Drum/Barrel Hugelkultur-like Raised Bed

Thanks for the update! I'm glad I'm not the only one who leaves plants specifically for the pollinators even when I know it's too late to produce food.
Watching bees and zucchini flowers is pretty funny - they come out totally covered head to foot in pollen. It's as if they were down there bathing in the stuff!
It's turned cold here also, and the days have been damp, dreary and short. I need to get all the squash picked and I'd like to sprinkle some seeds that might germinate despite the weather and build roots so they can take off when spring comes.

The final harvest is here! I'll be continuing to fill new barrels over the winter, as well as topping off all of the ones that I grew in this season.

We already had a few light frosts, but the birdhouse gourds started to cure so I brought them in.

Just a quick update on everything:
1. The contents of the barrels are slowly settling, despite the ice and snow. I've also noticed a few times (in slightly warmer temperatures) that there will be a "ring" around the barrel where the snow has melted. I've been adding more compostable materials to the tops of the barrels as they sink, although I will likely need to add a bit more soil in the spring.
2. Aside from the initial four barrels, I have also set up three new ones and have been slowly filling them. These are all metal drums rather than the plastic ones, and while I do see some signs of rust, I'm curious as to how they will perform. Currently, one barrel is completely full, one is 1/3 full, and the other is mostly empty.
3. The birdhouse gourds are almost done drying - they are very light and I believe they are no longer growing mold on the outside of them, although I will need to keep an eye out to see if any mold comes back. They may have needed to stay on the vine for a bit longer, since I don't hear any seeds rattling when I shake them, but it could just be that they are not as cured as I think they are.

Summer is here, and with it, the garden is back in action! I'll have to grab pictures next time I can, but this year's garden is mostly tomatoes at the moment.

Some observations:
1. I tried growing roma tomatoes from seed, three times (5 seeds each time) and although some seedlings sprouted, they were eaten by something (a bird?). The cherry tomato seedlings were completely unaffected.

2. As a result of #1, I ended up buying a tomato transplant from a local family-owned nursery - I had to dig down deeper than I normally do for seeds, and it was really interesting since when I hit the logs, they were just as easy to dig through as the dirt was! My little hand shovel was tearing through the logs.

3. While there were some small patches last year, this year the ground is covered in horsetail. It's easy to walk on, doesn't get too tall, and it doesn't seem to be causing any harm - so I've been leaving it alone for the most part and only removing some of the larger plants for composting.

4. There is some type of tree (an apricot tree?) that appeared... outside of any of the barrels. There must have been a pit or something that got tilled under and mulched during the initial clean-up. I will try to get a better identification of it, but I am not sure if I can leave it or if it is too close to the building.

5. There was a pumpkin plant that came up from way below in the first barrel - I cut the plant at the base and stuck it in another barrel, and it has rooted and started to grow (although it did lose most of the leaves it had due to focusing on rooting)

I have been noticing some odd holes appearing in the soil in my barrels, and I always thought it was birds digging for worms, since the holes were always small, shallow, and the dirt was always nearby.

Tonight, I caught the culprit - mushrooms! They're coming up through more than half a foot of soil.

I have used a similar technique to make strawberry planters. You can make holes in the sides as planting pockets to increase the available area. I have a thread on the process somewhere on permies.

I found that with a woodchip and log base things were a bit nutrient starved. I have topped it off since then and the second year is doing a bit better. They are THIRSTY though. Taking a bucket of water each every few days in summer. I half buried a terracotta pot in the top layer so that I can pour in most of a bucket in one go without disturbing roots.

All of last year, and so far this year, I have not had to water mine except for a small area at first when the seeds were germinating.

Last year was unusually rainy, so I am hoping that we will have more of a dry spell this year which will give a better test of the barrels' water-retaining capabilities.

Last spring/summer was a busy time for me, so I did not have much time to maintain my garden or do any work on it. There were quite a few volunteer tomato plants that appeared at the ground level, rather than in the barrels, although unfortunately the fruit did not mature before frost came. (either that, or the wildlife was eating them as they ripened)

I planted some mint, as well as some golden raspberries, and both of those are still alive and seem to be doing well! The wild horsetail, on the other hand, has become incredibly prolific. There are shoots appearing all throughout the garden, and even in all of the barrels, so I need to keep an eye on them to make sure I don't lose my planters to them.

Or maybe I could try just planting alongside them? I think they would let more than enough light through for anything I sow to get started, but I haven't tried that yet.