Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by admin

Gardening / planting question? Whiskey barrel garden flowers?

Category: Garden & Landscape, Tags: , , , ,

planting flowers
? Jasmine ? asked:


Is there anything you need to do to a half whiskey barrel before planting flowers in it?
What I mean is…the smell of whiskey coming from a whiskey barrel is so strong, it seems like it would be toxic to the plants!
Does it affect them in any way?
Other than maybe making drunk plants?lol

4 Responses to “Gardening / planting question? Whiskey barrel garden flowers?”

Kacky on October 5th, 2008 12:37 pm:

Naw, it’s not going to hurt the plants. You can just dump in your soil and plant away. -hic-

dances_with_unicorns1955 on October 6th, 2008 3:37 pm:

If you want to let it air out for a few days after you purchase it, that may help a little. Once the dirt is in the barrel, however, the scent will effectively be trapped, and you won’t smell it much, if at all. I’ve never heard of plants being affected by the vapors to any significant degree; I suspect if they were, the notion of a whiskey barrel planter would have died out long ago! I’ve used them before, and they work with no problem.

Ronatnyu on October 7th, 2008 8:49 pm:

If indeed the barrel in its previous life contained whiskey; whiskey is not harmful to plants. In fact the sugars in alcohol are fertilizer to plants so don’t worry, plant with confidence.

However if you do want to do something you can fill the barrel with soil and broken-up pieces of charcoal (BBQ Briquet’s are fine), place in the sun and keep it flooded with water for a few days the sunlight, charcoal and moisture should take care of any lingering smell.

RScott on October 9th, 2008 2:18 am:

I the barrel new enough to smell boozy it might also hold water. If so drill a few drain holes. I’ve found that putting 6 or 8 empty two liter soda bottles in the barrel reduces the amount of potting soil and thus weight. If using it for trees, shrubs or perennials leave the bottles out. The residual booze wont hurt your plants but it might put a smile on there faces. RScott