Old tires are great planters for a ‘recycled’ potato crop

April 26, 2014 at 2:40 a.m.

by Frank Fellone

Cleveland County cooperative extension agent Les Walz shows off an experiment at a community garden in Rison in which used tires become planters for potato plants. Tires will be stacked, up to four, and more dirt added as the potatoes grow, he said.
Cleveland County cooperative extension agent Les Walz shows off an experiment at a community garden in Rison in which used tires become planters for potato plants. Tires will be stacked, up to four, and more dirt added as the potatoes grow, he said.

RISON - Les Walz is cooking up a gardening experiment. Its main ingredients are potato plants and old tires.

Walz is the cooperative extension agent for Cleveland County. He has been instrumental in establishing a community garden here in which square-foot gardening is featured.

Would tires equate to pi-times-radius-squared gardening?

Mathematical puns aside, the idea is simple.

Get old tires. Where? Service stations. Garages. Backyards. Or, sad to say, a walk in the woods.

Fill the tire with dirt and mulch, and plant potatoes. Walz is using peanut hay mulch. When the plants get to a reasonable height, add a second tire and put on a few more inches of dirt, being careful to leave the tops of the leaves exposed.

Repeat up to four tires. The black tires will absorb the heat of the sun and keep the plants nice and warm.

At harvest, remove the tires from the top down and take the potatoes.

Will this work? Remember, it’s an experiment. But the plants in Walz’s tires in Rison were lush and green.

HomeStyle, Pages 42 on 04/26/2014

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