Thursday, July 18, 2013

July 18, 2013 - The Line of Wine Barrel Planters


 
 




I have a line of eight half wine barrels along the back of the fence, right in front of the vegetable garden.  Each year I fill them with lots of different annuals (and a few perennials) and wait to see what does well.  It seems to vary with the year.  Last year, the verbena was outstanding.  This year, it's the petunias and the lobelia.  Okay, and the millionbells, and several others...but the verbena almost has gone missing!

The barrels were a gift from my husband, who also helped set up the drip irrigation system for them.  (He did the main line, I did the fine-tuning.)  Each year, they've been a delight, filled with enough color for an old country garden.  Each year, I replant them, occasionally adding plants that volunteer from seed heads I didn't get around to cutting off the previous year.  (The pink salvia comes back from seed beautifully every year - usually in the vegetable beds.)

These require so little care, so little attention, I almost feel like I'm cheating.  How can anything produce that abundantly with no extra fertilizer, and only one deadheading a year?  But they do, and I'm thankful!

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