cottage garden or too haphazard?

I was thinking they looked like marigolds as well, but the time of year is off for marigolds with columbine.

huggergirl, that is gorgeous. I love, love, love columbines. I do have some in my front garden, they are not blooming yet. Also foxglove, delphiniums, lupines and iris. Like tsc in Wisconsin said, it has been COLD here, too, in Michigan. Daffodils were the only show in town until the tulips finally got going.

I should have delphiniums by mid-June, and roses, too, sage, geum, peonies, etc. I am constantly adding to the garden. I have Montauk daisies for fall that are really pretty. I tried some Black Adder Hysop, but unlike its description, it grew seven feet tall and had to be moved!

Thanks for the nice comments about the house; I always wanted a cottage, but didn't think this little tract house could do it!

Yes marigolds,I really love orange and purple together.columbine just budding up here,I did plant some marigolds yesterday.

LOve the wild Violet.Now I cant wait to see more photos...

"can't leave the garden center empty handed.." rings a bell for me, too! Mr Husband calls my stack of plant catalogs "plant porn. I disagree, because I can actually HAVE what's in them, if I want. And I do want!!!

huggergirl, I do love the blue columbines with marigolds, one of my favorite color combos. Are those peonies in the back? So beautiful! I should have my first ever peonies this year! Peonies and iris are my current new fascination.

YUP..I dont drink,I spend money on flowers,much more fun,an I remember them the next day..LOL

I love Love Iris,my peonies came from my parents home 25 years ago.Funny thing Ive never shared any of them ??? Im gonna do some splitting of them this year.

hello folks love the pics. Just a little rant and rave here. But now I know what to call my garden"cottage garden". My MIL always says my gardens look too cluttered. But i like something blooming at all times and too am a collector of plants any shape , size, or color. Unlike here yard that was done by pros who come in semi anually and do her weeding. I tell her her's looks to sterile andcommon like any strip mall would have. I know a little bitter but ow well. Thanks for listening

Everyone has their own style. My best friend likes to see dirt around each plant. I think they always look a little lonely! To each his own, I just try to do what I like!

I bought peonies and traded for all kinds of lilies, iris, hydrangea and more but had to move/sell at the wrong time of year to take anything with me. I see your beautiful pictures and it breaks my heart! I doubt this house will ever have the gardens as beautiful as the previous 2... oh well...

huggergirl, I love those peonies!

I suppose I could give up the nightly cocktail(s) to buy more plants...tempting...
my peonies were rescued from a house the city was going to demolish. My mom and dad and I dug up everything we could haul away. Ferns, roses, peonies, sedum, sixty years of the old lady's gardening. It was sad.

The city plowed it all under and then removed the topsoil and built a parking lot. This will be the first year they bloom for me and I am excited. you can see them a little, right under the window

It is thrilling you could salvage all those plants. It would have been very upsetting to see such beautiful plants paved over....

There were a few hedge roses that we could not save, they were just too large. They had suckers, however, and I rescued several of those. They bloom once a year with yellow flowers. I suspect there were a lot of plants we didn't get, but we did what we could.

Huggergirl- I think you may have invented a new kind of garden. It's the first cottage rock garden I've seen anyway. I find it absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for sharing photos of it.

I have 11 young peonies scattered throughout my small front yard garden and I'm really looking forward to seeing them bloom this year. All of mine are single with the exception of one fern leaf peony.

mao

Hugger, are those peony blooms from this year? My buds are still pretty small, except the tree peonies, and those buds are HUGE. With the new ones moved, there are 18 singles and bombes in our little peony garden near our front porch

Our double peonies always bloom a little later than the others, but it may be their own little micro-climate.

There are peonies in 6 of our 7 gardens. I hope we are here long enough to enjoy them. Except for the doubles, the others were all little bare roots planted by yours truly 4 and 3 years ago, respectively.

Now, doesn't that make you feel like a super gardener?

I planted one tiny peony two years ago and spotted it the other day with three big buds - what a delightful surprise.

My gardening buddy came over the other day and said "I envy you that your Heucheras grow so well for you." I envy his beautiful garden design. Go figure.

I do feel good about those peonies. And if there is the slightest hint of rain, I put plastic bags over the tree peony buds and cut herbaceous peonies to bring inside to give away. It wasn't until we moved some peonies about 6 weeks ago that I realized what kind of roots have developed. Very impressive. Peonies do best when they're covered with no more than 1 inch of soil, yet somehow they seem to sink deeper.

My nephew and his young family bought a home in Easton, MA less than a year ago. I thought it might be nice to have some (tree) peonies sent to him in the fall as a housewarming gift.

Can I be your niece?

Sure.

This is the new photo of my yellow firehydrant, this is city property but I got tired of cutting the grass, so this is 3 years in the row that I planted my flowers. This year is mostly zinnias, lantanas and a few angelonias.

At the fence I planted some Strawberrie Gomphrenas, Flamingo feather Celosia and some pink zinnias. In the front is Coreopsis Crem bruelee.

At the side of the garden my Guara looks nice this year, I guess it is the second year I had them. I have some purple Gomphrenas and more pink Zinnias in between.
Is this considered braging, or just a pround gradener sharing Gods creation.

Kiseta, it looks so pretty against a white picket fence. I haven't had the nerve to plant on my curb strip yet. I'm sure the day I do the city will decide its time to repave the street or something! I have a really ugly lamppost in front of my house.

I love that we can all find a little piece of land to plant, and put in what we love. I think the front garden is great, you are sharing all the beauty with everyone who passes by.

