tire gardening | QUILTArtbymegan

Memorial day is both a solemn remembrance of the death of American soldiers and a celebration of their service. Sounds like an oxymoron to some, but being sad and celebrating makes sense to me.

See, my Mom’s mother died young. I never got to meet her. So Mom and I had lots of conversations about death when I was little. One fantasy Mom had was to be cremated and have her ashes spread in someone’s garden. I thought it’d be romantic to drift out to sea. We talked about how hard it is when someone you love died… how it’s okay to be angry and sad. Mom said she’d like a big party after her funeral. One where people laughed and smiled and remembered the good times.

So that’s what we did. Mom died suddenly when I was only fourteen. We cried and laughed. Mourned and celebrated. She was not a soldier, but soldiers aren’t just their job. They’re brothers, fathers, sisters, sons, mothers. Some of the people honored this memorial day will be remembered by their great-great-grandchildren. My thoughts are with each of you as you celebrate and honor your loved ones in your own way.

And now for some pictures of my garden. Growth, death, new life… yeah, gardening works for Memorial Day. Here’s the front. That big fro of foliage is carrots. Yup, my husband vetoed thinning the plants so we might have one giant carrot under that mess. We also have garlic and onions in this patch.

These corn plants are doing pretty well.Their neighboring corn plants, not so well. They’ve become a tasty treat for the local bunnies.
It’s nearly time to put the second tire on our potato planters. Remember how small these guys used to be? We’ll need a bale of hay soon too.
This pumpkin plant is doing well. Only two of six have thrived.
All of the watermelon plants look thick and bushy like this. They must like it here. I predict our backyard will be gradually overtaken by vines…. and watermelon slushies are in order at harvest time. Mmmmm….

Expect an update on the T-shirt quilt I’m working on in my next post.

After spending an hour looking for my new rotary blade packages, I found this in my center desk drawer. It was so smart of me to put all the new blades in one easily accessible container. Just wish I’d remembered doing it before the big search.

So I decided it was time to take a break and get some sunshine. I did a bunch of weeding and checked on the food crops we’re growing, including potatoes. Did you know that you can grow potatoes in old tires? Here’s how we’re doing it.

We painted the tires white with cheap spray paint. The quality doesn’t matter, just trying to change the color so the tires don’t heat up as much in the sun. Then we planted the seed potatoes inside them. My husband and I aren’t very good at remembering to water our garden, so we rigged up a drip sprinkler system. That’s what the tubes are you see in the photographs. As the potatoes grow, we’ll cover them with hay. Not dirt, hay. The roots grow in the dirt where we planted but the plant with the spuds will start growing above ground. Hay from a feed store will block the light and add structure for the plants to grow in.

Here’s one of the potato plants now. When it’s taller than the tire, we’ll stack another tire on top. The stacks might be four or five high by harvesting time. Tire shops have to pay to have their old tires carted away. So our local shop is more than happy to donate them to us. We’re growing other food crops, too. This little guy’s a pumpkin.

The corn grown from seed outside is doing well. We tried starting some inside, but they didn’t survive the transplanting.

Carrots and garlic grown side-by-side.

Alright, now that I’ve gotten a bit of sunlight and spent time with growing things, it’s time to cut some more fabric… with a fresh blade.

QUILTArtbymegan

For lovers of quilts, art, and Megan.

Tag Archives: tire gardening

“Happy” Memorial Day? Celebrate in the Garden.

Break for Tire Gardening