So far so good with the barrels. This is the first year.
They are half full of glass bottles with several holes drilled around the outside near the bottom for drainage purposes. It doesn't take near as much soil with that approach. The barrels sit on plywood so after mowing around them there is no trimming required.
I did a variation of square foot gardening for 15 years with great success. My variation was four foot square boxes made out of 2 x 10"s with 3 foot walkways between the boxes. There were 12 of the boxes. When they rotted away the area was cleaned up and planted with grass.
Our three favorite fresh from the garden items are tomatoes, green beans and Yukon Gold young taters.
