The wine barrel strawberries did ok, but we have a few issues.  One is that they only get full sun for a few hours of the day, as they in the breeze way deck with walls on both sides. So they've been slow growing and fruiting.  The other issue is the wine barrel evaporates water very quickly through the wood sidewalls, making the soil dry out quickly, so it's been hard to keep the fully moist.

Despite those challenges, we've gotten a few dozen sweet strawberries this last summer.  This spring we might try transplanting them to a full sun location and replace them with something that can have part day sun, ideally some herbs because it's so close to our kitchen.

Now... our live Christmas Tree, we bring it for about 2 weeks each year because that's all the dry heat it can take.  Actually, I'm planning on grooming it and bringing it in tonight and decorating it tomorrow.  It's given us 2 Christmas Holidays, and this will be the 3rd.  Since it's been in the pot most of it's life, it seems to have stunted it's growth, as it's not getting much taller.  Eventually I have a dream that I will release it and plant it in the earth and find a new live Christmas tree.

Thanks for asking!

~joey