This is the beginnings of my garden for the next thirty years or so. The two bushes in the black smart pots are a Carmine Jewel Cherry and a Romeo Cherry. I like these cherry bushes because they are almost indestructible and good into zone 2b. I had one of them outside on a balcony in Milwaukee for several years and it wasn’t damaged in any way. I even got some cherries while it was on the balcony. They taste like sweet cherries rather than the tart cherries that typically grow in this area. I had to trim it severely when I moved to Hartford because it just would not fit in my car which almost caused me to weep a little. I didn’t own a branch trimmer that was big enough and I was in a hurry so I just used a large bolt cutter that was available at the time.
We had a 60 mph windstorm recently which caused a lot of tree branches to drop everywhere as you can see in the above picture. I don’t stand out there when its windy and I advise other people to avoid it also because the high branches like to come down on your head. Its almost impossible to get at the high tree branches to trim them without some type of mechanical lift which I can’t afford. I do have a special 27 foot tall manual pole saw but I haven’t been well enough to operate it. It requires continuous muscle exertion for long periods of time but I think I may be able to get some help eventually. The trees would require a professional tree trimmer to cut them down because they are too close to buildings.
The bushes and small trees I planted are all surrounded with black plastic hardware cloth to protect them from rabbits and squirrels. It seems to be effective protection. When one of the bushes was exposed by accident the rabbits chewed it down to little nubs.
I concentrated my initial efforts on smaller seedling fruit bushes and nut trees because of the cheap price and the minimum effort involved in planting. I always order everything from Gurney’s Seed and Nursery during the last minute sales because those sale prices are unbeatable, they offer a money back guaranty and deliver to my front door. I planted Manchurian apricots, Honey berries, Grapes, Hazel nuts, raspberries, Cherry Bushes and Josta berries. Everything survived the winter which I thought was impressive.
Eventually I plan to put some good soil in my raised bed garden and grow some veggies. There is a place near Hartford that gives away free composted horse manure but my wife always starts looking for divorce lawyers every time I mention it. I am too short on cash to buy soil but eventually I will simply make enough compost to fill this bed up one way or another.
I also plan to grow some succulents for my garden bottle hobby and for sale. I have another small raised bed for that purpose. We will see what I get done this year because its usually less than what my plans are in spring.
Sellnow Update - Opinions from the Garden. 
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