Rock garden, tire tower, & beautiful crocuses

I have continued to clean the yard this week. I need to have another brush fire again. I especially am cleaning up arounf the flower garden and desperately need to mulch them. The crocuses are already blooming and the hyacinths leaves are poking out of the ground.

For the last couple of days i have hauled rocks from the woods to put around fruit trees and fruit bushes. I'll show you a tour soon.

I have started working on a tire tower flower garden. I need to clean them so I can eventually paint them vibrant spring colors then transplant flowers in them.

Also i decided to start cabbage and cauliflower indoors. Once the seedlings come up, I'm going to put them in the porch greenhouse during sunny days. By mid March i will tranplant them outside in a mini tunnel greenhouse i have. There is much to do in the garden even in winter, so I'll keep you updated.

Recycled (car/truck) Tire Gardens

It's amazing how much trash goes to the landfill, but think how much trash could be reused for gardening, or making homes. Car/truck tires can be layered to create a whole HOUSE! Earthships are made of tires containing dirt and rebar for support. In this post I will be specifically discussing tire gardens.
I usually find my tires along the side of the road; and I have even found 10 tires piled up in the woods! I know several people who have grown potatoes in tires. Carrots and onions do best in raised beds, which may be great for growing in tires. It's possible to grow any annual or biennial plant in a tire. Something like a tree will not be best suited for growing in a tire.

Personally, I would not grow vegetables in tires (especially if they haven't been completely cleaned).  I am using 5 tires for growing Ferns and Chrysanthemums. If I obtain more tires I will continue to grow flowers in them. I would like to paint Tires and create a unique Tire wall as you can see from other gardener's tire gardens-- see below:

gardening channel

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No dime design

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the Tire Garden

According to Linda Chalker-Scott, Associate Professor and Extension Urban Horticulturist, WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, we do know that "rubber tires will be a constant source of leached metals, PAHs, and other pollutants as the tires degrade. Whether or not it's enough to worry about from a human health perspective is unknown." Also, the black rubber can get hot in direct sunlight, which can damage your plants.