As for peonies, Cathy, you can adopt me, too! In addition to the rescued one, I bought three in a bag from HD. It will probably be three years before they have blooms, but boy, when they do...

cathy,that was last spring ,mine are just budding up now.you all have me thinking i have no Idea why Ive never split up those peonies ever...Boy thats weird..LOL
and I have a 15ft long row of them ??? This fall Im moving some,should I take orders???

kiseta,that will be beautiful.My brother lives in Denver and all the street corners in cherry Creek are planted by home owners,and are soo beautiful,I love that.i love the slow Down and Look affect it has on people.

Museumgirl,soo glad you got to save all the plants you did ,great score for you in a sad way,but not.. =) Cant wait to see them bloom too.loving this thread too. Tamara

Huggergirl, if you end up with surplus peonies to give away I would LOVE to have some! It made me very sad to have to leave my peonies behind when we moved.

The strips all planted in flowers would be so beautiful to see! What a wonderful neighborhood.

I would love to plant the front strip of grass that grows between the sidewalk and the street. Kiseta, your's gorgeous! I don't plant that area because I have enough problems keeping the neighbor kids out of my front beds as it is. It doesn't matter how often you speak to them either. I could understand it if they were little kids, but these kids are 16, 17 and 18....

That is why I put up with loud music and neighbors playing cards uder my window next door until 2AM, because I am afraid that they will get even with mowing my flowers up.Sometime they move away and I have some quet for awile but it is a different way of life with low income renters. I get out in my garden early in the morning to get some nice time with my flowers, the neighbors are still sleeping till 10Am. In this bad situation with housing, I would have to sell for hardly enything or rent out, but I love my house and this why I put up with neighbors who do not care.

Carolyn, our sidewalk is right next to the street and our gardens nearby. As week does not pass when I find (food or drink) trash of some sort from walkers.

Art, your MIL will never know the joy and wonderment of a seedling or bulb that gets nurtured and morphs into a beautiful plant. Her loss, but she won't understand.

Hug and museumgirl, I just dug up the entire plants and was amazed at the woody stems. I get nervous about divisions; you need a very sharp knife. I will say that some of the transplants now have buds, but I won't be surprised if they don't bloom.

Except for one herbaceous peony and a tree peony, all the peonies I purchased came from Costco about 4 years ago. They were little pieces of stick with (I think) one eye, and I did not know what to expect. Last year's blooms were very nice, but this year the plants seemed to have doubled in size, so I'm expecting a bumper crop. I inherited about 10 double peonies and 3 trees, but the others just followed me home. There must be more than thirty in total. I'll post as they bloom.

Kiseta, I don't think there's a better way to manage your walkway and still have it look so pretty.

Kiseta, one of my nearby friends planted a full row of arbor vitae trees to separate her from the rundown house next door. I don't know if they grow in Georgia, but they make a nice curtain.

Cathy, I have planted some confederate jasmine on one side in the front. This year I have planted 25 ft. of the same plants in the back, hoping to give me some fencing from people that do not clean they yard. But the front is hard, because it is the neighbors cross the street that are the loudest, so I just pick my time when to go out, ignore the other times. One house next to me is right now empty so it is a queit time , but it will be a long hot summer, especialy the kids are out till midnight . Serves me right, I haighjaked my husband from the country where we had 2 acres and nice neighbors, now he died and I am stuck in the city. I just make the best of it, otherwise I could just complain, that is not how I want to spend the rest of my life. I noticed some neighbors a street up from me started to plant flowers and complement when they pass bay my house, that should be enough for awile.

Hopefully more and more neighbors will notice your plants and want to have property just as lovely. I hope so! Love your gardens and the hydrant area!

Oh, I never heard of Confederate jasmine, but my immediate mental image was of little soldiers lined up along the property line, ready to fire by file! That would do the trick! (smile!)
I am so lucky, I only have one obnoxious neighbor, and she doesn't do anything other than make nasty comments. I just ignore her, but my other neighbors are all great, very friendly. Didn't realize how lucky I am to have that, Kiseta!

Kiseta

I cannot tell you how many times we have spoken to the parents of these kids. It doesn't seem to do any good. DH and I have decided that we are moving when I can finally retire. I told him I want at least 3 acres of land, preferrably more. I don't want neighbors to have to contend with. I'd much rather have deer eating my veggies than to have to deal with these kids....

Carolyn -- i hear ya on that!! I'd love acreage too.

Here are some new pictures of the garden as of this morning. Roses are starting to bloom!

And another..I like this picture, I think the roses are looking better this year. I've been more consistent with feeding and watering them! :)

And a final one of my favorite climber, Fourth of July, maybe? It's just about overwhelmed with the hollyhocks! The pink rose on the right is Nearly wild. The peach one you can barely see is an Easy Elegance, I think it was named sweet fragrance or something like that. I am a terrible record keeper!

okay, one more, just because I love this climbing rose. It doesn't have a lot of fragrance like my old roses, but it is so pretty when it has its first flush of bloom.

i love it..I wish I could have more roses,no early morning sun...But i have west exposeure..mmmm thinking maybe I can...i will have to take some more photos today...Was getting bad photos ...figured it out...had change some settinings not knowng I did...LOL..

East side going up to the drive an garage,a bit to dark yet lots of shade.I love the haphazard plantings,and selfsowers.i dont ever plan,well not often,never worry about color combos.things are really green its at a bit of a lull in color ...but I have 100s of buds everywhere