to repeat, we kept them out of the landfill and turned them into something useful.

5. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones. Um, where? We live in a wildly rural area. We're an hour's drive from the nearest city. Would you rather have us driving hours and hours and hours in order to fetch home a few bricks and stones? Which is more ecologically reasonable? To take and use something that would be scrapped? Or to burn gasoline on endless trips to try and find building materials that meet your personal requirements? Tires are free and available everywhere. In fact, as the above photos show, we can even have them delivered right to our doorstep.

6. Food grown in tires will not be contaminated or carcinogenic. Of all the concerns, this is the only one I feel deserves a thoughtful reply.

Tires have a lot of nasty things bonded into them, things that arguably ARE carcinogenic. But it's the term BONDED that must be considered. Intact tires are distressingly inert (that's why they're everywhere rather than quietly decomposing into Mother Earth).

So where did this notion that tires will poison any food plants grown in them? I did a little internet research and came across a website called TireCrafting. This site answered questions so much better than I could that I wrote and asked permission to reprint a portion here.
___________________________

Aren’t tires toxic? How will that effect my flowers and vegetables?

There are organic puritans still quoting an international environmental magazine, Organic Gardening, Jul-Aug 1997, article headline “TIRES ARE TOXIC" "WARNING: Using old automobile tires around your plants (in any form) is hazardous to the health of those plants!" It then went on to justify the article from two sources, USDA researcher and compost expert Rufus L. Chaney, Ph.D., claiming that zinc released from tires is toxic to plants, and “A recent study in Australia claiming tires are toxic to petunias & impatiens.”

Mr. Farber contacted Dr. Chaney soon after the article appeared. Dr. Chaney told him that this magazine miss-quoted him. He said that he knows of only one toxin in the rubber of a tire in its solid state, and that is zinc. Zinc leached from burned tires, ground-up tires and the tire dust washed and blown from highways is toxic to some plants and many aquatic plants and animals in acidic soil and water (pH 6 or below). He said humans require zinc, and zinc is used in fertilizers to neutralize alkaline soils. He also said that zinc will not escape from a solid tire, but when a tire is left out in the whether for a few decades (30 years or more) it might decay and release its zinc.

Mr. Farber tried but could not locate the "recent study in Australia" but from his test gardens, he has photo proof of petunias and impatiens vigorously overflowing the same ten tire planters and in the same soil (adding only yearly loss) every year for more than thirty years.

Consider this: From the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey, "each year, approximately one million tons of tire rubber dust is washed and blown from our highways." This must integrate with our water, soil and air. No doubt, a substantial amount of tire dust is accumulating in everyone's "organic garden".

Mr. Farber is aware of another scary article. “Toxic Components Leaching from Tire Rubber" is the headline to a six page research study including text, charts and graphs proving their points, published on line, 3 May 2007 by Springer Science + Business Media, University of Goteborg, Sweden. It had nothing to do with gardening in tires. It was about zinc from tire dust killing bugs that fish feed on. Their conclusions were the same as Dr. Chaney's. Solid tires do not leach zinc.

If anyone has documented proof that shows a danger of toxicity from solid tires, Mr. Farber would like to be contacted with that information. Mr. Farber has been using tires for a container for his vegetables for over 30 years. If there is legitimate evidence that this practice is harmful he would want to know for his own health as well as for those who have planted their vegetables in recycled tires at his recommendation. You may contact Mr. Farber at retiring@tirecrafting.com.


Tires are made from petroleum which is toxic, therefore tires are toxic! How can you justify gardening in them?!

Everything in life is a potential hazard. The trick is to research beyond headlines and weigh benefits against risks.

When tires are burned, otherwise harmless chemicals mix and change form to create compounds which are harmful. It is now proven that the release of excessive amounts of hydrocarbons from fossil fuels is contributing to a myriad adverse effects to the environment and public health. Products from crude-oil are at the top of that list. No other country is more at fault than the U.S. with transportation in the forefront. Commerce is moving goods across our nation one semi tractor trailer at a time, each requiring its own hydrocarbon spewing power plant. Private transportation fares no better. Added to this are the hydrocarbons released in the manufacture of fuel, tires, and asphalt highways. There are solutions to these problems and we must fight for them. But that is not the issue here.

Used tires already exist and in their solid state they are as safe or safer than any other construction material. The process and the result of this global discard nightmare being recycled by industry, whether grinding them up for road base, burning them as fuel, or recouping the oil, releases more hydrocarbons while costing the global economy billions of dollars for tire cleanup and commercial recycling. Modifying tires to create green space and home gardening available to everyone would not only absorbs hydrocarbons, it could well be the key to salvation for practically every family on the planet that is otherwise excluded from adequate sustenance. Personal tire recycling potential benefits far outweigh all perceived hazards. A portion of tire taxes for tire disposal, ought to be channeled in this direction.

