If your containers are partially buried, hydrologically speaking they are raised beds and you don't need to be too concerned about drainage - unless the substrate they're in is clay & percolation is extremely slow.

Shade your containers by setting them in the ground in rows that line up from SSW to NNE. That way the southernmost containers will shade the container immediately to the north during the hottest part of the day. There are other ways of using various types of cloth or other materials to help offer shade, too. The fact that your containers are partially buried will have a considerable impact on soil temps as well.

Al

If I just plant the pot with holes in the bottom, you say they will do fine, but about the tree roots, do you think they are surely to get in? I think this, so I want to make a 4x4x2 concrete and chicken wire planter with no holes and maybe about 6 inches of gravel, do you think this will be ok for drainage, or do I need siphon hoses put into them to suck the water from them inside the gravel? They are cheap.

Siphon hoses only work if the water is above the hose, so how would I get drainage still and leave out poisonous roots at the same time? All the soil is bad, but could be aerated to correct any problem, with compost to build up the aerated depleted soil. It's the soil and the roots I'm trying to avoid as the soil is with the roots currently growing in it.

I just read roundup will kill privet, so I'm happy, but it's not going to kill every poisonous tree in my yard or the walnut seedlings I see spreading by root only, with no walnuts in that area of the yard. A weed torch would be useful, but in a wet winter setting, not this hot dry weather we have now. This still can't kill the trees, so that is why containers and not raised beds.

Corn and squash and melons did fine in the soil this year, so did sunflowers and sorghum, all plants I can grow for shade around each container. I can even plant a tall flower, if one will grow in that type of soil. A marigold grew, some poppies even though not well, not much of any other flower grew well.

Is it better to leave the bed above ground, plant tall plants around it for the weather and drain the bed through a hole on the sides near the bottom by uncorking hole?

Some of these beds can be a large tote buried rather than above ground. I don't like the looks of them, but they are cheap. I guess for the first year it should be cheap, if it works I'll make the better ones.

So above ground totes with corn, sunflowers, or sorghum planted around it too, or placed in the back of them planted in the front would shade them.

I guess I'll have to think which is better for now.

You can't let the water set in a gravel drainage bed below your containers because it will putrefy and the gasses will likely kill your plants. You need to drain your irrigation water.

Are you on a slope, or are you talking about flat ground? As I understand it, you want to keep roots out, preserve container drainage, and hopefully take advantage of the cooling effects of the earth?

PS - your walnuts aren't traveling underground to sprout up in various places, they're traveling Overland Squirrel Express and are the result of the carriers inability to remember the location of every stash ..... or there was more food stored than needed. ;o) I'm already seeing plenty of evidence of the little buggers burying booty in my flower & bonsai containers. I trapped & relocated more than 3 dozen last year.

Al