The Tale of 12 Used Tires and 1 Not So Used

Let me just start by saying that if you think I'm cheap you should meet my husband. I swear the man could live off a bag of pretzels and water, and if he was in a really cheap mood he could probably do it on  just water. When it comes to a holiday it's no different. Remember my Free Craigslist Coffee Table? He snagged that piece up for me and proudly brought it home with a sweet little, "Happy Mother's Day!" Lucky for him, I'm a pretty cheap date:) Plus when he showers you with gifts for a whole WEEK before the holiday, free or not, it's pretty darn sweet.  So when my hubby hauled home some used tires that he got for free from a tire shop as one of my gifts I was pretty happy.  He says, "13 tires just for you, Babe."

Here they are in all their glory:

All 13 of them.

Wait? Does one of them look like it has a TON of tread left on it?  Sucks to be that guy. It must have been brand new. Maybe it had a hole in it or something.

See that HUGE pile of stuff behind the tires? That is our compost pile. We have been working on it for 3 years. I had pretty much given up on it because it is so cool here even in the summer and because of it's size we never turn it. I thought I'd use it as filler for the bottom though.  

The pallets are the hub's temporary defense to keeps the dogs out of his precious rhubarb plant that's chilling between the compost pile and the fence. 

I arranged them around my compost pile, making it easy to fill the tires with dirt right over the fence. Eventually I would like to have a smaller, more aesthetic compost pile possibly made out of some of those pallets?

Any who.... It took me almost all day to fill those tires up. The compose turned out to be the most AMAZING soil EVER so I jsut filled them all the way to the top with it. You can see how much shorter it is. 

I have a new found appreciations for tires as of this last winter when I blew out a tire and had to replace all 4!  Then one of my rims cracked a few weeks ago so I have been driving around on my spare for  a little while. It wasn't pretty. We were finally able to afford a new rim because of some surprise money I got from my Grandpa in the mail. Love ya Grandpa!!! So the hubs comes in and asks "Where's your tire?" In case you are confused he is asking about my brand-new, three-month-old, still-has-the-little-poky-things-on-it-tire. Ya, like the one I filled up on the BOTTOM of the pile. In fact EXACTLY like the one I filled up, because it WAS the on one I filled up!!! Oh, and I had planted too.

Whimper. 

It's all good though 'cause I got another free "Mother's Day present,"- the hubs dug it out for me and replaced it with another :) I love him!

 I know it doesn't look like much now but the onions in the bottom ones will grow up to meet the strawberries that will cascade out of the top ones and the grass will grow HIGH around the bottom, that's why they had to be two deep. 

Here's hoping to a funny memory and wonderful garden.