I've included a link below to a fantastic article on container soils and how water moves through them. The article also has recipes for free draining mediums you can mix yourself. I think the 511 medium would be perfect for a half barrel. It would be worth your while to begin again, drilling the necessary holes, placing some mesh over them, and using a more durable, free draining soil that will hold up well and give your plants' roots better aeration along with excellent drainage. It really helps when you know what the purpose of soil is, and what plants actually require... and Al's article in the link covers it all. It dispels some old wive's tales, gives excellent and very pertinent information, and if there's anything you don't understand about the concept of a more durable, fast draining medium, please feel free to ask us! We're all here to help! :-) I use the recipe for Gritty Mix in all my long term plantings, which would be my house plants, and I'm going to use the 511 medium for some large patio pots I have outside. Some will contain annuals, and others will hold my Japanese Maples and other trees, or roses. Either way, the larger pots get wheeled back inside the unheated garage at season's end. I'm waiting on pins and needles, too, for the nicer weather of spring to stay with us a while! I'd like nothing better than to get all the plant material out of the garage! Happy Gardening! Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Recipes Included...

I can't speak to where to find the ingredients, but the mix should work great for pumpkins. I'm growing a pumpkin vine in a much smaller container, and it's growing like a weed. It's growing so fast that I've had 4 female blossoms before my first male which just bloomed today. I wouldn't add anything else.

Wooden barrels need LOTS of holes in them to drain well. The wood swells up, and the holes get smaller and clog with soil. I use the biggest bit I could buy, and also a doorknob hole drill bit for mine. I put as many holes in as I can. For my Apple trees, I knocked out half the bottom planks so they could grow into the ground eventually, but the main rootball would still be high enough to prevent waterlogging. The barrels hold up very well for years if filled with soil. Left empty, they dry out and deteriorate very quickly. Lisa Here is a link that might be useful: Apple tree in barrel

I went outside and took a look at my barrel, just to imagine what i would do with all those sticks. I would use an old ugly plastic pot, cut the bottom out and bury it in the dirt, then fill it with soil and 'plant' the sticks in it all around the edge to ..kinda... Form the same shape as the barrel originally was. I would intentionally leave spaces between some of the sticks, leave some crooked even. I would line it first with chicken wire, then moss and dirt, like a topiary. I would top it with an upside down tomato cage and do the same to it. It may be necessary to wire it tight to shape. And it would certainly be labor intensive to make, but imagine it planted with a sedum, or several different types of sedums hardy to your zone, or whatever succulants are. Plants tucked into the spaces between the sticks.