Peaches, Blueberries & Rosemary – Oh My! Using Recycled Wine Barrels for Gardening

This week we welcomed the summer season.     With the warmer weather, some homegrown herbs that were flourishing may start to show signs of stress.   The last time I wrote about our fruit and infant herb garden I was excited to share the myriad of herbs we had just added.     Everything was growing surprisingly well and I marveled to myself why it took so long to get my own herb garden started.     Almost two months later since its inception, I’m humbly happy to share that all the herbs, except one, is still thriving.  The cilantro was flourishing and I was impressed at how tall and healthy it was growing.    Then, seemingly overnight, my fragrant and gorgeous stalks of cilantro fell limp and browned.   Ugh!    No quick recovery for its condition.    I replanted the cilantro and hope to avoid its predecessor’s fate.

Thank you for all the supportive comments and sharing some of your pictures on the last post regarding the garden.    Many of you mentioned that you didn’t have the room or yard for an herb garden.    I want to share with you the arrangement in which I’m trying my hand at herbs in hopes that it might offer an alternative or suggest ideas for your own:

Living in Southern California, we are blessed with gorgeous weather nearly year-around.    However, in the area where we live, we peacefully coexist with many critters….rabbits, gophers, ground squirrels, etc. that will not hesitate to use my herbs as an overnight free-fest salad mix!   To work with these challenging conditions (and not to be easily discouraged by our critters’ destructive nature), we planted herbs in wine barrels, sectioned off by plexiglass and placed the barrels located within a patio area that’s well patrolled by three eager Pembroke Corgi dogs.      The fragrant and flavorful herbs are contained, more easily controlled, protected and easily reachable when I need them.    Flexible and dutiful rosemary is the only herb planted in the earth, requiring a short 100 yard stroll to gather.    Rosemary is effortless to grow in Southern California and can easily escape you (meaning becoming high maintenance) if you don’t cut it back and tame it at least once a year.    It’s a fragrant, woody, perennial herb that delights you with small flowers during the year.

A couple of days ago I was hand-watering our blueberry bush and shrieked with delight to find precious blueberries hanging from some of the branches like ornaments on a Christmas tree!    This may seem silly to some, but I hope to never fail to be amazed at the fruitful gifts that our garden provides us through the year due to our tender love and care.  I have since added another blueberry bush and hope that in the coming years we will enjoy it’s fruits and all its healthful antioxidant benefits.