This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: wall of tires

So much info here! Let's see:

 
> Perhaps the quality of tires in retaining too much moisture and choking
the
> roots on Saltspring, might be just what you want if you live in a desert
> location.  
True. But I think later in the summer here might work, too. And maybe it
was the combination of the tires and the hot hats (just a plastic cloche
with a fancy name...) that pushed the moisture retention past the breaking
point.

Except the strong acrid smell of tires in the summer doesn't
> make me want to wrap them around my growing food.  

Agreed. I did have some worries about the out-gassing of unstable petroleum
products into the soil and the plants I was planning to eat. Which reminds
me of the small print I saw on one of those little coffee creamers that you
get in greasy spoon restaurants (and on the ferries) "Another edible
petroleum product." It was the tone of pride that really got me shaking my
head...

The moisture retention
> would be a disaster for potatoes, unless you harvest them all in early
fall
> (or cover the pile of tires when it still dry).  I'm on high,
well-drained
> ground in the Cowichan Valley (Vancouver Island) and leave my potatoes in
> the ground all year, digging them as we use them.  They are much fresher
> and tastier this way.  Then in the spring you just dig out what you need
> for seed and plant a new bed.  This method also keeps me from using the
> same bed year after year, which courts serious problems. 

Really? Like what?

 A wonderful old
> lady who lived on Read Island up the coast and became the guru of
> subsistence living for many young people moving out into the bush in the
> late Sixties and early Seventies told me to rotate strawberries and
> potatoes and you'll never have problems with either. 

Why?

 Trouble is, after too
> many moves, we lost the Royal Sovereigns she gave us as a start and have
> never found strawberries as tasty.
Royal Sovereigns? Never heard of 'em. I planted three kinds this year, just
what they had in the nursery: Totem, Hood. and the third was twelve plants
(variety unknown) that a local organic gardener gifted me through my
architect friend. I'll have to ask her what they are.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index