My Garden part III: Roll Out The Barrels

Well, the garden I planted around the Pack Station porch and deck was a complete failure. Not because I didn't now what I was doing, but because of inconsiderate people who stepped on my plants, allowed their dogs to dig them up etc. (see My Garden in November '06 to see what the first garden looked like). Sue and I decided a long time ago that pots or planters were the way to go. I wanted to use a variety of the large and extra-large Mexican pots, the kind with an aged-looking paint job so they're not that awful bright orange. It turns out they are not as easy to find as they were a few years ago, and we didn't look very hard anyway. Then we kinda forgot about the pots, although the subject half-heartedly surfaced once in a while.

I hadn't put my brain into landscaper mode in quite a while, but it finally occurred to me what to use for the garden plants. Whiskey barrels! Actually, what you mostly find are red wine barrels (that is, the wine is red, not the barrels) made of oak. They are also commonly called half Oak barrels. Whatever you call them, they are rustic looking, inexpensive, tall enough to keep the dogs out of the flowers, and durable enough to withstand a car backing into them.

So, a couple hundred bucks and one hour's work later we have three nicely planted barrels at three key points in front of the store. Hopefully they will be filled in for our anniversary party on July 14th.