Are tires safe to use in and around gardens?

This is just one of the the "goodies" I found in my woods. 
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30293700&l=c1208cf78e&id=1391592328
Not sure what to do about it so am thinking to stack, fill and plant, calling it a privacy fence, retaining wall, or windbreak...what do you all think.  My other half thinks it a silly idea, so any other suggestions?

Yikes - that had to be something you didn't expect to find 

Uses..... hum, potato rings maybe?  Stack and fill with dirt as your potatoes grow, then take apart to find potatoes as you need them.  Seems a bit labor intensive to me, but it's an idea.

Or use for a building such as making a shed or wall as you said.

With some cutting you can make interesting horse shaped tire swings - follow this link
http://www.ehow.com/how_4488373_make-horse-tire-swing.html

I've read about using them as shingles (very cool)

And of course decorator planters - check out the photos

~Jami

Great photos.  Way back when, when I bought my first farm in MO there was 2 planters like these...I wonder what ever happened to them (20 years ago).  Anyway, I have heard about planting potatoes in them but then I heard that they leach toxic into the soil and then into food so not to use them for growing food.  Any thought on this anyone?  If there is no truth to this, then it opens up a whole new set of options for these old tires for sure.

This is perhaps even more labor intensive, but it seems like a decent idea:

http://www.noble.org/Ag/Horticulture/RaisedBedGardening/RecycledTireBeds.html

I heard that they leach toxic into the soil and then into food

Well I might get flack for saying this, but.....
This is why I don't recycle most 'modern' materials, I wouldn't use tires on my land unless they were completely covered with a plaster in some building project.

Even when the toxic amounts are in question I don't want to 'walk that way' - to each his own ♥

~Jami

Hey Jami,
I meant to ask, are those then not your planters?  I was thinking maybe the paint sealed them somehow.

this is where the 're-user' sometimes clashes with the 'organic' part of me. this article addresses the use of tires and their potential for leaching and offgassing in earthships and might be helpful as it addresses the potential of tires to contribute to air and soil quality problems in an earthship enviroment and might give some clues as to how to mitigate those potential problems in other uses. I haven't found much real hard data as to their safety as planters for food items. lots of informal hubbub about how they leach and they are toxic but not much real info to back it up. I wish I felt better about using them as planters since they would make such easy raised beds. if I could come across some large tractor tires I would probably seal them up and use them.

http://www.earthship.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=74

because of the FEE for turning in tires to be recycled..there will be more and more dumping of them.

it is a shame..why don't they just raise the price of the recycled stuff they make with them..like playground pellets or rugs or whatever..to pay for the cost of the recycled tire.. think it is $3..$3 extra on a bag of playground pellets can't be that much more to be asking..to cover the cost of turning them in.

Sorry for taking so long to reply listenstohorses.  I haven't been getting email notifications for the forum up to now, but I think Paul has fixed it - Yea!

Anyway, no those are not my planters - although I do have a couple of old tires I was thinking about using in some creative way *grin* I went searching for ideas as soon as I read your request.

I don't know about paint sealing them, would depend on the paint I'm sure.  Speaking of chemicals (ha ha ha) they now make that new spray paint that sticks to plastic, something like that might stick enough to seal maybe.

Also, I found this info on tires as shingles http://www.appropedia.org/Tire_shingles
Of course if the toxic issues bother you then this is not a good idea (can you say toxic runoff).

Hey - how about as fill material?  You make a cement wall and put chunks of tire inside to displace the cement, thereby lowering your overall cost for the wall.... Whatcha think - would that be a safe enough use?

~Jami

Happened upon this interesting link:

http://www.ringtech.de/en/index.html

Looks like it has a lot of possibilities, though I'm not sure what one would do with the sidewalls.  I could imagine finding ways to weave with them, too...

Well the sidewalls can go out with the trash pickup...for that matter so can the tires if I want to cut them up first, just no whole tires allowed...much like no wet paint.  One needs to take the lid off and let the cans dry out first. 

Hi Jennifer

I have made large yabbie ponds useing tyres and rubber pond liner and get several feeds each year from it. have also used them to make horseshoe shaped raised bed on sides of hills to catch water for plants that have been planted in the now leveled areas. They can be unsightly but with rocks, soil ,and creepers can easily be made to disapear into the garden landscape. I would consider a find like yours a Godsend.

Cheers

Bird

Bird wrote:
I have made large yabbie ponds useing tyres and rubber pond liner and get several feeds each year from it.
I would consider a find like yours a Godsend.

