Specialty Gardening: A California Cottage Garden..., 1 by Zuzu

Zuzu wrote:
Oh, you guys. This is so weird. Neal had asked me to post some pictures of my garden in this forum, but nothing's really looking spectacular yet, so I came over to post some of last year's pictures and found all of you talking about me. That's so bizarre!

Anyway, thanks for all the nice things you're saying. Incidentally, Jkom51, I used to live on the corner of Ramona and Piedmont Avenue and it was the best place I've ever gardened. The weather is so perfect there. I used to buy things once and never have to buy them again -- Impatiens, Lobelia, Bougainvillea, Tibouchina -- all the things I now have to buy every single year and treat as annuals.

So, down to business. As I said, my garden isn't really full of blooming stuff yet, but I have some pictures from previous years. It isn't a true cottage garden, because I don't grow any vegetables. I'm a flower floozy, and if it doesn't bloom, I don't grow it.

My garden is the result of a combination of insatiable greed and a shortage of space. In essence, I cram 2 acres of plants into half an acre of land. I don't do any kind of planning. I just go to a nursery, buy everything I like, and then try to find empty spaces for the plants somewhere. The result is fairly chaotic, as you can see from this picture: