If I ever started an outdoor grow, that wasn't guerrilla then I think my garden would be the 32 gallon totes, or the 50 gallon barrels, probably the barrels because It would help keep the animals at bay, I'd line the bottom 24" with limestone, then cover the rest with soil-less mix, and I would use the plastic barrels, aside from that, I'd use hydro nutes and tapwater in a garden. I would not use soil outside, to me, I'm not going to waste the cash on FF soil for multiple 50 gallon drums, (not saying its a waste) I'm just saying you can get the same nutes with a soiless mix, cocoa fiber and perlite with organic shells would be a good mix, or even organic peanuts (the packing kind), or skip the lime, use newspaper (crumbled up) and add nightcrawlers to each one.

I think that's what I would do, is the nightcrawler route - then light mesh over the top to contain our little friends, providing air and wormcastings to our root system