Thank you so much Bird!  Love to you.  What is a yabbie pond?  Do you have any photos to share?

I think yabbie is the Aussie name for what we call crawdads or crayfish.

Kathleen

I was thinking some sort of way cool pond idea...and found something totally new to explore.  I would still like to see photos of your ponds and gardens of tires, and a bit more information on how you use the tires and pond liner? 

It so happens crayfish live local and I even have some in my little fish tank on the kitchen counter.  There maybe something to this.  Of course no one else around raises them and there may be a reason.

But what a great idea to be investigated.  Can you tell me anything about yabbie farming?

Hi all

Have just finished work 14hr night shift, will respond to your posts tonight. Damm shame getting paid to chat room all night. Supose security work can have an upside.

cheers for now
Bird.

Hey Bird,
it is super to have you here on the forum.  It is good for us that you get to chat at work.  I look forward to learning form you and hope to be of some help to you too.

cheers

Hi all

Yabbie is one Aussie term used here, but yes they are all forms of fresh water cray fish.

On photo's sorry cant do at this stage, using health dept (Government) computer not allowed to plug in private appliances.--- also until recently i thought computer was spelt ABBACUS and world wide web was something spun by a mutant spider!

To make tyre pond

chose your site, scrape a tyre width levelish footing so tyres lay fairly level, any shape you want square would be a challenge. now lay first layer fill with anything you want, soil ,rocks, rubbish (yes i used plastic, glass, crushed cans,car parts) I dont have rubbish service, local tip over 100km away, and its also my belief that humans should take ownership of the rubbish they generate. all this is then packed down by sledge hammer until very firm.
Next layer place tyre to interlock, half on one tyre half on next, and repeat as before, continue till you reach desired hight, mine is four tyres high.
When finished this stage push on wall to check firmness, stability.
Next is first outer wall, where tyres meet you will find V , place first tyre in V and start again, this round will be only 3 tyres high but do not fill top ring of this round at this stage
not over yet but getting close, one more round 2 tyres high again dont fill top ring.

At this stage I dry stone walled the outside 2 tyre level, and filled this level with garden loam, ready for planting also put first stone step/platform, fill next level with loam, next step/platform
so now i have steps to top and areas ready for planting, i did not stone wall middle level chose to hide this with gronnd cover herbs.

Next it is time to measure pond liner, down wall across base  up wall .length and width allow some overhang. put some river sand or builders sand on bottom to protect from sharp edges, and lay liner use weights to hold in place over wall, in pond lay hollow logs and such on bottom ( look at enviroment your crays come from for ideas) fill almost to top, mine is 6/8 inches from top.

water plants next, again try local, i have reeds, water lillies and watercress, add crays, local river fish.

Almost done, Pave top ring with flat stone holding down pond liner excess have this stone overhang a couple of inches to prevent crays crawling away.

Last but not least fine tuning, find low point and make spillway for wet season over flow, i made mine into a dry rock bed creek leading to fruit trees. plant out and enjoy.

am thinking of lining my man made creek and leading to another but smaller pond and pumping from one to another, little flowing creek past outdoor dining?At first i had a small solar powered aquarium air stone, but i think plants are enough, creek idea will help airate the system but no probs have been noticed.

Remember use water plants that will not cause problems if they escape via overflow.

Hope this explains and changes your view of so called rubbish. everything Must have more than one use
a thing of beauty can grow from crap. I now must rest my typing finger lest it gets RSI.

Happy blisters (frozen peas/corn will help)

Many more uses for tyres if any one wishes to hear!

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
* ALBERT EINSTEIN*

Cheers
Bird

I'm with Leah on this one:  the recycler/re-user in me conflicts with the organic in me.  But I've had tires offered to me before and in the end I always reject the tires. 

They just aren't inert enough for me.

But .... that's just me.

I agree, if offered I would have refused... but the tires are here in my back pasture.  I will have to deal with them eventually, it is not a want to thing. 

Jennifer Hall wrote:
I agree, if offered I would have refused... but the tires are here in my back pasture.  I will have to deal with them eventually, it is not a want to thing. 

Tires are famous for being a mosquito breeding ground.

I suspect I would try to get them off of my property.

paul wheaton wrote:
Tires are famous for being a mosquito breeding ground.
I suspect I would try to get them off of my property.

yea, I was not thrilled to find them... but I can only do so much so fast.  First was/is to get/keep water out of my barn so I can work.  Next, path from house to barn, and drives, so I can work. 

Now, it is get house ready for winter so I have a place to live... it gets cold here in zone 5... and work horses.