___________________________

Based on this information, I have no problem either continuing to garden in tires, or advising people that tire gardening is a safe and viable alternative to fighting stubborn and unresponsive soil. And I thank Mr. Farber of the TireCrafting website for doing the research AND for allowing me to reprint his material.

49 comments:

  1. You spelled Weather; Whether.

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  2. Never too early to start planning the garden. Even before the first seed catalog shows up, I'm planning & scheming. I might even try to locate some tires this year! Thanks for the info!

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  3. Well I never bought into the tires are toxic meme although I have seen a few types that did deteriorate in a very strange manner that I wouldn't want to plant anything in, on or around. Almost like they turned into powder.

    I certainly am not bashing your or anyone's use of tires if they like to use em, but I think they are the ugliest looking things to plant in that could possibly be chosen. Maybe even worse than old rusting cars or toilet bowls or something in that line. I just dislike the very sight of them in gardens.

    Again not judging just stating my own personal preference.

    You do have a point about the overall energy expenditure explanation. Once a few years ago I did a post about using grass clippings as mulch and a reader that visited both our blogs came over and commented that it was not organic or "green" due to me using fuel for the lawn mower. All this while her blog showed pictures of her garden in Puerto Rico (The welfare capital of N. America BTW) complete with concrete walks, wrought iron fencing and even a copper sundial.

    So gasoline use is bad but strip mining iron and shipping it to Puerto Rico (The Welfare Capital of N. America) is all fine a green-like. Besides she said it was attractive and made her happy.

    There is no reasoning with some people.

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  4. You go girl! I tried to pitch it to my husband when I saw it a few months ago on your blog. I couldn't talk him into it for our suburban lot. We just built lots of wooden boxes that will rot in a few years and your tires will be still there long after you are gone. Very good choice and a whole lot cheaper.

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  5. it did my heart good to read your defense of using tires for gardening..i have been doing this for a number of years here in n.e.mississippi and the tires do the job. it is a lot of work to get it started but the results are remarkable at harvest time. i would love to take some of those tree hugging climate change idiots and feed them to the sharks.

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  6. thank you. i had read years ago that tires were unsafe and that a tire swing would pollute your children. i needed the enlightenment.
    please look at the deliberate agrarian's web site. i have his planet whizbang gardening book.
    he cut off both tire walls and turns the treads inside out. they then support themselves, although it might take goliath to turn tractor tires, but worth the experiment.
    he then stacks the sidewalls to make more raised beds and i want to try it as old tires are littering the area, so they are free.
    the soil here is a terrible clay which, if we were in the southwest, i'm sure would make great adobe.
    i gave myself bursitis going at it with a mattock.
    so i made two cement block raised beds but hauling cement at my age is near impossible.
    your post has made me happy because i can still lift a tire and there are plenty going begging here.
    many thanks.
    deb h.

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  7. Hello Patrice...why does she or anyone care what you decide to use on your property??!!??Some people are so narrow minded and strange. Anyhoot, I recently saw a tractor tire that size that you showed and it was all painted yellow. It looked really nice. Maybe some people would like to do that if they think the black color is boring or unattractive. In the meantime, blessings to you and your family. You're always in my prayers....Alicia (previously El Shaddai)...

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  8. Patrice I am proud of you to find something that will work!!!!! I have in my past gardens used tires for gardening just as they are and had great success. The warmth that they create as well as the well for water is a wonderful resource within itself. I never have had adverse affects from using tires. My tomatoes love tires...I dont cut the tires so the moisture is captured in the wells of ghe tire which keeps the tomato happy. Like they have there own sauna all day...good luck and god bless

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  9. Obviously, this person doesn't realize you are homesteading in Idaho? On a farm? In the middle of west and crooked? And you should beeeuuutify the place with flowers. I think the landscape around you speaks for itself quite nicely and isn't all cultivated and fake.

    I re-read it several times and am still sitting here in disbelief. I don't know, maybe you should throw in some bonsai while you're at it. That whole comment is just screwy on so many levels.

    Can you see a formal garden out in the fields of Idaho? Twisted.

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  10. We have a tire garden as well. As my husband has health issues, we did not cut the tires and they work perfect anyhow. I have painted them as I find low cost no cost paint~so they are color in the midst of the desert. Our tire garden has provided us for several years and I cannot imagine not having it.

