I bought a whiskey barrel... actually a half barrel to plant tomatoes in. It worked wonderfully. So I bought another half barrel and put plants into it. ornamental peppers, Sedum, and some nice flowers. Well some of the barrels are watertight. My first one was not.. my second one certainly was. With the temps breaching 100F each day I gave the second barrel a good long watering. The next day I noticed that the plants were not recovering from the wilting of dehydration at all. In fact, the next day there was standing water in the second barrell, so I kicked it.... the soil inside was the consistancy of cake batter. I took a drill and made a hole in the side near the bottom. That fixed the problem. From the ricketdy condition of the barrels I figured that they had lost their ability to hold liquid... but apparently sometimes they outperform.
Whiskey Barrels
I'm just learning about gardening in half wine barrels, but I thought it was a good idea to pre-soak the barrels before I plant in them. I drill about 6 holes in the bottom. When I pour in the planting mix, I dampen it pretty well and then plant. Whenever the soil dries out, I water until water comes out of the bottom. It has been 104 to 106 everyday here in the mountains so lots of water is necessary. The barrels are really working - no more plants lost to gophers! How do the tomatoes work out? I want to try that next Spring. How many plants can you put into the barrel?
Yes, the wooden staves absorb the water and swell, making the barrel virtually watertight. The soil and roots can go punky (rotten).
Whiskey barrels! I love them! Ditto bksmall on the gophers. I have about 35 barrels full..my hollyhocks, roses, bamboo, glads, dwarf fruit trees, philadelphus, fill in around larger items with larkspur,asclepias, reseda,etc. It's such a joy to be able to just plant something without having to bother with the wire and gophers. It's what it must feel like for people who don't have zillions of gophers, just to plant something,quickly, with no bother! Small seeds, bulbs....I want more barrels. lol
Sherry
Sherry - Right about the planting without gophers. It is hard to use those wire baskets. Besides, I live in a very rocky area which has not been cultivated before. (I don't count the hydraulic mining done by the gold miners!) More of my plants have been planted in odd shaped holes. LOL Using barrels is simple by comparison. Just mix up the potting soil and dump it in.
bksmall, I had to laugh....I didn't know I had that many barrels. I'd never stopped to count them! I envy all those who can just take their plants out and plant them. Can you imagine how much we could get done without that problem...I'm never without at least one roll of chicken wire here. Right now I'm looking around to see where I could put more barrels.. You'd think any soil that had that many rocks couldn't possibly have gophers, wouldn't you?
Sherry
I don't have underground vermin - mine live on top of the ground - chipmunks, cotton tails and jack rabbits. Although they all presumably COULD get into the 1/2 barrels, for some reason, they don't. Nice, juicy, tender plants seem to be above their eye level? I know they must be able to SMELL the plants. And I have seen the chipmunks climb chainlink, trees and whatever to get at my bird feeders, so I don't think that climbing the sides of the barrels would be that challenging to them. Of course, come winter, the rodents may become more adventuresome... at least we don't seem to have gophers here in the High Desert :-)