I believe your garlic problem is probably the cold of winter killed them, especially if overwintered in containers outside. Dig them up and how far into putrefaction they have gone, and how developed are the roots. Sorry about your bulbs.

I haven't removed three inches of straw from my garlic bed and they are doing great, not sure why multiple posts say that straw would stop hardnecks in early spring from poking through.

Why didn't they survive? Plenty of mulch, planted well of the exterior of half barrel./\

Dig down and see if any of the cloves are still there. Even if already growing roots, etc., a clove can be reset to continue growing. I dig up and move stray volunteers all through the spring, when they pop up in unwanted places. At least confirm that they are gone and not growing.

yes i already did. one or two had very small root growing but most were just paper with mush inside.

What kind of soil did you use in the half barrels?

Also what kind of drain holes and drainage materials did you have in the bottom of the barrels. Sound to me at this point like your drainage was not good enough. I seriously doubt you had winter kill unless you were planting Creoles in Canada, and even then I would not expect a complete failure.

Half barrels are just very large flower pots, but they are not raised beds. You have to handle them like flower pots especially in regard to drainage out of the container and potting soil that does not compact around your plants. You use potting soil not garden soil.