Tire Planter Project - half way done

I cleaned out our shed a little while ago and one thing to get rid of was an old tire. I read that our neighborhood was going to be having a "free throwaway day" in October and thought we'd just get rid of it then. But then I read the fine print and tires is one of the things not accepted. For the heck of it I googled "old tire craft" for ideas on what I could do with it. One craft was making an old tire into a planter. tire planter website

So yesterday I decided to give it a shot. The above pic is what I have so far. On another website it says that if you pick the wrong tire (one too new), you're better off trying to wrestle a grizzly bear. I believe them. My arms are sore today. And I still haven't completed it. I'm sort of a point where it is stuck. Maybe if I just leave it outside for a few years, it will soften up and I can someday finish it.

Some websites also were opposed to making tire planters saying that the tires leach chemicals etc into the soil. There's millions of tires on the roads now wearing off bits and pieces of rubber all over the highways and roads and no one is complaining about that.

When I grew up, my brother & sister and I all played in a big tractor tire sandbox (directions: plop an old tractor tire in the yard, fill with dirt/sand. play).