I have recently been receiving lots of packages (I love packages).  My little people don’t love it so much, they are used to the heady days of November and December when all the packages are presents for them.  But now that spring has arrived it’s mostly for me (Yea!)….books, products, seeds, mail order plants, etc, etc.  Some I bought, some have been sent free for review – like the Flat Tire Decor Basket that came last week for me to try out.   That’s it below with the potato starts (‘Kennebecks’ and ‘Yukon Golds’) that we planted on Easter (As another ‘try out’, we planted them in the potato bags that I paid for with my own money at Agway – we will let you know what we think of those later in the season)

But before I get into my review, I want to reassure you that when I’m given something – whether it’s a book or a plant or a recycled rubber tire tub  – I’m upfront about my experience with that product (or sometimes, namely with books, I follow my mother’s advice and don’t say anything at all –because I truly haven’t the heart to poorly review another writers work).  Anyway, I make this clear to people who send me stuff and if they don’t like it, they can choose not to send it (but so far that hasn’t happened).

So let me tell you about these rubber tubs from flat tire decor.

Here is what I liked:

* The shape.  I got the one with the handles and the handles are quite large in scale to the actual bucket part.  They almost make it feel like you could use it as a purse.  (Really — with the right outfit it could be perfect). It’s different and has a bit of style.

* The material.  Its a rubber tire, recycled. It’s black which kinda goes with every thing, it’s worn, which gives it an earthy charm and it mere existence means that at least one part of an old tire was prevented from going into a landfill, which is good by me.  And, it doesn’t feel dirty (they must make extra efforts to clean off the road gunk).

* It’s constructed by a company called Curative Industrial Services.  Curative offers training and work experience to people with disabilities.  The aim is to build greater skills, self esteem, and quality of life for people with limiting conditions.

And on the flip side…..

* It does smell strongly like a tire — I suspect this will wear off in time, and for me it’s not a big deal (in fact I kinda like it), but if you can’t stand the smell of a Sears Auto Store, you won’t like this.

* While I like this pot, I am not sure exactly what I am going to do with it yet.  If it were smaller I might put it on my kitchen sink to hold soaps, pot scrapers and nails scrubbers and if it were bigger, I would plant something in it (this seems too small for my delinquent plant water-er ways…it’s black and smallish by my tastes, around here, that is a surefire recipe for scorching something quickly).  For now, we are using it to carry stuff around, kinda like a mini (kids sized?) trug (or a garden purse?), it carried potatoes for planting out to the veg garden, and on the way back it picked up eggs from the chicken house.

I think it will continue to come in handy.  Thumbs up for that.