Is gardening with tires bad for the environment?
I have read many articles that suggest using old tires for container gardening. My father is considering making a vegetable garden out of tires. Does the tire pollute the soil and there fore the vegetables? I it is bad to burn tires.. Should I be concerned about the quality of the vegetables? Have you seen any scientific evidence about this topic? Or environmental tests?
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:36 am
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i hope this helps and good luck
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:23 am
Tires are made from natural products, so there is no real harm in them. That said, you wouldn’t want a whole heap rotting in your garden.
By all means, make raised beds out of used tires, as well as supporting the soil they will insulate as well.
Do not burn them. Most local authorities will have a disposal scheme.
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:44 am
i red that article and the idea is still not a good one. your property will start to look like a junk yard.
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:57 am
Such fires produce a lot of smoke, which often carries toxic chemicals from the breakdown of rubber compounds while burning. A single tire contains about the equivalent of two U.S. gallons (7.5 liters) of oil.The fire releases a dark, thick smoke that contains carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and products of butadiene and styrene. A specific danger is posed by dripping hot fluids (which may cause burns) .I don’t think it’s good idea.Because tires rot very slowly if at all, but tires do emit fumes if they are in the sun,, and under extreme heat,, the same smell you find when driving down the road and you get that stinky smell of burnt rubber.and it will be hard to keep grasses and wedds away from your plants,because you’ll have to weed them away by hand and not with a garden tool , such as a hoe.
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:24 am
If you already have the tires – I say use ’em. Don’t burn them, however. I can’t imagine there is any concern about the quality of the veggies since what that really depends on is the soil you put them in and how you fertilize etc. They make rubber mulch these days – probably from old tires…
One critter warning – if you are not going to turn the tires inside out to eliminate the ridges, or if you are going to “store” tires, I would give you a caveat about mosquitoes who LOVE to breed in the little bit of water that usually sits in those ridges. Make sure the tires are packed tight with soil.
If you don’t have tires already, I don’t see an advantage to this method over any other raised bed method.
There are lots of unanswered questions that would help determine what the best garden situation is for you :
Do you want raised beds because you have trouble up and down? If that is the case, build a box (make the bottom out of screening and landscape fabric so water will flow through) and set it on top of some table legs or horses.
Or is it because you only have a little bit of space? Container gardening is easily done with vegetables. See the book Movable Harvest for really great ideas. You can use pretty much anything you can put a drainage hole in (provided it didn’t have chemicals in it first!).
Personally, I think anytime you are recycling something for a good use it is worthwhile – but for the love of God – PLEASE don’t buy new tires to try this project out!
Just in case you DO have a bunch of tires laying around, I attached a link to a site that has many ideas for using them up in the garden.
Good luck to you and your dad!
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:53 am
as far as I know the tires are actually not a bad thing to grow vegies in as they keep the soil nice and warm, especially for things like tomatoes.
I believe you are supposed to turn them inside out though
of course you would only use tires that are no good for the road anymore – ie you are saving them from being thrown in a landfill