I LOVE living in Nova Scotia; however, putting in a veggie garden can be rather challenging here as the growing season is a bit short. We can get frost well into June. Some plants need more time than the growing season here allows and I simply don't have enough room inside to start everyone early. this year, I decided to try making old tires into little greenhouses.
I dug up the earth under the tire so the plants roots should be able to easily expand into the ground and filled the tire with soil I purchased from the store.Then I simply stapled on some clear plastic. I stapled it on about 3/4 of the way around, so I could still lift it up to check the plants and water them.
It has worked fantastic! The black tire seem to attract the sun keeping the soil warm, while the plastic keeps the plants safe from frost at night.
My pumpkins and watermelons seem to be doing great! I just put a rock on the unstapled end at night to keep any frost out. The plastic also keeps my pesky chickens out!
I planted a bunch of my veggies in tires last year and found it worked great; it was pretty well maintenance free. I didn't have to weed them, so it sort of worked like a raised garden bed. It was also easier to protect from my trouble making poultry.
I was concerned that the plants could get contaminated by the chemicals in the tires, but after much google searching I was reassured that tires had to be burned to release toxins and using them for plants was perfectly safe :)
Using tires for mini greenhouses worked great, was extremely cheap and easy to do!
Hugs and love!
