Tyre towers

[Jane Wilding]

I’ve successfully grown potatoes (and all sorts of other stuff) in tyre towers. I started off with good soil and organic matter, put 3 spuds in and covered them, and as the haulms grew I put another tyre on top and filled that with soil too. I ended up with 3 tyres, and the results were very good, potatoes all down through it. I’m not sure that it saves space though, unless you’re growing them on paving rather than earth. The only trick is to fill the wall of the tyre with soil by pushing it outwards as you go, so there isn’t a great big air space. And you can always get tyres from Kwik fit or wherever, for free. Tyres collect and retain heat (because they’re black) so apart from the fact that they’re ugly and made partly from fossil fuel and will be around for millennia after we’re extinct, they’re a fabulous garden resource!