This is an old thread and I am very late to the party but I am more than a little amazed that anyone who understands composting thinks applying artificial heat (heat from an outside source) is going to help or speed up the process. The ONLY heat that is of benefit to and will expedite the composting process is the internal heat created by the microorganisms populating the compost as they consume and digest the organic matter ingredients. If these organisms are not actively producing the heat themselves - eg, a hot compost pile - then applied artificial heat is not going to help. Heat is a byproduct of the composting process and internal compost heat/temperatures are not the same as applied heat from an outside source. You cannot substitute one for the other. They are not equivalent. An active, hot compost will work all through the winter and cold weather but it will require attention - protection from excess water but not allowed to dry out. It also needs to be turned regularly to introduce necessary oxygen. Covering with a tarp or horticultural fleece in winter can help maintain the exterior temperature from extremes but it is a waste of time and effort (and electricity) to attempt to heat up the interior in the mistaken belief it will speed things up. It will not.

Zinc could have various forms in this situation - metallic, or as a salt for example. Or corroded zinc metal (zinc oxide). (There are even organo-zinc compounds but I don't know if these occur in tires). These will all behave differently in the same type of soil. Superimpose differences in soils and it gets even more complicated. Assessing the risk from soil alone (direct exposure by passive ingestion, inhalation of dust, and dermal contact) is usually based on total concentrations (regardless of form), perhaps an oversimplification but at least it gives some results to work from. Gardening (i.e. eating plants) is more complicated. Different plants will uptake the various forms of metals at different rates. Any chemical, once taken up into the plant, may or may not degrade (obviously with zinc this isn't a question) and will also be deposited in different parts of the plant at different concentrations. To do a human health risk assessment, you'd have to take all this into account to estimate a dose from eating even a single type of plant out of a garden. Multiply all that by the hundreds of chemicals typically addressed at polluted sites, times all the vegetables you might grow, and it becomes an enormous task. About the only one we know very much about is Pb since it's been studied to death. You can actually correlate blood lead levels to soil concentrations as well as toxic effects, and as a result it's the only contaminant to have safe levels in soil directly based on known health effects. For everything else, there's a crap ton of modeling in between.

Again with the assumption that I am "justifying" everything I think! I ask why why why so that I can get more details and information on what I am asking about. That is the point of why I am even here. Should I not ask why? Then how do I learn anything? So if I ask why about anything, I seem to be just justifying what I ask. Yes, I can experiment, but that takes a lot of time and money that I don't have. Why experiment when I can learn from others? Ever heard of learning from other people's mistakes or experience? Everyone here is disputing each other, not just me. Are we all scientists and researchers? No. We have differing opinions because of our different experiences. And that is what I'm looking for, details. My questions to you may sound like questioning the poster, when they are real questions looking for more knowledge. Would I really come here just so I can dispute what everyone says?? That is a waste of my time as well. I am allowed to give my own opinion as well, as I am part of the discussion. I may be a novice in tomato growing, but I am not an idiot. Everyone told me the previous year when I planted tomatoes on grass, "why would you do that?", "you set yourself up for failure". I already said so many times that I had so many and didn't want to throw them out. So what should I have done? Tear them from the ground? And in contrast to what they said, the tomatoes grew just fine and gave me a nice extra harvest. They even TASTED better than the ones in the pots. Many of them were nasty or ridiculed me. And when I had something to say about it, everyone had to attack me. What was I supposed to do, just let them step all over me? Just because I'm new here or new to growing tomatoes? I am taking what everyone is saying into account, and if I ask questions or give input, it's what this forum is about. Everyone can learn from everyone, novice or veteran. For one thing- I do have to agree that nitrogen would be "bound" when the mulch is decomposing, although not so much bound as it is used up in the decomposition process and leaves little for your tomatoes. Look up composting. You need to add nitrogen for it to work. To daninthedirt, it doesn't make sense to him for bacteria to be added to soil as there will already be some in there, when to me it makes sense. As gardengal said, in pots they do not last. So replace them with new ones. Why sell granular fertilizer without something that will break it down? gardengal, what you say makes sense, but I would think that the decomposition you talk of would take many months, whereas I only have a growing season of 5 or so. Bacteria=microbes. I use them interchangeably. I wouldn't think viruses are there helping the plant, probably not germs either, unless they do? Real question, not disputing you. I say this because I *do* grow in containers, with organic soil-less mix, and organic fertilizer, and my plants are very vigorous and healthy. I have been for the last 4 years and I haven't had any problems with growth and health.

Beautiful!!!! I bet you already feel more empowered by having that plan! :-) And how lucky for you ... to have just the right size yard for someone with "no artistic ability whatsoever" Haha. Here are a few suggestions that might help make the plan easier for you to use. First, I would orient it with the house at the top of the page and the street at the bottom. This would be more like how people think of, and visualize houses and yards ... seeing them from the front. Then, I would go ahead and add the other side of the garage and yard so that you had the full front. When you get to planting, you'll want to visualize the whole house & yard, not just part of it. Keep the drawing you have with measurements so you can refer to them if you need to, but for working out your ideas, you want to have the cleanest, emptiest drawing possible. Make a copy in which you remove all the shading, hatching and dimensions. For now, only show the house, porch & step, drive, walk, tree trunks, back of curb & property line. If you want to keep the dimensions on the same page, move them to outside of the work area. (Most of the time, if I want them, I write the measurement next to the line but omit the dimension lines, as I know what the number refers to. I would dimension like you have it if for someone else, but keep of the way as much as possible for myself in order to make it cleaner.) Make the house a heavier line so it reads as the largest, boldest structure on the property. At the beginning of brainstorming of the project, don't think about plants at all. Limit yourself to thinking about hardscape ... whatever you'll do to the walk, drive and whatever hardscape might occur out in the yard. Once that is complete, you can put is aside and work on a revised based plan which will include the new hardscape changes. If you want any help while you are working on hardscape, it would be good to start a new, uncluttered thread for it. (This one has a lot of conversation about other stuff in it.) Bring the most updated base plan and the most relevant pictures (the ones where you pan the scene from the front, and also the picture from across the street showing the overall house and yard.)