Using freely available waste materials: TYRES & PALLETS

I’ve been learning a lot from Volunteer Friday mornings at Mount Pleasant Ecopark in Cornwall. In return for a few hours work in the gardens, tending to fruit, vegetables and the land, you get a very tasty vegetarian lunch, and a whole heap of knowledge.

Garages have to pay to get rid of old, damaged tyres so they will happily give them to you for free. Nothing better than reusing free waste materials. So here are some of the things you can do with the tyres:

1. Fill them with compost and plants. You can either leave the tyres on the ground and fill them up. Or if you want to move them around, place a flat piece of wood as a base to stop the contents from falling out. These guys then painted them so they look pretty!

2. Use loads of tyres and make rows of seating for an amphitheatre. Also, if you search online, plenty of eco-homes have old tyres in their walls.

3. Shelter and warmth for courgettes. When the courgette plant is young, place a tyre around it on the soil. This protects the plant from wind, and the black tyre will absorb heat, radiating it to the plant in the middle.

I also learnt that wooden pallets can be placed upright and made into planters. You can find used pallets being given away for free or very cheap. Just look somewhere like Gumtree. Again, wood is nailed or screwed on the bottom of each ‘shelf.’ Old compost bags are then cut up to make a waterproof lining for each ‘pocket’. Then compost is put inside and plants of your choice. In these pictures you can see spinach and chard growing very happily.