Oak half barrels, pics of yours please!

twiglet98

Nearly bought an oak barrel for £20 at the local growers last weekend. Today the expensive garden centre had them at £29.99 BOGOF so now I have two.

One is intended to go on the edge of the grass, at the corner of what will be a 5x5m soft fruit bed, out in the open, not shaded from sun nor sheltered from wind. I haven't thought where to put the other, probably on the patio. Might try and make it into a sort of water garden, but do they need a pump and filter set up?

I guess I have to drill holes in the bottom and add crocks for drainage, but the containers are massive and will cost a fortune to fill with multipurpose compost. Any ideas to keep the cost of the planting medium affordable? I have horse and chicken manure but don't suppose that's good for containers. Just dig up some of my horrible clay soil?

And what to plant - I'd like something to attract bees and butterflies. I already have two big buddleia bushes. Herbs for the kitchen are in pots by the door but even way across the garden the barrel could look nice with rosemary, lavender and sage... and what else? Or aubretia, alyssum... or layers of bulbs (though it'll be too windy for tulips and it's the wrong time to plant them anyway).

If anyone has established oak barrels I would really love to see photos for inspiration!

Thanks

djohn2002uk

It's probably like ours, too deep by far so I measured the diameter at the depth we wanted and cut a circle of floorboard to fit. I put 4 pieces of batten inside for it to rest on as my chippy skills aren't good enough for a perfect fit.

Linda32

We've had a barrel on the go for quite a few years. We bought it on holiday from a Cider Farm in Cornwall.

iirc we used polystyrene packing broken up to start with, then when it got to about 3/4qtrs full we used the contents of growbags and tub and basket compost. With the top being new grow bag compost each year.

We sow cut and come again lettuce, spring onions, raddish, baby carrots. You don't get a great deal but if you continue to sow, once you've got one its worth having.

shegirl

My half barrel is a little pond No pics at the mo though as it's been emptied due to sorting the garden from idiotic neighbours (who seem to think my garden is a great place to chuck their empy beer cans) and before we move.

When it's all done again in our new home I shall post pics though!

Budget_Gardener

I had some at my old house and grew plenty of bedding plants in there, particularly trailing lobelia, alyssum and petunias. They were at least half filled with polystyrene bits before the soil was added and I never bothered with drainage holes as they were so vast and there was only a layer of soil.

mrbadexample

I wouldn't use polystyrene as the chemicals can leach into the soil.

I've got a half-barrel planter that I'm going to be turning into a bog garden over the next fortnight, so I'll post a picture when I'm done. That's if I remember and can find this thread again, of course.

Linda32

mrbadexample wrote: »

I wouldn't use polystyrene as the chemicals can leach into the soil.

Just googled that, I see what you mean oh well, we've done it now and eaten the stuff for quite a few years.

You could use tomato punnets, we've used these and as they have already had food in, I assume these are safe.

twiglet98

Great ideas, thanks, and it's reminded me that I have a tin bath full of strawberries, and I crumpled a lot of compost bags into the bottom of that to take up some space, then layered cardboard over them, and planted the strawbs into a shallow layer of multipurpose compost. They've done well enough, I had completely forgotten what was underneath them!

I'm intrigued by the idea of making a water feature with one barrel and will do some research on that. I have the house's original cast iron water pump in the yard which would look good with the barrel under its spout, though I haven't used the pump for ages and it's seized up now. Maybe one day I'll get someone to fix it!