Cottage garden or not?

Hi all - sorry to just jump in but I do a have a question regarding cottage style gardening.. This year my DH finally agreed to do some more gardening on our front yard. He even suggested a design for it.. i was so excited and wanted to fill the 4x12 ft. bed with a path on the middle and even a whimsical small wooden bridge that separates the bed in two sections. I did manage to fill it in and in due time plants grew and bloomed but I can't seem to convince myself that I created a cottage style garden bed.

I am not as pleased so to speak with how it looks - to me it was just a bed full of flowers and it doesn't look at all cottagey to me. what am I doing wrong???? here are some pix taken before and after ... I would greatly appreciate any input - btw i live in zone 8a-...

this is how it looked in the spring

this is how it looks early summer - left side of the bed

This message was edited Jul 23, 2009 5:32 PM

this is the right side of the bed

and this is on the side of the driveway I started 2 years ago

I think you are doing a wonderful job to achieve the cottage look. Your plants look young, give another year or so to fill in. The second picture you posted is very nice. The plants look very full and lovely in that grouping. Keep growing different perennial flowers with bloom times for different times of the year.
Add them when you can from seed of you see something at the nursery.

My cottage garden blooms from early spring with tulips, daffodils, dutch iris and moves into spring with the dutch iris, lupines, roses,alliums, then summer with daylilies, sunflowers,coneflowers,sweetpeas,oriental lilies,gladiolas, rudbeckia, daisies, yarrow ,petunias.poppies of all kinds,delphiniums,hollyhocks,mallow,clematis,more roses ,hardy geraniums.
There is always something in bloom. In the fall I have some mums to add some fall color and a few stray sunflowers are usually around until the first frost.
Just keep adding things little by little and before you know it you will have the garden you desire.

Here is a picture of my back yard which was just dirt when I moved into this house 10/2006. It is amazing how quickly things grow and fill in. I think I will have to divide some plants this fall and give them some growing room.

I agree...you have varied height, a lovely bit of whimsy and truly beautiful plants.

Very pretty.

flagardener, I think you're off to a great start! Your design has a traditional cottage garden layout, and the combinations of plants you've used are lovely. I have a feeling as time goes on, more of the grass will disappear (and be replaced with garden), your current plantings will continue to mature, and the cottage look will just keep getting better. Perhaps some kind of herbs or edibles would add some more of that cottage charm. I love the citrus trees used in Florida gardens, do you have plans for anything like that?

Flagardener

First off... I love your home! That in itself screams cottage to me!

If it were me... I would put a nice contrasting shutters on the windows, and then add some window boxes. The front of our house really needed "something"..and once we put up the black shutters and black iron window boxes the house just came alive. Not to mention window boxes are super areas to plant and maintain. I never have to weed them...lol

It looks like you have the gardens well started...they just have to mature and do what cottage gardens do best... go wild and crazy seeding here and there.

thank you all for the vote of confidence...i guess im in too much of a hurry to have a nice full garden:-) i keep on forgetting - it takes time to achieve that.

when the garden bed was in full bloom what with tons of gladiolus scattered everywhere - DH didnt quite like it- he said it was a like a jungle ;-) so i left the glads finished blooming then cut them off almost to the ground . I decided not to have as much of them since they grow too wild and covers pretty much everything. The daisy-like flowers are all gone for the season now and so the spot where it was is bare and couldn't figure out what to replace it with.

DH isn't quite into change - and if I tell him I'd like to paint over the window shutters black-he might faint .lol...but the idea of painting it black came to me a while back but was scared to give it a try. the shutters are made of vinyl and Im not sure if the paint would adhere to it.

I have 2 hydrangeas in pots for now and was planning to incorporate on the bed ,if i can find a room. Gemini_sage - i already am planning to extend another foot on each side of the beds to expand it. I do have a small patch somewhere in my yard where I have herbs and flowers growing together, I have rosemary growing w/ coneflower , bee balm, pineapple sage , garlic and onion chives and some basil.

so I am on the right track ! yehey... for a while I thought I am just clueless ;-) now if I can only learn to be more patient and let nature take its course...

BeaHive - your garden is so lovely - wish I could pull off the same...

thanks again

Eileen

Eileen. Thanks..but you can do it too!. Time, plants and water is all it takes. Keep posting pics as you make progress.

Welcome to the CG forum.
Your photos look like ''cottage ''to me. You are doing a good job.
I have noticed that a good cottage garden seems to be ever changing, from year to year and season to season.

When I first looked at your photos I thought a small section of picket fence on either side of your path with clematis or rambling rose would add to the cottage look ,give backdrop and height.
Or an arch over your new pathway.

gardengus, thank you for the suggestion- I was actually planning to put an arch on that pathway but just waiting for some good sales opportunity ;-)

i do have some plastic picket fences that I have put away since it hasn't prevented my dog from jumping over the bed when she sees a squirrel.. that might just work ..thanks all for the support - now Im more confident to continue doing what I am doing..

