A good idea spotted on a walk in the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood perked up Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I.
Tread lightly.
I wanted to take a photo with my iPhone 6. My cherished rescue mutt wanted to breathe in its deep scent.
This neighbor had found good use for an old tire.
We walked right up to it to make sure I had seen it correctly. There was still just a trace of tread on the bottom.
I liked the concept. Indeed. So much better than adding one more old tire to the heap at any dump, or putting them out of sight, out of mind, in the back corner of your premises, or worst yet, firing them off the side of some road somewhere.
What’s the best use of an old tire you’ve seen? What’s the coolest planter you’ve seen? What would you plant in your yard tire?
Mark Bialczak 
The first time I visited my parents’ new home in Florida, after they sold and left my beloved childhood home in Connecticut, I was out walking the dog. I passed a yard with an old toilet sitting out front. In the bowl were plastic flowers, being lovingly watched over by Jesus, Mary and Joseph in bright plastic. Unlike your tire planter, I don’t think this was a good use of any of the materials.
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Religion gone to the crapper, Elyse. Oy.
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Tomatoes, beans, herbs, lettuce, spinach. Do you garden?
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Karen gardens. I follow my dear wife’s gardening instructions.
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I am married to someone who despises tires used as planters, even though I think a bright green tire with some pink begonias would look fabulous hanging on the side of our garage. *achem* So I don’t get to do that. lol
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That sounds stupendous to me, Joey. Great color scheme. 🙂
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Thank you, Mark. I appreciate that we share the same aesthetic on this matter.
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Is my yard tired? Absolutely. We had a nursery come out and give us an estimate for filling, grading and sod — $4,000! So we’re not doing that. Maybe I could just get a bunch of old tires and figure out some way to build up the yard with them, kind of like that cistern photo. Might not go over too well with my more upscale neighbors, however (and yes, I do have some normal neighbors).
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Your normal neighbors might pitch in with a cistern party, CM. Just thinking out loud. ❤
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The best ‘use of tires’ I ever saw was on a balcony.
The tenant filled a tire with dirt and seed potatoes. When the plant grew tall, another tire was added and filled with more dirt. (You know instead of hoeing) and so on. When you harvest the potatoes in the fall you do so, by removing one tire and its dirt at a time. Did you know that you can grow 100 lbs of potatoes from one plant that way, Mark? ❤
Diana xo
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You taught me something today about growing and harvesting potatoes, Diana, and I never grow tired of learning! ❤
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Me too Mark. I’m going to try it one day…
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In and around my hometown I used to see giant tractor tires used this way to surround a big flower bed. Often they were painted white. I would not say I’m a big fan of the look of it. Wouldn’t it be a nice challenge for a school of design to come up with uses for old tires that is practical, useful, and aesthetically pleasing?
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If I were a professor at a school as you mentioned, I’d assign that right away, Annie. Good suggestion!
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Are you kidding me-Tires in Florida beachside yards? No way! I have seen in my days of travel in the NE they were painted various colors and used as a border to a walkway with plants. The Gatorette
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Find some really pretty shells instead, Gatorette. 🙂
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Pun intended Mark???? Gatorette
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🙂
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They must be from the South..lol. Pretty common to see that in Arkansas. Sometimes they are painted white, but occasionally we see other colors. One house here even has a water feature made from stacked tractor tires..it is absolutely horrid.
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I may draw the line at the water feature, dear SIL, although if stacked with an eye toward architecture and painted with the right imagination, one of those babies could make their way into a museum of modern art. Which may not be saying much about modern art, huh?
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i saw a group of kids playing with old tires on a playground, rolling them up and down the hill. they were having a ball.
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This sounds like workouts designed by the famous trainers on ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Beth. Smart kids!
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That is a great idea Mark.I have seen those tire planters occasionally in the past. I like many flowers but know very little about them. As a society we produce far many more tire than we can reuse or recycle.Here in Canada there is a disposal charge built in that supposedly goes to subsidize recycling initiatives. There have been some dandy ideas but nothing yet that would address the huge backlog of old tires we have stored in special dumps.
A few years ago one caught fire and it took years to put it out – and even then there is no guarantee that the fire is not still burning deep inside the pile.
Some uses are very cool,like this cistern with flowers- we just aren’t using tires as fast as we are producing them.
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I agree, Paul. The more imaginative uses for these old babies, the better off our world will be.
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