Raised Beds and Flower Beds

We bought our house only 7 months ago. We have done a complete remodel inside, more to come on that. Now we are starting on the exterior. Yes, I want to German schmear our brick, replace the rotted facia and soffit with cedar, and get our garage built, but I'm starting with my raised beds and my front flower beds. It's spring y'all! Where do I even begin? I've had so many different ideas about my raised beds. I've looked at buying water troughs from the local farm store, building wooden beds are out of the question with the cost of lumber right now, so what am I going to do?

Well, we have found some treasures on the property we bought. Someone tore down an old barn years ago and there is some really good corrugated metal, and I have plenty of lumber cuts from our remodel, so we are going to build some rustic beds down here on the farm.

What Am I Planting Y'all?

So, we eat a TON of peppers and onions. I cook with herbs daily. Yes, I use my essential oils when cooking, but I also add fresh yumminess straight from the garden. Here is a list of what I'm planting this spring, I'm keeping it simple since I have so much we are gonna do. We are tilling up a big garden too, it's 30'x60'. We will have a bunch of sweet, hot, and mini peppers, beans, sunflowers (I'm gonna try to make Ryan my own roasted sunflower seeds this year, because, why not?), okra, squash, oh man the list goes on. The big garden will be in another post. Today, let's focus on our cute raised beds and we need flowers too, am I right? 

I am planting:

• carrots ~ I'm replanting the tops too. The green tops regrow and are great for salad toppers. 
• garlic
• green onions ~ Cut these a couple inches above the root and put in a cup of water, they will start to regrow, when you see fresh growth replant them. You'll have green onions all year long.
• celery ~ same here! cut the whole stock a few inches above the the root bottom, put in a bowl of water and use a spray bottle to mist the top every day. When you see growth, replant outside and keep your plant growing. 
• basil
• parsley
• cilantro
• thyme
• rosemary
• mint

 This is my starter list, but I think it's a good start! I'm still building my raised beds, but I've gotten a head start on my flowers beds! Here is what we've done so far:

Ryan and the boys helped me pull out some big shrubs that died during the ice storm. There was a crepe myrtle and another huge bush (I have no idea what it was) that was planted in what used to be a flower bed. They brought around the truck and used the winch to pull out the roots, then Ryan helped the boys pull out all of the old timbers. Don't pay attention to our carport, it will be gone soon. We will be building a garage. We have done so much remodeling on this place it's not even funny, well, sometimes it kind of is. 

Ryan used an old tire that doesn't have any air to help pull the old crepe myrtle out of the ground. It worked great! Y'all, he has had years of experience doing this kind of stuff, don't just try it at home. I'm just bringing you along on our adventures.

The crepe myrtle looked like maybe it would come back one day, but it had been hacked and the roots were getting into our foundation, so it had to go.

After Ryan and Rylin pulled it out with the winch, they did the same with the other bush here in the picture. Then Kylin and I went to work with the sawzall and shovel and got the roots out as best we could before Ryan started tilling. 

Ryan got the ground tilled up really good for me, I raked and smoothed out the ground behind him. We put down our mesh, this is a must to keep weeds from growing!! The old school thing to do is put down your old newspaper under your mulch, by the time it breaks down, the weed roots have died and you won't have to worry about them. I normally would go this route, but with the move I haven't been couponing, hence, no newspaper. Note: I have gotten old run newspapers that didn't sell from my towns local paper. Some papers willl give away old stock if they have a bunch of extra as a way of recycling. 

It was time to lay out our design! I chose things that were neutral, pretty, easy to maintain, and not too conservative looking. I'm not big on trimmed bushes myself. We went with an arborvitae tree, a mini arborvitae tree, 2 dwarf spruce trees, Texas grass, green and purple sedum, and purple grass. The kids also picked out some succulents which will work perfect with some really pretty rocks I have.  

Time to plant! Everything came together perfectly. We used cedar mix mulch, it's so pretty and I love the cedar smell! The mix is cheaper than just cedar mulch and it makes it not too overpowering. 

I can't wait to finish building my beds and share that with y'all! What do y'all think I should plant in my backyard flower beds? Comment below, I'd love some suggestions!! 

 Y'all come back now!