Okra dilemma

I have never grown okra before, but my daughter wants me to, and I understand it grows great here, but yah, you knew it was coming. But I have gophers and moles very bad right now.  I don't have the time, or personality to be honest to kill them with traps. NO CHEMICALS!  So it leaves me trying to get creative growing my veggies. The veggies garden is hugel beet raised beds,  so I put hardware cloth at ground level. Also regular raised beds.  My forest garden want to be I bought large plastic nursery pots. Drilled lots of small holes in the bottom and sides, and put them in the ground. The thought being worms and biological life can get in, but gophers and moles can't.  At least this is what I hope.
So doing a bit of research on growing okra, and learn it has 4 foot roots.  🤔 Hmmm.  The pots aren't that deep, will the roots grow through the holes?  If the gophers eat what is on the outside of the pot will it live through it?  Even the raised beds I build are about 2 feet high.  My plan is to build a raised bed. Dig in the ground until I'm not finding any weeds. Fill the hole with wood chips. Put the bed down on the wood chips.  The bottom of the bed would be 1/2" hardwire cloth.   So will this plan allow the okra to grow to it's full potential, without weeds, or gopher problems?  What do you think?

okra root info

Okra is a rather large sturdy plant with a vigorous root system. I think it would grow through the container holes. How well would it do if the gophers ate roots outside the container? No experience with that but I think it would depend on how much of the root system was eaten. I think it could handle a moderate amount of damage to the roots.

Okra doesn't need particularly great soil. How widespread is your gopher problem? Maybe try some away from the garden in an area where the gophers are not accustomed to easy snacks? They don't need much water once the plants are established & can easily outgrow weeds.  

Some of us do grow our okra in containers.  Use a dwarf variety and a large 3  to 5 gallon pot for it  There is some more information in this article
https://www.gardeningchores.com/growing-okra-in-containers/

Luckily I love okra and it’s also one of the few things that cannot get enough heat here in Florida. I know people local who have them and if not trimmed, they can get 6 feet tall, basically a tree.

My family has struggled with what we think are moles. For us, we tried nematodes to fill the sub-surface grubs they love.

I don't love okra so I only grew it one year. I grew it in 5gal pots and it did just fine. It got very large. I probably just had to water it more often than if it was in the ground and could send its roots straight down. I recall it got its roots out of the pots anyway, through the drainage holes.