Container question for herbs

Sorry, this is probably a no-brainer for most of you... I have a nice small wooden whisky barrel that's been sitting around and doing nothing for quite some time. It finally dawned on me that it would make a nice container for planting a small herb garden.

My question is, what's the best way for me to prep it? Should I drill holes in the bottom for drainage? Straight down the bottom or along the bottom edges? Should I put a layer of rocks in the bottom? Should I line it with anything?

Etc... you get the point. I have no clue.

I'm putting in 5 plants: pesto basil, oregano, rosemary (very small), sage and cilantro. (I know, cilantro is kind of out of place, but we use it! I forgot about thyme when i was picking things up... )

What do you think?

Peace,
Carrie Anne, aka the Green Warrior Bunny

Herbs really need good drainage, so I would advise drilling holes in the bottom of the barrel, and also putting in about 2" of gravel to help drainage.
I have no idea how large your barrel is, but putting rosemary into it will probably take up all the available space--rosemary gets very, very large, no matter how small it is to start out with.
Basil and cilantro are annuals, and will die out after one growing season. You will have sage and oregano left.
As an alternative, may I suggest that you put your cilantro and basil in smaller individual pots, plant your rosemary in the barrel, add thyme and sage in other individual pots, and make an "arranged" herb garden around the larger barrel. It will be attractive, you can manage the herbs' watering needs without worrying about over/under watering the others, and move them around to accomodate their need for sun or shade.
Herbs are such a joy to have, and to harvest. Remember that herbs are not decorative plants. They are very useful and very tasty!

I agree on drilling holes, that is a must for growing things like this (or pretty much anything except bog/water plants). I would also advise against putting in a layer of gravel--contrary to what you'll often hear, it actually doesn't help drainage and can actually hurt. There's a great thread in the container gardening forum that explains this--you have to be a subscriber to post in that forum but I think you can still read the first post in each thread, and even just the first post is very informative http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/719569/

I also agree on the rosemary--they are not a nice small plant like the rest, so I'd probably give it its own pot rather than trying to plant it in with the others.

Also in your zone, I think everything with the possible exception of the sage will be an annual. The sage (assuming it's Salvia officinalis) is hardy to zone 4, but being in a container instead of in the ground tends to knock a bit off the hardiness, so it may not survive outdoors in a container either. So you'll either need to bring things in every winter, or treat them all as annuals and buy new every year.

thanks for your replies! i have a couple of questions now...

first off, the whisky barrel is 12" in diameter and 18" tall. (i just went to measure)

if the rest are annuals, couldn't i plant those other 4 together in the whisky barrel, and put the rosemary in a separate big pot? i have a 2 yr old, and i need to be prepared to move things around depending on how he's being. not sure i want the temptation for him to pick up little pots and throw them around. really big pots, however, he wouldn't be able to easily knock over.

and wow, thanks for the link to that post. i just finished reading the first post (i'm not a subscriber - i'd like to be, but just scraping by right now)

so, what i am taking from that is that i should keep my soil a uniform type from top to bottom, and use a wick if need be.

how many holes should i drill though? my thought is 4, because that's what i see on most big plastic containers about the same size.

how large? 1/8"? 1/4"?

and what could i put underneath it? obviously, i need to elevate it somehow so it gets air from the bottom, but since i'm broke I can't just go out and buy something. not sure what i would buy anyhow. a regular solid dish wouldn't work, because the rim at the bottom would still close off air flow. do you guys have any creative suggestions? i'm guessing i'd need something that has a grid or such.

depending on our space issues at the time, i probably WILL bring these inside so that i can keep enjoying fresh herbs as long as possible. are you supposed to not cut them back for a certain time period during winter to let them rest or anything?

thanks again for your help!

peace,
carrie anne

You may be able to plant your other four things all together--I'd check how big they're supposed to get though, a 12" pot isn't really all that big so when all four of them have grown a bit they may be a bit too crowded.

