Growing Herbs in Wine Barrels

Herbs are easy to grow and add rich flavors to meals.

One of the first things my husband did when we purchased our Benicia home was to create a garden in wine barrels. We didn’t have room in the landscaped back yard for veggies and herbs so we brought in 10 half wine barrels and placed them in a row along the concrete dog run at the side of the house.

Although we have owned and enjoyed dogs in the past when we lived on our dairy, in Benicia we were both working long hours and it didn’t seem fair to keep a dog, so the barrel garden took shape.

As I experimented with what grew well in the barrels and in the warm micro-climate of the cement enclosed area, I found that herbs were ideal. They liked the heat and didn’t mind an occasional dry spell (before I set up the drip irrigation system they suffered now and then from lack of water).  Now I grow rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano. They produce well in summer and winter here in Benicia, so I enjoy my herb garden all year long.

Before I grew herbs I used dry herbs and only occasionally purchased fresh ones from the grocery store. The herbs I needed for a specific recipe were not always available in the store and when they were, it was frustrating to use a small portion of them and then watch the rest wilt and die in the refrigerator.

It is so much more pleasant to walk outside, snip off just what I need and in the process smell the aroma of the plants and enjoy the garden.

To get started with your barrel garden, first you'll need to purchase your barrels. We picked some up at the Clos Pegase Winery in Napa Valley for $10 each, but that was more than a few years ago. If you find them at a winery make sure they are cut in half before you take them home. It takes a special saw to do a good job. The barrels also need five or six one and 3/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom for drainage.

We recently had to replace a couple barrels and found them at Central Valley Building Supply in St. Helena. They were $20 each and the purchase price went to the Boy Scouts. They have beveled edges and are pre-drilled with holes in the bottom.

After you've placed the barrels where they will receive at least six hours of sun a day, put some newspaper in the bottom over the holes and fill them with potting soil two or three inches from the top. The experts used to say to place a rock or broken pot shard over the holes but now they say that the soil will form a bridge over the hole after the paper rots away and you will get better drainage if you leave the holes open.

Each barrel should hold about two bags of potting soil, about four cubic feet. Finally, plant one herb (rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage) in the middle of each barrel. It will take the plants about a year to fill in the space. 

Here is more specific information on my favorite herbs: rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is easy to grow. I see it everywhere in Benicia and I think it should be included in everyone’s landscape. It looks beautiful cascading down a wall, mounding as a shrub or creeping along the ground. There are many cultivars to fit everyone’s design needs. Blue Spires grows five to six feet tall and, as the name suggests, is a strong vertical grower. Corsican Prostrate grows only about one foot tall and arches as it spreads. Prostratus grows to two feet tall, eight feet wide and trails straight down a wall or raised bed to make a green curtain. All have a pretty blue flower February through March that attracts honey bees. Rosemary can be grown in just about any soil. It does best in full sun (at least six hours a day) and needs little to moderate water and  no fertilizer. I trim it back as I need the leaves for seasoning and once a year in the fall I prune it back to keep its shape. I use rosemary in soups, chicken, lamb, beef and vegetable dishes. I especially like it mixed with olive oil and black olives over cauliflower.

Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) also is easy to grow. It has very small narrow gray-green leaves, and also needs full sun, very little water and no fertilizer to grow well. Some of the cultivars are Argenteus, called silver thyme; Hi Ho. also with silver variegated leaves; Italian oregano thyme, which has a strong oregano flavor; and orange balsam, which has narrow orange-scented leaves. I use thyme to flavor soups, seafood, poultry, stuffing and vegetable dishes.

Oregano (Origanum x majoricum) has bright green leaves and little white flowers in the summer. The plant needs full sun, little to moderate water, no fertilizer and pruning to keep the flowers cut off as they come. I don’t use this herb as much as the others but when a recipe calls for it I like to have it fresh. It is known as the “pizza herb” and I like to use it in egg dishes and tomato dishes. There is some confusion between oregano and marjoram. They look almost alike. I tried to grow marjoram once and I couldn’t tell the difference between the two herbs.  After researching for this article I now know why.

Sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) is only one variety of more than 50 types of oregano, so you could call them “fraternal twins.” Marjoram, I read, has a softer, quieter and sweeter taste, but oregano and marjoram can be interchanged in recipes. That is what I will be doing.

Garden sage (salvia officinalis) is a beautiful plant. It grows from one to three feet high in a mound that supports beautiful spiked flowers in the late spring. Mine are lavender blue but there are white, violet, pink and red cultivars. The leaves are oblong, wrinkled, gray-green above and white and hairy beneath. There is a ‘tricolor’ cultivar but I didn’t like the taste as well so I no longer grow it. Sage needs full sun, and regular water and will have problems if the soil does not drain well. You can tell when it is not getting enough water. It will droop in a classic wilt. In late spring, when it finishes blooming, I cut off the dead flowers and the plant continues to grow in a beautiful mound. Plants tend to get woody after three to four years so I have replaced mine a couple times. I use sage on chicken, turkey, stuffing and vegetable dishes.

Of the above herbs, rosemary and thyme are the two I am always clipping for my favorite recipe below:Mix together,

1TBS finely chopped rosemary leaves

1TBS finely chopped thyme leaves

1TBS ground black pepper

1TBS salt

I rub this on a chuck steak or roast before I brown it and cook it covered in the oven. The same goes for short ribs browned and baked in the oven. It is fabulous rubbed on lamb chops, steaks or leg of lamb before they are cooked on the grill or roasted in the oven.

Usually I make more than I need and use it throughout the week. It holds really well in a bowl on the counter. It is also perfect on cauliflower, asparagus and many other vegetables. Try it and let me know what you think.

Libbey is the owner of Libbey’s Landscape Design, a Benicia-based business.