Making Tire Planters

Tip: How To Make Tire Planters

Information on making recycled tire planters.

Christopher Lowell's Tire Planter

Materials

• old tire with/without rim
• sharp kitchen knife
• chalk
• potting soil
• spray paint

Directions

Draw pattern with chalk along side wall on one side of tire. Space scallops/ or ^^^ evenly around tire. Start at tread and end close to rim. Cut out with knife, using straight up and down motion, pointing blade away from yourself. This wil separate the tire into two pieces. Place your foot in center of rim and pull one scalloped edge toward yourself, this turns it inside out. Continue until it forms planter with pedestal. Fill with potting soil. Can spray paint planter to jazz it up.

Good luck, I am going to make mine this week.

By pikachu6

Felder Rushing Style Planter

Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences has great insturctions for making a tire planter: "Finding the right tire is essential in making a tire planter. The tire you select should be well worn, and pliable in the shoulder area of the tire (what Felder calls the "sweet spot"), just below the tread. You can tell if the tire is a good candidate by pushing in on the shoulder area with the palm of your hand. If there is plenty of "give" in this area, the tire should be easy to work with. If not, you should find another one to use."

Swan Planters

Type of tyre

Advertisement

The kind of tyre you use is important. An ordinary car tyre has steel belting so is near impossible to cut and will have sharp edges. I made Ron from old Vespa motor scooter tyres as they are easier to cut. If you could source some very old car tyres which are textile belted, they would be suitable, but still very hard to cut by hand.

To downlod the PDF go to Download PDF

Question: Making Tire Planters?

If I use regular paint (lots left over from reno) on the tires, how do I seal them to protect against the elements?

By Baer

Answers

debiyorke

June 23, 20140 found this helpful

Best Answer

I bought some Kilz and painted the tires. This seals them and makes the color more vibrant.

 

 

Question: Making Tire Planters?

debiyorke

June 23, 2014

What do you put in the tires on the top to hold in the dirt but still allow water to go through?

By debiyorke

Answers

ombarnes18

November 11, 20220 found this helpful

Depending on what you have on hand a base of chicken wire than a layer of burlap, mesh, screen. Cut your chicken wire insert larger than the hole so it doesnt slip out when moving or secure with drilling holes through the bottom of your tire and ziptie wire in place

 

Question: Making Tire Flower Planters?

Germaine Lynnette Blades

June 24, 2015

Answers

poehere
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 105 Posts

October 28, 20170 found this helpful

1. Basically the only way to do this is to have a plastic bottom on each tire.
2. You can use a sheet of plastic and cut this to fit inside the tire.
Advertisement


3. Now drill holes in the plastic so the water can drain out.
4. Stack your tires and fill them with dirt.

 

Judy
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 677 Posts

October 28, 20170 found this helpful

I would have shallow large bowls in each tire. Drill holes in the bottom for drainage.

 

chimonger

August 7, 20210 found this helpful

Base tires filled with dirt..pack solid! Then, stack next row of tires on top, pack full of dirt, after placing rocks or wood chunks into the joints where dirts can fall through. Or, stack straight, for faster root growth more straight down.

Advertisement

The dirt packed inside each layer/row of tires, locks the upper tires onto the ones below.
A tire packed full of dirt is VERY heavy, & wont shift, even stacked 4 tires high.
Additionally, can use 2 or 3 chunky hex-head screw bolts through the sidewall of upper tires down into the sidewalls of tires below, or into the ground, to prevent shifting.
Ive either placed a bit of mesh or weedcloth into the pocket formed where tires meet, to block dirt from falling through those.
Avoid covering the bottom with anything solid, as that blocks drainage; better to use mesh, or a few layers of recycled cardboard, unless hanging-up your tire planter.
One drawback of running-brick-stacking-pattern: if planting large shrubs, the roots need to go deep, & those will run around the inside of the tire before finding the tricky way down between the tires, which will slow growth of big shrubs.

Advertisement

I running-brick-stacked 3 rows high, along fenceline, & planted thuja spires in the top. Goal is growing a living fence of prickly, evergreen thorny shrubs, with the roots & trunks protected from mowers & intrusions.
But, Those have taken several years to grow even a foot of height; its taken about 5 years for their roots to find their ways down around & through the brick-stacked obstacles. But they are finally rooting deeper & are now growing better.
Using tires forms mini-water catchments in the upturned bottom rims, helping plants stay alive with less watering. I always build-in a little reservoir that holds water, to prevent plants dying between rationed waterings.

 

Question: Planters out of Old Tires?

Looking for info on how to make planters out of old tires. Thank you.

Answers