Eileen

Your welcome and keep us all updated with your progress, I love seeing how gardens evolve over time.
^_^

Yes, yes! Picket fence! That's a project we JUST finished! I have always wanted a picket fence! We live in a modular home so I will probably never achieve the REAL country look to my home, but I can sure keep trying.

Also, I mentioned colored shutters? Well.....my hubby raised an eyebrow when I mentioned BLACK shutters on the house, but now he loves them. Black is not traditionally country, but what a difference they made on our anemic looking house!

So...picket fence photos...and then my shutter photos. I sure wish we could post side by side photos. It would do more for the comparison.

House before shutters

This message was edited Jul 26, 2009 6:54 AM

House with shutters

I've posted these in a few places, but since gardengus brought up picket fences... *s*. Please don't look at the garage too close...LOL...that's next on the list of upgrades.

This message was edited Jul 26, 2009 6:37 AM

Front door view.
The fence just framed the whoooole yard! Also... the convex shape above the main gate really set it apart from a standard picket fence.

The fence doesn't keep the raccoons out, but it sure keeps out wandering dogs. I love my dogs, but they are not loose on the neighborhood.

This message was edited Jul 26, 2009 6:14 AM

flagardener,You are doing a great job,and you live in sand,how do you do it? p.s. we will be at camping on the gulf campgrounds in a few wks.we know your area fairly well.

Looks great, Flagardener

Cool rooster, huggergirl. I collect roosters - here's one I got for Christmas

Irwells ,he is sooo cute !!!! I just got my rooster,I collect frogs,and bowling balls !!!!! well any thing !!

Where is Columbia City, huggergirl? I have a daughter in Bloomington.

Love the rooster photos...

I have a couple bowling balls too.. they make GREAT HOSE GUARDS (when set on a short rebar stake) as long as you don't stub your toe on them...dang!

Irwells50,we are about 3hrs north-east,20 mi west of Ft. Wayne on US 30,love Bloomington Brown county,beautiful

Every time I visit I have Blue Spruce envy!

Highmtn,I saw a garden out east in vermont or N.H. that had I guess, art ? it was several pieces of rerod of different heights,kinda like a bouquet of flowers ,with a bowling ball stuck on each stem then when the wind blew they would bob ,this place was a gardners art paradise,I think thats where I got the bug!!!! This was before digital cameras,DARN

This message was edited Jul 31, 2009 9:13 AM

Hugger..
That sounds sooooooooo neat! Yes...GOD BLESS DIGITAL CAMERAS! I keep mine with me most of the time to snag ideas etc.

A local bowling alley closed down awhile back and sold all their balls for $10 ea. I am soooooo bummed I never made it over there. I find them at Goodwill and thrift stores, but have not scored one in quite awhile.

One of my favs,its an old one,I think rubber maybe,it weathered the best,now it has a nice matte finish,but smells like rubber when wet !its blk. and tan marbled,also have a teal and blk. one .

thanks hugger girl - how do I do it? lots of garden soil and manure mixed in the sand... I am learning to make my own compost so I can mix with the sand... I have yet to decide what collectibles to incorporate in the garden... the rooster looks great ...

I have a couple of frogs and a turle that my hubby gave me for mother's day.. so i guess I am into the reptilia collection - unknowingly lol

all these wonderful garden pictures inpire me to do more - actually I have a plan in my head for a fall garden bed make-over .... have to keep it secret from DH - he will probably pass out if I tell him too soon..hehehe

OOh, dont I know,lil rascles dh,s anyway!!

tell me about it... he thought the last project I did for the front yard was it!!! little did he know that was just the beginning ..hehehe..

flagardner,Here is what mine is working on,started out to be just finishing the landscape around the porch,relaying the brick,to an 8x10 deck,with a place to hide the BBQ !!! 1st thing to go wrong he hit a gutter tile,right where a post needs to be set,then we found the tile to be plugged,sooooo,I better umm suck up !!! and help !!!

found problem,walnut tree roots crushed the tile

hats of to your hubby - mine doesn't really like yardwork - but he knows his involuntary help is needed every now and then - like lifting heavy stuff- hauling bags and bags of soil and mulch - and occasional bricks ... most of the yard work is done by me with very few power tools -mostly traditional hand garden tools ... back breaking but always worth it...

we built our house from the ground up ,including clearing woods with minimal tools and help,I terraced with 32 ton of field stone.we love it out here!!

lovely home and the garden -;-)

Beautiful home & property Huggergirl.

Thank you so much everyone.always work in progress!! Tamara

Hugger,
I had seen that house with the extreme slope (probably here) but didn't know it was yours until I saw the porch and (future) deck almost hidden on the left side. That's the closeup you posted on the Beginning Landscape forum. Bless your heart! You have done an absolutely WONDERFUL job with the beds next to your house on that slope. I didn't realize you all had built the house from the ground up. Kudos to you and your DH. Lovely house and yard. (Also glad to know your name :-)

I think this is the forum (when I get my ducks in a row) where I'm going to start my "story" about turning my tract house into a country cottage and get some much needed help on how to design my beds and what to plant in them.

Judy

JudyinGA,I was wondering if you had been over here.

Oh yeah. I'm pretty bouncy. LOL This is one of my favorites.