Here’s a nice photo of our oregano crop. This is the third year in a row that we will harvest oregano from this whiskey barrel. Oregano is a low maintenance perennial crop that does very well in the desert Southwest. In this case, I literally scattered the seed, watered it, and we’ve had a prolific crop ever since.

Oregano over-winters nicely, and even in the driest winters I haven’t watered it. To my surprise, every spring it comes back in spades, after I thought that it must be long dead.

These half-whiskey barrels are great for arid climates. You can create a large well-watered soil profile, like a little island, in a sea of dry desert sand. These are a common site in Albuquerque, usually for flowers and other decoratives.

However, as you can see, they work just as well for other edible plants. Thus far I’ve used these barrels to produce eggplant, oregano, basil, tomato, marigolds, artichoke and asparagus. They also integrate nicely with drip irrigation.