Oak barrels - planters

Hello,

i have a small sized north facing garden and a decent sized south facing drive. The drive is completely covered in pattern brick.

I'd love to have some colour on there and have been looking into getting an oak barrel and using it as a planter. I've been doing some research/pricing and have been a bit disappointed. They're rather expensive.

I had the idea of contacting a distillery/brewery direct and seeing if they would sell me one of their used old ones, however, there doesn't seem to be any in my area (South Yorkshire).

Does anyone know of any company that sells them at a decent price?

Cheers

Craig

 

Have you tried EBay?

Rusty

 

Yeh i've tried Ebay. They're about £30 plus £10-15 delivery.

I've been searching gumtree and freecycle etc.. but nothing found as of yet

Oh well i'll keep trying

Cheers

 

If you mean a half barrels I found them reasonably cheap buying two from Homebase (there's an instore multi-save if buying 2 that doesn't show up on their website) when there's a 20% off promotion on. It also means you see exactly what you're getting and can choose the best of them.

 

Certainly your best bet is a distillery. I got 4 huge ones( about 3ft in diameter) for £25 each = 8 enormous half barrels for £100 and they are in really good condition. They even had a little amber fluid left in them which we drank! The distillery even pinned the metal rings for me but I had to cut them in half. This isn't too difficult if you have a chainsaw and chalk the line 1st. Got quite "drunk" off the fumes so my cut lines weren't perhaps as straight as they could have been! The real snag is delivery. We were lucky and had our own lorry. Just an idea but would there be other people/neighbours who might want some? and you could get a load delivered which would reduce the cost. Certainly I did look all over the place, Ebay etc and was horrified at the costs and poor quality of the tubs offered in garden centres and the like. Mine will last for years and years and all the metal rings are in good condition/haven't slipped which is really important when looking to buy.Unfortunately for you the distillery I got mine from is in Edinburgh but perhaps there would be somewhere closer to you. Good luck and hope you find some good ones.

 

We had 2 of these but eventually the metal bands that hold them together rusted and broke!!

Val

 

Yeh its the half barrels im looking for. How much did you pay at homebase if you dont mind me asking?

I thought i was onto a winner with the distillery idea, however, all cider and wine breweries are down south and all spirit distilleries are up north eg. Scotland. There are plenty of ale breweries in Yorkshire but they tend to use metal barrels.

 

A local indy nursery stocks them. 20" diameter costs £20 plus £8.50 carriage.

http://www.bunkershillgardenshop.co.uk/node/496

 

Also, don't forget that they hold liquids so make some drainage. The previous owners left me two when I moved here and the soil in them was a quagmire.

 

I checked the other day and it was £40 for 2, which would make them £17 each on one of Homebase's regular 15% off weekends. I've checked the size of mine and they're 25" outside diameter. I had a bay tree in a similar half barrel for about 15 years before I replaced it this spring.

 

There's several breweries in South Yorks, including a few proper ones.

In Sheffield centre, there is Kelham Island Brewery: http://www.kelhambrewery.co.uk/

Heading south towards Notts, there's Mansfield brewery.

There's Wentworth brewery in Rotherham: http://wentworthbrewery.co.uk/ ( Never tried theirs myself, so not sure what they do).

I bet a google search would reveal more. In fact, isn't Tetley's in Tadcaster, which is only just outside of South Yorkshire's boundary.

Roughly where abouts in South Yorkshire are you? Its a big section of the biggest county I might be able to give you some more ideas if I know where you're near to.

 

Can these oak barrels be used as mini water features or ponds?
If so, do they need to be lined first?

 

Yes!

No - I emptied mine of the soil (slurry more like) last year and one is now full of water.

 

If you're going to use oak barrels as a water feature, they only think I'd say about whether to line them or not would be to use your judgement based on the individual barrel.

Some I've seen look ok just as they are, but I've found a cheaper source locally where the barrels have only just come in from the distillery, and they stink of whiskey. Probably not good for aquatic life and plants.

In a different shop again, I've seen half barrels where the wood has warped so much that there's no way they'd hold water any more unless you lined them.