    For the refined my humble life may be an embarrassment...but we live in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Water retention/water conservation is key. Sigh...if only, if only people paid attention to Dr. Seuss and the Sneetches. I mean~what do we gain if we all are the English garden type? Or the tire type? How on earth can we innovate without diversity?

    By the way~ here is a post with several shots of my tire garden:

    http://doublenickelfarm.blogspot.com/2012/05/way-out-yonder.html

    Jenifer

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  11. English Garden? Lol, I can visualize all those pretty little shrubs and garden benches covered in chicken poo.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, and Patrice, the Lady of the Manor, outside in her gardening gloves, long sleeves, and hat to protect her delicate complexion from the injurious rays of the sun while directing the gardeners as to which flowers should be cut for the drawing room instead of trudging outside to shovel **** out of the barn.

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  12. Here in the UK tyres are increasingly being kibbled into chunks and the steel extracted. The chunks are then used as a base in chicken runs etc as they easily wash clean and cause no pollution.

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  13. Maybe not for 30 years but someday those tires will degrade to the point where they can’t be used anymore. What will you do then? Your property is covered in hundreds of tires that cost money to dispose of and eventually someone will need to dispose of them. At the very least you’re reducing the resale value of your property.

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    Replies
    1. It's not as if they are all suddenly going to explode at the same time. One of the realities of farming/homsteading is that everything requires maintenance and eventual replacement. Wooden garden boxes will rot. Stone walls get damaged by ice, moisture, and roots. At least with a 30 year life cycle on the tires, there will be a long lead time to space out the maintenance.

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    2. My post wasn’t regarding *maintenance* it was regarding the eventual requirement to clean up the toxic waste that the tires are when they are no longer useable as planters. Or simply when you want to sell the properly that it comes with hundred giant tires that will each cost perhaps $50 to properly dispose of. You’ve a £5k bill sitting there on your property.

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    3. all of the tires aren't going to spontaneously degrade simultaneously. they will break down individually, probably whichever gets the most direct sunlight, and as they break down they can be replaced which is commonly referred to as maintenance and is not simply ignored for the 30 or so years required before they are all degraded beyond use. either way there's no reason to assume patrice's kids couldn't easily remove them for their parents which certainly wouldn't cost $5k.

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    4. Dispose of them now, dispose of them 30 years from now. What's your point? Either way they will have to be disposed of. If we are all lucky, in 30 years maybe there will be a way to dispose of them in a more ecologically friendly manner! Give us a break Skvez!

      Delete
  14. We originally used tires as a retaining wall for our driveway - 13 feet below the road - filled with the dirt/fill that made the incline. When the weeds flourished in those tires we decided it was time to use them for our garden. The first year we filled them, stacked 2 high, with composting stuff, the second year with just dirt on top. Planted tomatoes and peppers since they like warmth. We were overrun with both. Our garden was 1/4 mile off the road so no one could see it. Didn't care anyway. Sometime in the 70s? in either Mother Earth News or Popular Mechanics an article featured all the things you could do with tires - child swings, planters, edgings, retaining walls, even sandals! Use what you want, where you want and grow what you want - happy gardening!!

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  15. We originally used tires as a retaining wall for our driveway as it had to go down 13 feet from road to our land. When the weeds flourished in them we decided to use them for our garden. The first year we stacked them 2 high (car and truck tires) and filled them with composting stuff, the 2nd year we added some dirt and tomatoes and peppers - we were overrun with produce. Because of the warmth the tires provided anything we planted did well, especially as we could plant earlier and have productive plants later.
    I seem to remember an article in the late 70s early 80s showing uses for tires - retaining walls, garden edging, a hobby horse swing, even sandals. Probably was in Mother Earth News or Popular Mechanics.
    The resale value of your property will not be reduced by your using tires. You will not pollute the air or the earth. You will provide food for your family. And you are keeping tires out of the landfill. Much more pollution is caused by tire landfills catching fire, and I think there's about one gigantic fire a year.

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  16. I have used old tires for water troughs with no hint of contamination as I had the tire stock tank water tested. The tire store where i used to farm had a machine that turned tires inside out and they made wonderful hay feeders for the cattle and horses. I use my old pick up tires as potato planters, stacked in a 3 to 4 tire stack. {I do cut part of the side wall out to do that.] No they do not look like a very expensive flower garden but they hold soil and growing medium in them quite well and the vegetables love them, so does my back! My neighbor got three big tractor tires for her raised beds and painted them in whimsical spirals that look very cool! I think your use of tires is a marvelous thing!

