how to make a tire planter...

When I was younger, in the midwest, a 10 year old could make a bit of spending money by finding abandoned tires by the side of the road, creatively cutting them, and turning them inside out. Of course now, almost all tires are steel belted, which makes turning them inside out a little more challenging, but heres how we did it...


You start by finding an abandoned tire. This is surprisingly easy, despite the fact that when you by new tires, you have to pay a $5.00 recycling fee... (at least in Texas you do) it's not uncommon for some unscrupulous tire sellers to take your $5.00 then dump the tire on the side of the road. There are literally piles of them by some rural roads... but reusing something IS recycling, so here's a viable use...

Take your tire and set it in the sun. This heats and softens the rubber and makes it a bit easier to cut and manipulate. (in the pic, please ignore the dry, dead grass. I obviously do...) The rubber will be warm within 15 minutes, but 30 minutes isn't gonna hurt...

Then, using a strong, sharp knife (one of those Ginzu knives work great) cut out the inside circle on one side... don't even try to cut through that thick, stiff inside rim. Just cut a slit in the side of the tire and cut from there... I'm using the white band as a guide, but if your tire doesn't have one, use a piece of chalk to make a guide line.

You're going to end up with something like this...


Then, all along the cut edge, make straight cuts, about 2 inches apart, down to the start of the tread...

Then turn the tire over, put your knee against the tread on the uncut side, and yank the cut edge over... This really takes two hands, but I was taking pics with one...

after a little bit of wrestling, you'll end up with something like this:

Now, look around and make sure that nobody is looking because this could get a little embarassing. Also, make sure that there are no hard rocks laying around, because there's a pretty good chance that you're gonna fall flat on your derierre... It was impossibe to photograph this, because you're gonna be using both hands and possibly both feet... but what you need to do is stand the tire kinda up on the unflipped end. Get your feet on top of the cut edge to hold it steady and then reach through the center of the tire and take a very firm hold on the inside rim. Then push with your feet and pull with your arms until the thing suddenly pops through... (this is the moment that you're likely to lose your balance,) It may take a little wrestling and repositioning, and I've found that muttering a constant stream of obscenities helps for some reason, but eventually, it'll pop through and you'll end up with something like this...

Now, scrub it down with soapy water to remove all traces of road oil (dishwashing soap works great!) Then get a can of spray paint to coat the outside and at least part of the inside, where the soil won't be and will be visible. I've found that if I paint them with that red-orange primer paint, everybody always stops and asks me where I got that great terra-cotta pot... but green is a classic choice as is white. Those are the most traditional choices, but there's no reason you can't go haywire and be as creative as you want...

Fill with dirt, and flowers of your choice. Or, they're becoming very popular to store garden hoses in, the hoses just coiling up inside like a snake-charmers cobra in it's basket.

Now, if you notice, the interior of this tire was textured with diagonal lines... most tires aren't. But this gives a little more surface texture, and I kind of like it.

placed outside and planted, the tire will last indefinitely, I've had one here for over 10 years. It needs repainted, but otherwise, it's still solid. Another lasted for 12 years, and would still be there if an agave hadn't poked it's way through the side.