I have invited you and several others out to help/advise... so far no takers.  If I had met Fred and Amy 6 months ago things may be differant right now.  I feed hay here but it is cheap... and I know people/places/things here.  PR was a dream for a while though.  How is Montana?

Hey Jennifer,  I've been thinking about your tires....

I don't know about where you live, but using the yahoo group freecycle for your area maybe a good way to share things that you don't want to mess with, with others who do  

Maybe the solution for you and your 'surprise' tires is to move 'em to the end of your road and post them on freecycle....

I don't know if you have muscle on your place or not, but maybe you can drag them behind your horse to get them to the road.

Lots of maybes I know, but sometimes getting out from under a thing is the best way to go all around - if you know what I mean?

~Jami

I like Bird's yabbie pond.  I can think of a number of other uses for such a construction, but he may have just told me how to build the little goldfish pond my daughter has been wanting.    I can even see a swimming pool built this way, although here it would freeze in the winter.  But with tire sides, freezing shouldn't do much damage.  Hmmm.

Kathleen

i think it is horrible that people dump things on our property..we had to have a bunch of them hauled to recycling when my MIL died..there were dozens there..at $3 each to have them hauled off.

i don't think i owuld worry too much about them leaching stuff into the soil..esp if they are stacked and filled with good compost..or manure..

but if you are concerned..use things that crop above ground..such as blackberries, raspberries, blueberries..etc..

the tire planters can be cute if that is a design you like..or just after you plant them..bury the sideds of the tires too and plant them with ground covers..and then you'll have a permanently planted berm.

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:
I like Bird's yabbie pond.  I can think of a number of other uses for such a construction, but he may have just told me how to build the little goldfish pond my daughter has been wanting.     I can even see a swimming pool built this way, although here it would freeze in the winter.  But with tire sides, freezing shouldn't do much damage.  Hmmm.

Kathleen

You could probaly get away with a heavy duty plastic sheet for a small fish pond. As for a pool my pond is about size of a small one, but if i was doing it for a pool i would make the three tyre layer about four tyres wide, somewhere for the deck chair. Dont have the freeze problem here coldest here is 24 celcious but thats cold enough to reach for a jumper, the humidity is the killer here often 85% plus.

I've got to chip in on this one because this is a particular issue that I have been putting a lot of thought lately. I live in a relatively sparse area of Missouri, along a US highway. It seems that about once a year or so an unmarked truck will drive through in the middle of the night and throw out used tires alone the roads.  (shocked? I was!) Apparently someone had an excess and couldn't get them disposed of so this was their (albeit illegal and immoral) alternative. The state picks them up eventually, but they are there for months usually.

So taking the Mollison approach that pollution is unused excess, I have come up with some ideas to mitigate the issue of excess used tires.

I am a big fan of hedges and alternative types of walls or fences, so this went right up my alley. I read the raised bed article, and found that with a serrated edged hunting knife I was able to slice the sidewalls off of a tire in about a minute for each side. If you cut the tread, you are left with a strip of what the article calls "rubber lumber" Defending on the diameter of the tire, the strip is at least 5 feet long and often longer. I did try this type of raised beds, and I did try the potato in the tire trick. The raised beds weren't worth repeating because the tires aren't stiff enough and with the wet year we had my rebar stakes eventually fell over and it just ended up a mound of soil. I will try the potato tire stack again, but this time with compost that i did not add wood ashes to (and forgot). Suffice to say, I have LOTS of seed potatoes for next year that are about the size of a quarter.

Anyhow, i got onto the idea of taking that same "rubber lumber" and simply layering it on top of itself, screwing it down into the next level, creating sort of a laminate rubber wall. My eventual plan is to create two parallel walls wide enough apart to stack the sidewalls in, fill the empty spaces full of rocks and such, then stucco and cap it when I get to the desired height. Since I'm a big fan of hedges, planting semi-invasive vines such as wysteria and honeysuckle around it so that it will eventually drape over it should make a very nice looking, very inexpensive (though time and labor intensive) robust estate type wall. My thinking is that if the tires are put up on a rock foundation like a Cob structure and wrapped in plastic like a Oehler structure (prior to being stuccoed) then a large part of the toxicity is pretty much a moot point.

But I guess it's all about what you are comfortable with. It seems that everyone agrees that tires need to be recycled but almost no one wants to congregate them anywhere to do any large scale recycling. I personally don't have an issue with them so I can envision things such as this.

My problem is solved.  50+ tires donated...

the recycler/re-user in me conflicts with the organic in me. 

