Ceaberry's Homesteading: Gardening -- Season Begins

This is my series on my small little garden this year. We decided to forgo our bigger garden this year but next year I have plans of expansion. This section deals with the garden I started way back in May 2017.

I started with a few containers of plants. I have a lovely flower plant, two pots of deck corn and a patio railing of half lettuce and half radishes.

I have two "raised beds," one protected and one not so protected. The one that is protected just has last year's onions in it. The one that was unprotected has 3 pots of cotton (legal in my state). The main thing though is the rose of sharon and lilac bushes behind the raised bed. You can see one lilac bush is really over grown and tall, all three were very poorly maintained.

I took my hand saw and cutters to the rose of sharon and hacked away at the bush with vengeance. There is also forsythia growing into the raised bed. Please, if you don't plan on maintaining a forsythia, DO NOT PLANT ONE. I have been epically fighting this battle for FOUR years and I am losing most years, not next year but that is a different post.

In the next set of photos you can see me cedar trees that are on our front lawn. One has been slightly pruned and the other has been half pruned. I wanted an archway for the mail people to be able to walk through and us if we parked up there.

So out came the loppers and hand saw again. I worked for 3 days getting everything trimmed. I have two small kids and were only able to do this an hour a day. 

So that was the beginning of my gardening for the year. I add a lot more plants as time progresses. Happy Homesteading!