Edwina's Cucumbers

We've had a some successes and some disappointments in the garden so far - on the successful side, our cucumbers have definitely been our star veggie. Below, Edwina shows off some of the nice cucumbers that she picked today.

On the "not so successful" side - our peppers were a complete flop and our tomatoes have really struggled. I would show some pictures, but it's too depressing. The next go around, we'll definitely be using manure compost instead of purchasing "pre-mixed" compost. I think that was our biggest mistake.

Today was the last day with Jeremias (Summer Youth Employment Program) and Dylan (from GrowMemphis) - they worked hard all summer and helped us keep the grass and weeds down. Thanks guys!

Summer Youth Employment Program

Today was the first day for us to receive Jeremias as a worker at the Vance Garden. Jeremias is a senior at Trezevant High and is a part of the Memphis City Summer Employment Program. Jeremias will be working at the garden each Thursday during the summer.

Also with us today was Dylan, who is an intern with GrowMemphis this summer and a student at Christian Brothers University.

Together we planted some new flowers around our sign and began to fill up our compost bins with leaves.

*Thanks also go out to Patty Burch for the purple Salvia and letting us use her great leaf shredder - it worked great on those leaves - not so good on the piece of metal...

We're still needing to round up some manure compost from a place in Southaven - anyone up for piling some cow poop in your truck or trailer? The phone lines are wide open.

Meet Our Summer Farmer: Trevor Nolan

Meet Trevor Nolan, our new “summer farmer” over at the Vance Avenue Community Garden.  Trevor is about to enter his senior year of school and lives just up the street from our garden.  Over the course of the summer, Trevor will be earning some money while working hard in our community garden on Vance Avenue.  We thought you might like to know a little more about Trevor, so we asked him a few questions:

Name:  Trevor Nolan
Age: 17

What school do you attend? I’m a rising senior at Middle College High School.

What do you like to do in your free time?  Watch some TV and make money.

What do you hope to learn while working at the Vance Avenue Garden?  How to keep from getting blisters on my hands.

What is your favorite vegetable?  Sweet Peas!

What’s your favorite way to eat a tomato?  On top of a cheeseburger!

What’s your favorite way to eat an eggplant?  What’s an eggplant?

What do you like most about Memphis?  Being close to my loved ones.

What do you hope to do after graduating from high school?  Go to college and receive my biblical studies certificate.

Garden Progress and Our Visitors

There is lots happening at the Vance Ave. Garden! We've been working on a cool chalkboard sign to put out front (thanks Charli).

We've also started some nice compost bins (thanks to Drew, Josh, and Home Depot).

Three more tomatoes are beginning to develop.

And finally, as you can see, our tire planters are not just beds for plants - they are also apparently quite comfortable for these little kittens.

Thanks Germantown YG!

Today the youth group from the Germantown church of Christ came out to help in the garden. They did a great job on a really hot day. Thanks!

Hello Tomato

Say hello to our first tomato!

How to Create Tire Planters

I just noticed some comments requesting a tutorial on creating tire planters. Here's how we did it:

Step 1: Round-up Used Tires

• Try to find tires with a wide width. The wider the width of the tire, the deeper the planter will be.
• Older tires are better - they are easier to cut and much easier to flip inside out. Newer tires can be so stiff that they are impossible to flip inside out.

Step 2: Cut Out One Sidewall from the Tire

• We used a jigsaw for cutting most of our tires. I cut a few out with a sharp knife, but it's much easier with a jigsaw.
• When cutting out the sidewall, start cutting near the tread of the tire and cut in a complete circle so that you end up with a big rubber "O". This will be the wide opening for the tire planter.

Step 3: Flip the Tire Inside Out

• By flipping the tire inside out, your tire planter will look less like a used tire and more like something you would want to put in a garden. Flipping the tire also makes it easier to paint, if you would choose to do so.
• Flipping the tire is the most challenging step in the process. It helps to have 2 or 3 people assisting with this step.
• When flipping the tire, start by stepping on one side of the tire and slowly work your way around the tire. This will take a little bit of trial and error.

Step 4: Clean, Prime, and Paint

• Since you probably don't know where your abandoned tires have been, you'll want to clean them off well and let them dry out.
• Once dry, we sprayed some paint primer on our tires just to give our paint a better chance at sticking.
• Grab some spray paint and start painting! The more colors the better. Only paint the outside of the planter.

Step 5: Plant!

• We have stacked some of our tire planters on another tire to give some of our deep rooted plants a little more soil depth. Other planters are just laid out by themselves.

So that's a basic tutorial. Here are a couple of tutorials that are much better than the one I've just written:

• Blooming Tire Planters
• A Great Tutorial with Lots of Pictures

Why did we use tire planters?

• After testing our soil, we found the lead content to be extremely high. So, we were forced to use raised beds of some sort (and bring in new soil) - abandoned tires are much cheaper (free) than purchasing materials to build beds.
• Reusing tires for planting is a good way to clean up some eye sores in our city where lots of tires have been thrown on the side of the road.
• Tires make good planters because the black rubber absorbs and retains heat very well.

Anyone else have experience with tire planters? Any tips for us or other readers?