Specialty Gardening: Cottage Garden in Southern California?, 1 by jkom51

jkom51 wrote:
Remember that shade in CA can be almost equivalent to "full sun" elsewhere! I find the biggest adjustment to cottage style gardening on the West Coast is not only our rainy vs dry reversed seasons, but also the cool soil vs warm soil issue. Snapdragons, nasturtiums, and callas, for instance, are evergreen in CA, BUT they will go dormant if the soil heats up! Keep it cool with shade and they often will stay all year 'round for you.

Improve your soil. No matter where you are in CA, most of the soil isn't that great. The old adage "spend 90 cents of your dollar on soil, and 10 cents on plants" is very true. Our rains are starting, so don't mulch now, but early next spring, mulch well (don't pile it around the stems, though; keep it an inch or so away to prevent rot) on your established plants. Don't mulch seedlings until they're transplanted and have become established.

Water regularly, deeply, and you won't have to water wastefully. I only have a large city lot, certainly not anywhere near your property size, but I can water all my garden beds totaling over 2000 sq. ft. on less than $20/mo in the summer -- admittedly, I am in the SF Bay Area where our temps are moderate compared to others. I find in cottage gardens that soaker hoses work better than drip irrigation. I use easy-release connectors and timers, and it works quite well.

Group plants of similar water needs together. The further from the faucet, the more xeric plantings should be. Plan your paths through your garden beds to allow for easy weeding. You cannot let weeding get away from you in a cottage garden in CA. The weeds will love your soil, feeding and watering, and do their very best to sneak in amongst your plantings. Let them go too far and your prized specimens will have a hard time surviving!

My lot runs east-west, so I have a sunny front and 1 side of the house that is sunny. Due to two large trees in the back, however, fully half the lot is partially or fully shaded throughout most of the day. I'll post a bunch of photos, but the first photo is of the front yard, just so you can get an idea of what these beds look like. They get sun from about 10a to 4p, so this qualifies as full sun exposure. However, in Southern CA, if you even got 1/2 of that, it would probably still qualify as full sun!


This message was edited Dec 8, 2006 4:21 PM

This message was edited Dec 8, 2006 6:32 PM