Great pics folks. I posted a few pictures of my gardens in one of the other "cottage" threads and it was suggested I move them here. I've always loved the rustic, cottage look and that's what I'm attempting to do here but but I have to admit I'm pretty much just winging it. A Cottage Garden thread would be a great source of info and ideas.
early_bloomer
Another
early_bloomer
Yet another........
early_bloomer
Thanks everyone for the nice comments on my bed of shame. It definately gets some new flowers next spring! It hasn't had any attention since I had to dig the entire Tulip Bed to get rid of the quackgrass. And I did!
Suzy one word. Beautiful!!!! I love the fountain. I don't know if ordinary grey spray paint would work or not.
Murmer, I love Mike's garden. You made me smile. I was going to jump you about the ashtray. (I quit 10 years ago in May.)
Justfurkids, I agree, find a place! I love it!
Fancy, a very fancy sundial. I love the brilliant petunias setting it off!
Jude, laugh, DH always offers to get me a tiller. I always say ''that's OK, it's my exercise. Course, I'm 49 now and a tiller sounds pretty nice! I love practical gifts.
Wgnkiwi, Before and after are exciting and I envy you your clean slate!
We had perfect rains this year and my flowers did better than they ever did. My roses even rebloomed and I didn't think they would. I buy fertilizer, but get sidetracked and forget to use it. I am getting better since I joined Dave's.
This is an old plastic birdbath DH spray painted. The paint stays on if it isn't rubbed.
And the last one......
early_bloomer
oops.....missed one.........
early_bloomer
They look good Early. I really like how you used the rocks!
Ooooh, Aaaaah, loved all of your pictures. Early_Bloomer, I love that last one with the fog hovering in the background!
Very pretty EB and trunnels! I especially like that rustic arbor, did you make it?
I have a concrete rabbit that I rubbed mud on him to look aged. It stained it enough to not look like new concrete.
Back and never disappointed at the pics you have posted in my absence. Great gardens Early, one day mine might look that good. I didn't see a frog but I do like your water bird (not sure which it is).
Meantime, I'm still consideriing renting a tiller because this morning's digging made me realise it will be years before I get that one bed dug properly. I have a dozen or so years on you and the wear and tear on my body is too much. The pic shows the little digging I managed to do, and looking at it now, frankly it's pathetic. There's a lot of water still in the pic but I did dig that small barren area on the right side of the curve. So sad.
On a brighter note, mail today brought a flyer ad for trees. I got so excited seeing 24" boxed 10-16' tall trees at an affordable price, all planted and guaranteed. Then I called to find out what trees were included in the offer. Oops, none I want. Cottonwoods (messy) Elm (in my youth the village had to cut down all the mature Elms because of Dutch Elm disease so I'm leary) Palo Verde (not pretty) or Mesquite (also not pretty). The others that were mentioned were rattled off so fast I couldnt' write them down but I know he didn' say Chast tree or RP. Those are two I know I want, so I'll be looking this weekend for them. I figure I have to get the trees in to begin creating shade on the western side of the beds or everything I plant (ok, there are exceptions, but do I want them?) will turn into crispy critters by mid July if not sooner.
I have an image in my mind of the garden beds I want to create and until I get there I just won't be satisfied. So, determination will have to spur me on to get it done. Actually I want it 5 years ago, but I'll settle for this year.
hey_Jude-
Hang in there on that bermuda...I can't stand the stuff. It is SO hard to remove and goes so deep...
When I see people actually PAYING to put in a bermuda lawn, I just cringe, ...
We are taking out our grass next year, and replacing with dichondra, but St. Augustine removal is a breeze compared to bermuda.
-T
Wow, did I have catching up to do. that's it ...got to quit my job LOL.
wgnkiwi, you asked (a bunch of posts up) about a red daylily...I don't have an id for it. It's one that my landscaper put in when we had our original landscaping done and I never asked. I'm sorry now that I didn't because I love that one. please do post some 'befores'. it will be fun to follow along.
I'm enjoying everyone's pictures and the conversation. just imagine when things really get rolling!
that's it ...got to quit my job
seedpicker, tell me more about dichondra. I checked a couple of sites and I'm not sure I could manage it here. I know your weather is wetter than mine so do you think it could be maintained n the Phx area? Also, if it could, would it choke out bermuda or do I have to have this stuff completely gone first.
thanks
Jude
jude,
Get yourself some Roundup. Spray in on & wait a month or so. The grass should turn brown & die. Then if you till it the grass won't grow back. Careful where you spray because it will kill anything green. It doesn't drift so that helps.
Bernie
CG, Round up did absolutely nothing on the bermuda that decided to come back out front in the desert landscaping. I called the company and they said to buy Season long which did finally fill the bermuda, after two applications. Someone told me that for bermuda it takes double strength Round up which might be better than the Season long because the SL has such an offensive odor, more like bug killer.
If you scroll up, you'll see the size of the area I was speaking of de-bermuda-ing (new word), does HD sell RU by liquid truck load size? It would take a whole lot to kill this mess, so I'm thinking maybe I can have some lawn, some dichondra sort of area as well as the garden beds. Just thinking with my fingertips again.
I just got my own answer. Check out this link re dichondra, not for here or for me, unfortunatley, it's pretty.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/TURF/TURFSPECIES/dichondra.html
Jude, if you map out the bed and put in your edging or whatever to separate the lawn. Then create a 4" or so dead zone between the edging and the lawn to stop the B. runners. In the bed you could do the lasagna bed with newspaper, compost, ammended soil and I think the Bermuda would die under that, wouldn't it? If the Bermuda can't get light, it has to die.
I shower and wash my hair and now I have to catch up. Early, I had to look at your pictures again. I think my eyes were crossed from being online all afternoon. I saw new details pointed out by others. I even missed a picture. Very nice! I am partial to delphiniums, daylilies and hollyhocks, but the red hot pokers really stand out too.
Trunnels, very pretty. I love those garden benches!
Jude, that's a lot of hard work! If you till, it will the runners re-establish, or will tearing them up kill them? I had bentgrass start growing out of no where. It really spread in a year. I dug it all out with a spade, going a little larger to catch it all. We reseeded, but it was a job.
Jude-That link was a bit of an exaggeration, but still something that would do better for you, if you didn't have bermuda, and if you had a tree, or two.
It is much more waterwise than touted, and much more traffic tolerant than that link said, too. I just love that it is evergreen, and only grows 2-3 inches tall.
I wasn't necessarily suggesting it to you, but it might still work, if you have a sprinkler system(and you aren't on water restriction, like we are).
The girl that first got me interested in it, lives in Israel. They are hot and dry.
We experimented with some between pavers first, to make sure we liked it. We loved how green it was, even in winter, and it required MUCH less water than the St. augustine. It was in full sun, and baking between hot paver stones.
I've read extensively on it, and it is rated equal in care to St. Augustine. If people in your area can grow St. Augustine, they can grow dichondra.
Even if you did want to try it, you'd certainly have to tame that bermuda, first, and that is a large task.
I've tried round-up and it took multiple applications, even when applied in 90-100 weather, with no rain. I've also tilled it before, but that may as well have just been replanting it, because every piece that was tilled under, grew roots and came back! ak! I've also pain-stakingly tried to remove it just by digging it out.
Honestly, that stuff is horrid. I've been fighting it for years, and although most of it is now gone, I still see some, and just try to pretend it isn't there...it is a real challenge, to say the least.
Here is where I first learned of dichondra from Julie(Salvia_lover).
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/466119/
Hey Jude, I have dichondra volunteering in my backyard weed and Bermuda 'lawn' that I've recently overseeded with Winter Rye. (Looking good!) It keeps on creeping and I'm pulling and clearing away any and all obstacles in its persistent path. I have clay and moisture and a fair amount of shade at this time of year. It was growing fine in the Summer heat too! Isn't it just too funny that when you want something soooooo badly it doesn't perform and when you could care less it wants to please you, and grow, and green up? Does that have anything to do with the Cottage Garden philosophy?
I even had an agressive dichondra growth at my old house near Lookout Mountain which is caliche ... though I did amend with my own compost. I could not stop the dichondra.
What I'm saying is, if you can, give it shade and you may get what you want. PLANT THOSE TREES and go out and buy some dichondra plugs. At any rate plant the plugs in an area shaded by your house and water it. You may be amazed what a little water and healthy soil can give you.
More lovely gardens to see when I got home from work (well, after I tended to some housekeeping duties - like cooking a birthday dinner for dh).
Early, those are gorgeous!
Trunnels, please post more!
Fancy, that really looks nice - what a great idea you had. And how inviting the whole area is. I absolutely loved my cherub fountain when it was working - the hummers would shower and take a drink there. Maybe next spring dh will take it apart and see what he can do. If he doesn't want to be bothered, I'll see if I can hire a handy man or something. If all else fails, I will buy a new one!!!