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  17. Wow those tractor tires are WAY better than the ones on my 63 Case 530 backhoe! Hey thanks for informing folks. As I have said before ,personally I choose traditional tilling etc, and green manures etc.. But if this works for you guy's who care what some green weeny says!

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  18. I don't have an issue with tires for any of the reasons listed above. I've actually used them before. But in my current location I would only use them for composting. I found that the tires would get too hot during the hottest months of the summer (in AL) and would cook the plants.

    I do wish that I had access to tire tractors when I could use them though. Big differences in sizes.

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  19. Which should we fear most?
    1. Food grown in tractor tires, or
    2. Those who think they need to protect us from ourselves and protect their Mother Earth from us?
    Montana Guy

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  20. I think your "garden-in-a-tire" concept is terrific! I have often wondered about those tires, though, because most of the ones in your pictures look like they're still good for many more miles and years! I mean, so many of them still appear to have tons of tread on them! What makes them no longer of use on tractors?

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    Replies
    1. We noticed that too, when we first started getting old tires delivered -- that the tread still looked good. But our friend who works at a tire store said it's not just the treads that indicate whether a tire still has life -- it could be bubbles or cracks or some other flaw. (That's for car/truck tires, not tractor tires.) Regarding tractor tires, I'm not sure what the criteria are for changing over. I do know that most of the tractor tires we get usually have a spot circled in green chalk indicating some sort of problem with the tire, but it's not always obvious what the problem is.

      - Patrice

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  21. Here's the link for one of the companies that produce chipped rubber for agricultural usehttp://www.newgen-recycling.co.uk/products. Given the EUs strict testing policies in agriculture if there was any danger it wouldn't be allowed so I think you are pretty safe!

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  22. Good Morning Patrice,

    I have some thoughts you might find interesting. First of all this whole bugaboo about things being carcinogenic is largely claptrap. Just because something is carcinogenic doesn't mean it causes cancer, and I will explain why, and just because compound is present doesn’t make it toxic.

    Carcinogens are broken down into two categories. Class A and Class B carcinogens. Coffee falls into the Class B category, and so do all the Brassicaceae, or crucifers. We commonly call them cabbages, mustards, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, Chinese cabbage, and horseradish. To put this into context. Coffee may contain anywhere from 17 to 27 difference carcinogens and in drinking one cup of coffee you will consume more carcinogens than all the carcinogens from all the pesticide residue on all the food you will eat in one year. In point of fact a Thanksgiving dinner is full of carcinogens that are naturally occurring.

    Classifying something as a Class B carcinogen is based on rodent testing. The rodents used for testing are broken down and categorized into genetic stocks, and they are all genetically predisposed to grow tumors, and some are so inclined they will grow tumors without coming into contact with anything other than their food. Then they are fed massive amounts of a compound – more than any human being would ever be exposed to in a lifetime usually – to see what happens. Well…Duh….they get an adverse physical reaction.

    The Information Quality Act requires the government to use the best science available when making decisions. As a result in 2005 the American Council on Science and Health petitioned the EPA to stop declaring things carcinogenic based on rodent testing alone, as that isn’t the best science available. The EPA responded declaring their decisions on this didn’t fall under the auspices of the IQA because their decisions weren’t based on science, but EPA policy. That shouldn’t surprise anyone.

    There is one more thing. Has anyone ever noticed how the tread will wear out on a tire? If so, where does that material go? It seems to me it should end up on the roads. Right? Scientists thought so also, so over thirty years ago they decided to find out why we don’t see a massive buildup of rubber (synthetic or otherwise) on the roads. They discovered a bacteria slowly consuming the rubber until it was gone.

    Best wishes,
    Rich Kozlovich

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  23. My first thought when you started this endeavor was, "Wow! What a great way to upcycle and repurpose those tires!" You really are keeping them from the landfill and I do not believe this will be a "fad" phase for you at all.

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  24. My garden will be expanded with tires this year, I'll be cutting off at least some of the sidewalls, though all remains to be seen. Got'em free from a local repair place who thought my idea of using them for raised garden beds to be the best idea ever! I noticed that his pile of used tires shrunk pretty quickly after that, I suspect that some of them went home with him for the same purpose. I'll be picking up, if I can find them, some of those giant huge tires to use for our new fruit trees too.

    I planted a few of our new berry bushes in tires last year as a trial. They were pretty much the only thing that thrived in our unusually wet summer. I can't wait to plant more!

    Question for you on the subject. Have you ever tried "hot bed" gardening using your animals' manure? I was recently reading a couple books on the subject and will be attempting a single bed thusly next winter if I can convince one of the local farms to give me some fresh manure.....

