Specialty Gardening: Starting Fresh...Share Your Thoughts Please, 1 by maozamom

maozamom wrote:
I think a cottage garden was a garden of the working man, well woman really. As such, it was a garden from seeds and pass-along plants. We think of the gardens of England, so we think of roses and delphinium, pinks, lavender, and soft romantic colors, but face it, we don't live in England. If I ever move there I'll make a garden for their climate but in the mean time I live where I live and roses are eaten by Japanese beetles, delphinium don't like my hot humid summers, and pastels are washed out in our bright sun. The women making the garden wouldn't have the time to fight to keep keeping plants that weren't happy alive and couldn't afford them either, so they would plant what is easy for them and so do I. When the temperature is 95 and so is the humidity and it has rained in two weeks my garden needs to still look good so I use plants that can take those conditions and leave blue poppies for my dreams because they're just not going to happen in my world.

I live in a 1900 Four Square on a city lot and although it's not a cottage it's what I have and what I have to work with. The front yard is very symmetrical and has a look of formality that I would never want to create in a garden so what I did was make symmetrical beds but planted them in a very informal manner. With a small front yard that is my only full sun I used the hell strip but because form follows function I needed to leave lawn to exit two cars in this busy area.

Here's a shot in spring that really shows the shape of the beds.