WGN, I do hope you either post here, or give us a link.
OK - here's something to get you started with.
This picture is of the garden that is on the left side of the front of my house. It had three birches that had been very badly pruned over the years, that were growing too close to the house (as in leaning up against the electricity supply cables). Two of them had started to rot and they all had sooty mold. So we had them removed last week and I'm just waiting on the stump grinder to come and do his thing so I can start PLANTING!! Yay!
Ooooooooooh, WGN, you are going to have too much fun - the setting is glorious and it looks like you've already made some wonderful choices . . . keep us posted!
This next picture was taken early this year. The gardens in front of the house had nothing but Star Jasmine in them (which I loathe) so I ripped them out without really having a plan of what to put in them. I posted this on the Garden Design forum and got lots of great ideas which I followed up on but it just didn't come out the way I wanted, so again, I have pulled out lots of plants (but this time I've potted them up and they are waiting for a new home). The problem was that the birches created too much shade on one corner of the house and stole all the water so the gardens were growing in a very unbalanced fashion. Now that they are gone this won't be a problem.
I've filled the beds under the windows with Rosa 'Altissimo' - three on each side. It's a really lovely single red, that can be grown as a climber or shrub. As soon as I got them in the ground they just looked more "fitting' for the style of the house.
My plans are to replace the picket fence with one where the pickets look more like this, although not quite so much detail on the posts. It's the actual pickets that I like.
http://www.winterburngroup.on.ca/detail_image.php?ID=212
Then once that is done, I will create new beds behind it. The challenge is to have a garden that looks great from the road, particularly with the red door in the background and also looks from inside the house.
Gotta run and put the kids to bed. More detail to follow.
That house is adorable - it will make a fabulous background for your cottage garden. The fence is perfect - I always wanted the traditional white picket fence, but never did have it. I have a unique fence now that I do like, but it's not the cottagey look we all love!
Looks like the perfect yard for a cottage garden! Especially I think running around the perimeter behind the picket fence!
This was the start of a modified lasagna garden in the fall of 2004 - layers of newspaper, then compost, then straw, then topsoil (I think that was about it anyway).This particular photo is obviously the very beginning - I had even used tree limbs to hold the newspapers down.
And this is how it looked in July. This particular garden only gets early sun so some things had a tendency to reach out for more - next year I will stake them up early on.
Edited to say: I had staked the hollyhocks up by this time, but they looked a little weird because I waited too long.
This message was edited Nov 7, 2006 8:35 PM
So much catching up to do on this thread!
Tammy & Murmer, I liked your pictures in particular.
Here is one of mine from a few months ago (Gram, sorry for the repeat)
Another one
Oh, man Dave, I can smell it from here! Mental note to self: get some white phlox!
Murmur - How did your plants get so big, so fast? That garden looks like it has been in place for more than a year!
WGNKiwi --May I call you Kiwi? LOL! You have the perfect setting, don't you? Can't wait to see how this develops!
FancyVan - You know I always love your gardens, layout, setting, etc., etc, ETC!
Suzy
Illoquin,
Do you have insomnia or just watching the election result like me?
No, I am a Napper Extraordinaire. :)
WAS watching the elections, but lost interest when they started repeating themselves for the umpteenth time, but that was 3 hours ago while they were waiting for the western states to close the polls.
Suzy
i guess mine is a cottage type
kiwi, thanks for the pics! you have the perfect cottage setting there! I love the red door, the brick steps, the picket fence...wow, it's going to be great.
murmur, I have a spot very much like yours where I should start a lasagna bed. I'm planning on putting in some native shrubs. after that I can see how much sun it gets and add some perennials.
dave, you can repost those pics anytime. I am in love with those lilies! I planted some Black Beauty last week. you will have to start taking new pics in the spring, though. at least once a month, ok?
notmartha, yours is definitely a cottage type. I love all the lupines.. just planted some pink ones this fall.
now see what you all have done...I haven't quit my job, but I'm here during the day when I'm supposed to be working so I don't miss anything (sshhhhhh!) LOL
gram ~a girl~
i thought this was pretty
Dori-
Your gardens are gorgeous. I just love those lupins. We get too hot for them, but I enjoy seeing pictures.
-T
thank you! I love to share them.
Dori-
That looks like a great little greenhouse in the back!
What do you have growing on that arbor?? If you need something, you know I always have "verticals" for trade, lol...
