What Do I do to Soil in Wine Barrel Container?

[sweet thunder]

I yanked my bolting lettuce and now have an empty half wine barrel:

[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2504/3705000338_dfa70d04d7.jpg[/img]

It gets shade from the hanging tomato above it for much of the day. I'm in zone 9, which means frost is not a concern until winter, but it's never really hot here either, and often foggy.

I suppose, if I want to stick with edibles, that I'm limited to leafy greens. Are there any other options? Something else useful even if not edible?
If I do plant more leafy greens, what do you recommend I do to the soil in the container?

[cynthia_h]

I just planted some sugar-peas yesterday. They're nitrogen fixers, so they'll pull nitrogen out of the air and fix it in nodules on their roots.

When the peas are done (if you can stand to let them mature; I just ate them as they came on), cut the plants off at soil level. Plant, maybe, some root veggies then? Being in a container, they shouldn't drown when the winter rains come.

Maybe there are some local varieties of veggies available at a nursery near you right now? That's always good for ideas.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[pepper4]

Sorry about your lettuce. I had some cauliflower broccoli and cabbage bolt on me also. Wrong time of year for those I've learned. Anyhow, what about some herbs?

[jamesy]

May I ask what you guys mean by "bolt" , what exactly was wrong ? Thanks ...also I see in a lot of posts talk about zones , which zone would Pa be ? Thanks again

[cynthia_h]

Bolting is when a plant rushes to reproduce: it sends up flowers and seeds much sooner than it would have been expected to. This is usually brought on by heat waves. My winter kale bolted from a 36-hour heat wave in April: seed stalks and all.

Re. zones: in the eastern United States, the USDA Hardiness Zone system works fairly well, because climate zones (differences in precipitation, winds, days of freeze/excess heat per year) are fairly predictable over large areas). Search your Pennsylvania climate zone by zip code at:

https://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Not so in the west. 10 miles east of me, the daytime temps are *on average* 15 deg. F warmer than mine; they can be 25 deg. warmer. That same area receives maybe one-third to one-half of the rainfall I do *on average* because there is a range of small hills (1,000 feet or so) between us. The Sunset climate zone, about which I "speechify" frequently, is much more useful where terrain varies greatly over a small distance.

Cynthia

[applestar]

Bush beans would work too. Also a nitrogen fixer. Strawberries? Spinach? Carrots? Ornamental Kale?

Heuchera, Lady's Mantle, Coleus, Fuchsia... Well if you want edibles, Viola's?

[sweet thunder]

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the bush beans idea. I've never grown them before, so it could be fun. I'm guessing, like bush peas, that they still appreciate some support?

[applestar]

They grow about 1'~1-1/2' tall then flop over, especially once the beans start to grow, but unlike bush peas, bush beans have no tendrils and the stems don't twine like pole beans. Where they don't support each other sufficiently, I've been using twiggy sticks, but in a barrel, you might just let them hang over the edge. Otherwise, ringed flower support (1 or 2 rungs) -- or a Tomato Cage cut down to size -- might work. Don't use the one with wire grid because the leaves get huge and probably won't grow through.

FWIW, I'm having great success with Jade Green bush beans this year. I planted Provider early on, but they didn't "provide"