For the holes, I think if you mimic the size/number/location of the holes you see on other pots of equivalent size you should be OK. For raising it up, you can buy pot feet, or there are some things with wheels that you can buy to set pots on--any number of things. The cheapest option is probably go to Home Depot and see what they have available.

I don't think any of these need a winter rest so I think you'll be OK enjoying them year round if you bring them in for cold weather.

Oh, and to go back to one of your original questions--it might not hurt to line the barrel with something if you want it to last longer. It won't hurt the plants if you don't line it, but the barrel will last longer if it's got something non-porous between it and the soil.

Hi, Carrie Anne. If your container is only 12" in diameter, you need more containers. That one might be large enough for the rosemary for the first year. Do you drink coffee? If so, you can use the empty metal or plastic coffee cans and plant the smaller annuals in there. A $3 can of spray paint formulated for plastic will let you paint them any color you want, and you can even add your own handiwork to the design if you're artistic.

I'd drill a 1" or 3/4" hole in the Whiskey Barrel and a 1/2" to 3/4" hole in the coffee cans, (or whatever) - one should be enough for a pot that size. Don't worry about it getting air from the bottom - it wouldn't get much of that if it was planted in the ground! As long as the pot drains well, you're fine just sitting it on the ground. If you want to raise it for other reasons, just use some flat rocks or anything you can find.

This is just my suggestion - I put little 4" pots of thyme, oregano, sage, parsley, and rosemary in my garden on 3/27/09, and that group of plants is now covering a 16 square foot area. Even if the rosemary wasn't in that section, they would cover about 12 square feet. The problem is - the rosemary is still "small" and will get much larger. The annuals and smaller perennial herbs do fine in really large containers - like a huge 25 gallon 1/2 whiskey barrel - but can crowd each other out pretty quickly in a single small container.

When you bring them inside for the winter, make sure they still get lots of sunlight and warmth. As long as they keep growing, you can keep harvesting herbs without concern.

PS: Sorry, ecrane - I was typing as you were answering! Agreed re: lining - even a plastic bag from the grocery store will do fine, just try to glue down the plastic around the drilled drainage holes with some silicon or even super glue. It will help keep the cut edges from shifting the blocking the drainage holes when you add soil. Have fun!

thanks you guys. yes, i wish i could just put these in the ground, but our soil is likely super toxic.

for sure, we live in "arsenic triangle", an epa superfund site to clean up arsenic (our yard is very low at 12ppm in front/8ppm in back). we live within 2 blks in all directions from: a foundry, an asphalt company, a busyard that spews diesel fumes all day, and our street is a main thru-way for huge diesel-burning semis. yuck!

so, my guess is: arsenic, lead, benzene, etc.; i have no money for this kind of testing (nor can i find someone to do these tests - well, arsenic we know.) in the meantime, i'm putting in sunflowers in the areas where i'm going to try to get heavy metals out of the soil, and putting in native plants in other areas. there's not much research (at least that i can get my hands on), so i figure native plants might draw other things out of the soil just as well.

anyhow...

thank you for your answers. i think i'll use a large black garbage bag, cut and glued to line. thanks for that idea! and i have some other nice big pots that i wasn't thinking of using yet, but you guys have convinced me i should give these guys some space.

and i'll have to find some flat rocks to prop up the barrel on - that sounds like it could work. otherwise the water is just going to drip out the hole onto my porch and have no air to help it evaporate.

well, gotta run! thanks again!

Wow - I have no idea what that would be like. The biggest threat to my garden is too many hungry deer.

It sounds like you might be better off trying to plant SOMETHING in that dirt - I wonder if some of the agricultural cover crops might benefit your soil. Perhaps someone here with more in-depth agricultural knowledge could chime in. Is there a cover crop that would reverse the soil toxicity over time?

well, i haven't had time to finish drilling holes in the whisky barrel - i had to clean it out again since my roomie put a rose bush in there, but you guys did convince me to put everything in separate containers.

i happened to have these ones - i know, it's a lot of green, but hey, not bad for free, huh?

Here's the sage and the basil.