I tend to deal with this by applying access/proximity rational- if its more energy haul it away, and said item is as toxic 'away' as here, and its 'use' is greater than its contribution to site decline, Ill keep it.

but I wouldn't bring them in.

that said, Ill take photos and try to get them up in a few months when I get back home- Ive got tires, and I'm building retaining wall, similar to whats discussed above.

I have steep slope that needs bracing, and these tires, as the concrete filled ring ends of gabions, will make nice pin heads for my retaining wall. Ive about 60 of them, so will build a 30' long 4 tire tall wall and then fill and plant it with aggressive rooters.

its a border between the house and a zone 5 penetration into the center of our project, so it can be overgrown and unmanaged as still 'functional'...http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralsophist/2446696905/

its a sector analysis, not a zone map, but where it says "village cluster"- the zone five extends down the same area marked "view", and right up to the back side of the intern cabin, so that from its deck one can look at both the gardens (upslope) and the  valley view,  downslope. http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralsophist/2202252724/in/set-72157603721524146/. from the bedroom loft into zone five: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralsophist/2192809489/in/set-72157603721524146/

The top of the window about 30' feet up, and its some 40' up the tree (@ 15 feet from the house) as the slope is so steep.

the retaining wall gabion will be built just this side of the tree in the picture.

more to come!

Bird wrote:
I have made large yabbie ponds useing tyres and rubber pond liner and get several feeds each year from it.

Hello again Bird, pleas tell me more about raising yabbies.  I just keep thinking about it. I think it would be like growing weeds here...and I went to several crawfish boils in Alabama and had a good time. 

Hi Jennifer

yabbies are basicaly vegitarian they eat decaying veg matter, in my pond its mainly their tree log homes, falling leaf/branchs, and very rarely a small handfull of veg scraps. i harvest a feed about every 6/8 weeks. pretty much they take care of themself, just go to a local creek away from the busy public parks (or walk upstream away from the busy area) sit down and watch them in the wild, try imitate nature in your pond and you should be all right they do like to burow in cold whether so a sand layer inside pond is recomended, they will also wander if not happy, hence the overhanging stone on my pond. I dont get cold here so leaf litter build up in pond is enough, just dont let pond water go stagnant, hence plants and airation. if you google yabbie farming or yabbie breeding you should get some good sites best google the crays (sorry dont know the breeds of your local crays) of your area and see what pops up

Greetings from the Northern Territory Australia

Bird

research...
http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/arthopo/crayfish/varcraw.htm
http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/arthopo/crayfish/recip.htm
oh so much, but sure sounds worth a little thought and a great harvest...a party in a pond.

Looks like Goldens are what I have in the tank on my kitchen counter.  They eat hot dogs or chicken as well as what ever they find in the tank.  I have duckweed growing in there as well as snails and 3 little minnows.

Love ya work Jennifer, got the recipies before the pond, now thats forward thinking.

Bird

Bird,

I would love to hear more about your ponds...how many ponds do you have and how big are they? 

My other half laughs at my ideas but he does mostly indulges me (9 horses worth).  Even he perked up and listened a little after I told him you get a harvest in like 8 weeks.  He was at every boil I was in Alabama and more. 

And yes, I am a forward looking girl, lol.  A , great way to start my morning, and I will smile all day!  Thanks for the laugh.

Hi Jennifer

glad you took my last post the way it was intended, i to will now smile through the last 9hrs of work tonight, thinking of you wetting yourself laughing while trotting around the farm, dreaming of new and wonderfull cray dishes.

I started a new thread -fresh water crays- and have asked the moderator to move related posts from this thread, but i cant report my own post

thought this is right thing to do, as this post is about tyres and yabbie pond info may be lost to other members who may be interested but not interested in tyres

So if you could report this it would be great, there may be others who could throw their 2 bobs worth into the hat but missing out because of tyre title of this thread

Tyred but smiling (only 9hrs to go)

Bird

Let us move to "pond farmimg" .. I have intrest in fish and plants too..what kind of plants do you grow in ponds if any?

Does anyone have proof about tires either being safe or hazardous to soils and/or ground water?

There are a few dozen tires scattered around the farm here and I'd love to use them to grow in but I'm reluctant to as I've only come across heresay evidence about their safety.

have a look in the old thread tyres anyone youll find all sorts of answers in that thread, both for and against

yeah that thread pretty much sums up the debate. I think it becomes a personal choice and you must weigh the potential risks and benefits in your situation and according to your tolerence level.