In December 2007 I began my "Tyre Garden".

I've been feeling a strong urge to grow my own food to have a constant supply of fresh greens and home grown fruit for a while now. I live 30k from the nearest supermarket, and by the time store bought veges get to my table, (sometimes days after they were purchased) most of the nutrition is depleted.

Gardening with raised beds means I can garden more efficiently.making the best use of my 1/4 acre section, getting the best result for the least effort.

I'd already planted flowers in two old tyres that were lying around,since it was important to be as cost effective as possible in establishing my food gardens, a tyre garden was the natural way to go.

So far I've been to two tyre outlets that have been more than happy to let me take my pick of the old tyres they have lying around. The tyres I like, when lying flat on the ground are slighly taller than your average car tyre, with a narrower rim.

I've got my eye on a few tractor tyres, can see them housing my compost heap, and maybe a watermelon bed, and cucumbers perhaps?? One great thing about tyres is that they store heat and warmth the soil, which plants like watermelon love. Another thing? they are so easy to work with, no stepping on plants or muddy boots from working in the garden. Even the dog can work out how to avoid stepping on the garden.

It's only small now but my vision is to have a large semi commercial organic garden on my 1/4 acre block, growing fruit veges and flowers.

Another thing I love about tyre gardening is that I can mix my crops from tyre to tyre. Having a lot of different plant species in close proximity is a great way to deter the bugs that can be are attracted to large plantings of one crop. at the moment my first plantings have been of tomatoes, beets, salad mixes and sunflowers.

I want my garden to feed the soul as well as the stomach. Mixing flowers with food crops can have a beneficial imapct on the garden as well as the spirit of the gardener. Flowers encourage pollination as well as attracting friendly bugs that will take care of some of the pests. Sunflowers for example are preferred by ants as the ideal place to "farm" aphids, and they will herd aphids off your veges to the sunflower, while the sunflower being a large sturdy plant, suffers little damage from these sometimes very destructive pests.

Ideally I'd like to have fruit and veges available to pick all year round, and I'm working towards this.