Simpson
Today I would like to share with you all a project that Charles’ dad, Morris, showed me; he is quite creative and makes the most interesting window mirrors, birdhouses, and more! This particular project involves repurposing old tires as planters, and although that sounds a little tacky they turn out gorgeous and you would never even know they were a tire!
To start you obviously need to find yourself a tire; Morris has had luck by asking friends, or even going to vehicle repair shops and tire stores and asking if they have any bald tires. Typically they just throw these out so you should be able to get some for free! The size of tire you want depends on your project but I would recommend starting out with a small, albeit not too shallow, tire.
Then all you have to do is find yourself a nice sharp knife and start cutting some points! We decided to have our points about an inch and a half wide and used the tire treads to help gauge this.
You want to cut your points inwards because after you are done cutting you will be flipping your tire inside out.
Make sure to cut all the way around the tire! Then pull out the interior piece and put this aside, you will need this later.
Now you get to start reefing on your tire to try to flip it inside out.
You might need to get your knee in there to help you.
Ta da! You will want that piece you cut out now to be placed on the bottom. From here you will simply have to wash then paint your tire. Once that’s done find a piece of chicken wire or other form of sturdy mesh and place your cut-out over top of it to hold it in place; this will help keep your dirt in your planter while still allowing proper drainage.
You can either paint your tire by hand or with spray paint. Morris prefers to use Tremclad and paint his planters by hand but I decided to try out spray paint on mine and it worked out quite well! It did require about 3 coats on the outside however (no need to paint the inside, just your little points), I also found spraying it in short quick bursts helped get better coverage than a long steady stream.
Once your tire is all painted and outfitted with your mesh you can now fill it up with dirt and the plants of your choice! Be it petunias for your smaller tires which you can also use as a hanging planter.
Or, if you have a larger tire, you could even plant various vegetable plants in them! Here the cut out from the top was used as a base instead.
Feel free to have fun experimenting with various colours, and various shapes and sizes of your points!
