Flora at Grimm Acres Farm

For several years I have been working with planting in straw. I am a big fan of Ruth Stout (1) and have read just about everything she wrote, and everything I can find written about her. I also love the book Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza (2) My garden is a combination of those and many other resources culminating in a raised bed, composting straw method that works well for me in my low/wet garden area. During the spring my garden stands in water several inches deep and could not be cultivated. By raising the beds and leaving grass between the "rows" (and I use the term loosely) I can work in the area wearing boots and not get stuck in the mud. The tires warm up in the sun and really help heat the planting medium, letting me get my seedlings out early. I put PVC pipe frames and row cover over them if needed to protect from late frost, chill, or other bad weather.

I started with car tires cut and turned inside out. It worked really well and Amanda (our daughter) is currently using the same tires. Then I had the opportunity to get some really big tires and just decided that if little was good, big was better! This is the first year to have the garden in the big tires, and so far I really love it. I'm still cutting salad greens, the pansies are blooming and I have tomatoes, peppers and pumpkins set out.

The tires came from Herschel Johnson Implement Company of Albion where we bought our little Massey Ferguson tractor (the single best investment we have made to date). This little community is extremely lucky to be served by several Implement companies including McLean Implement Inc. a Gold Star Certified John Deere Dealer; and ALBION EQUIPMENT CO. INC., handling Case IH, Great Plains, JM Innovations and Landoll.

To make the most of the planting space inside the tractor tires, we cut the top ring out of some of the tires with a regular jig saw. Others we have not yet cut, but plan to when we get a "round tuit". The tires are packed full of layers of composted wood chips, composted hay, grass clippings and other raw compost materials, and straw. I added the layers as they became available, not in any order, then topped them with straw to finish filling them up.

The plants were started in my little green house/ hoop house in the back yard from seed. This year we used heat lights over the seed trays to keep them warm, but plan to try string lights under the trays next year. Even when it is quite cold at night, the main problem I have is keeping the hoop house cool enough during the day to keep from precooking the 'maters. To transplant the seedlings into the tires I just push the straw aside and set the plants in. With tomatoes, I pull off the leaves up to the top 2 or 4 and plant them with those couple of leaves showing.

I water based on the need. The top layer of straw looks and feels pretty dry all of the time, but reaching down into the straw I can feel just how damp the planting matter is and how much water it needs. Frankly, if a garden's going to work for me, it has to be fairly low maintaince.

I trim between the tires with a week eater, and with ducks. An advantage of having the grass between the tires is that I can walk on it regardless of the amount of rain we have had, and even if I let the grass get a bit tall, it doesn't compromise the vegies in the tire beds. One pass with the weed eater, and it is tidy again. The foxes have made it cumbersome to run the ducks in the garden this spring because the garden is one place I don't let the dogs into. The ducks have to be moved to the front yard each evening, then out again in the morning, which happens about 50% of the time.

See pictures of the garden, and Amanda's car tire garden on Picasa Click Here.

1. Stout, Ruth (February/March 2004). "Ruth Stout's System". Mother Earth News. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2004-02-01/Ruth-Stouts-System.aspx. Retrieved November 9, 2011.

2. Lasagna gardening: a new layering system for bountiful gardens: no digging, no tilling, no weeding, no kidding! Patricia Lanza - Rodale Press (1998) - Paperback - 244 pages - ISBN 0875969623