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    Replies
    1. We don't "hot bed" per se, but we use composted manure extensively. Everything I pull out of the barn is composted and eventually ends up in the garden. We have about a three-year cycle on the compost heap.

      - Patrice

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  25. The "wonderful" English (spelling of tire) lady (I'm guessing) that wanted you to give up food for flowers is operating is a different space/time continuum or she has access to a food source not available to normal people.
    JW M

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    Replies
    1. Yes, and to nit pick the article, "left out in the whether" -- hmm, editors, editors...weather it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of these kinds of comments....

      Delete
  26. I live in an area that has huge tires from mining equipment. Savvy individuals use these behemoths to make long wind breaks (wind that makes the news on the east coast and in the south is standard fare here) that horses and cattle can use to take shelter when the weather is exceptionally harsh.
    When the sun goes down where I live, which has an elevation of 5350 feet, most visitors from warmer states don heavy jackets. We bundle in blankets to watch fireworks for the 4th of July. My plants would greatly benefit from the warmth a heavy tire would retain and radiate at night.
    We must each do what is necessary to grow our own food, as some day we may not have the privilege of driving to town and just buying what we need. Tires are beneficial to Patrice's efforts. It is also keeps them out of landfills. Someday, long down the road, they may have to be repurposed yet again by being picked up and taken to a place where they may be shredded or such. Why is it anyone's concern that that may happen? In the 15 years I have lived where I do, the walls of tires I see have not deteriorated to the point that it is visible. How many people stop to think that the same applies to the houses they build--each one will not last an eternity and will become an eyesore waiting to be torn down. It doesn't mean that you should not build it!
    Ugly/beauty is in the eye of the beholder and usefulness trumps pretty every time.
    sidetracksusie

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  27. Patrice - i totally support your use of tires and i would really like to point out a sentence in sidetracksusie's comment above:

    "Ugly/beauty is in the eye of the beholder and usefulness trumps pretty every time."

    i feel exactly the same way!

    we started tire gardening in our half-mil house back in the city. people thought we were crazy and ruining the re-sale value of our home. so many people told us to get rid of the tires when we were selling our home - we said no way - the people who buy our home are going to want the tire gardens...and the solar panels...and all of the information about tire gardening that we could provide after gardening that way for 6 yrs. the first kids through the door at our first open house wanted the house bad - and all of the windows in our garage that my husband had been picking out of garbage for years in order to build a greenhouse. the kids made an offer the next day for full-asking price but stipulated that all of the windows in the garage came with the house - bahahahah! and they stipulated that they wanted to come back several times in order to learn more about the tire gardens!

    we arrived to our BOL, our home 3 yrs ago. and promptly started gathering tires. i envy that you get those giant tractor tires - we are trying to find a place where we can get some too! all of our tire gardens are regular-sized tires - no prob tho - you just need more of 'em!

    i love tire gardening - using tires keeps those tires out of landfill and we love the idea of reduce, re-use, recycle! but truth be told, because the tires warm the earth inside of them very quickly on a few sunny days in the spring, and keep the earth warm much later into the fall - they extend our growing season. we grow the majority of our food in tires but the big winner for us is potatoes and we eat lots of potatoes around here. because the tires keep the earth warm for so long - we don't even bother harvesting our potatoes until our first solid frost which is usually mid-december. until then, we just harvest as we need from august to december.

    my tire gardens are the most beautiful things i own...and yours are beautiful too.

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  28. Kind of jealous...I live on the other side of the Palouse from you(eastern Washington), and I would love to use tires...I just worry like someone else said, that they would get TOO HOT on the strings of 95-100 degree days we often get here. Maybe I should get some and spray paint them white...see if that helps.

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  29. Interestingly, tirecrafting.com appears to have purged that document from their site. I'm glad you were able to post as much of it as you were to your site!

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  30. Hello, I've tried contacting Mr Farber on the email address posted in the article, but it seems that the delivery to the recipient has failed permanently. Would you perhaps know of an alternate way of getting through to this chap. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. I have no additional contact information. However I found this link, which might be useful:

      http://www.tirecrafting.com/contact.html

      - Patrice

      Delete
    2. I think the email is wrong. On the site it says retiring@tirecrafting.com and in your article it says retired@tirecrafting.com

      Delete
    3. Thank you for noticing this! Good "eagle eye." I've updated the blog post.

      - Patrice

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  31. In ny... not sure about elsewhere you cannot be an organic certified farm if you have tires on your property. Only learned that from a friend recently who was going through the certification.

    Learning in NY

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