After having a wonderful time looking at all the gardens here, I thought I might add some of mine.
Some are from 2005, when I thought the garden looked its best, some will be from summer 2006.
This is spring 2005. Lots of daylilies planted in the front of this garden. And the not to cottagey outline of the alyssum.
This message was edited Feb 2, 2007 7:30 PM
This is the same garden in Sept of that year. I enhanced the alyssum boundry with purple petuna's and the green plants (can't think of its name right now).
This picture was from 2004, the garden in front of our small deck. I made this garden too high and water stayed under our deck. Since then I have been trying to find the correct height. I really liked how this garden came together, but the next year the Black-eyed Susan were everywhere. Be sure to dead head them if you don't want them to take over.
You can see my main garden behind it.
Here is a picture of this same garden last year, still kind of flooding in this spot. After it flooded under the deck, I made the garden too shallow and it flooded in 2005 and killed a lot of the plants. I built it up some that summer, but you can see, it was still quite wet in the spring.
Here is my Lakeside Blue jean hosta with witch hazel dianthus (someone sent me this and I just loved it, but it didn't survive the soggy ground.)
Here is a bigger look at the garden around the deck. I did add a little more dirt last summer. Hopefully it will be the magical amount. The section with the lilies is at the right height now.
Here is my main garden in July of this year. Your looking down the side of the house, the wall facing you is the garage and the garden stops there. In that area I keep my composter and my daylily seedlings that I love to grow.
I didn't do the alyssum border last summer, I kind of missed it.
Here is the other half of that garden. :o)
Picture taken at the same time.
I put in what I hope is a butterfly/hummingbird/bee garden.
Here it is in the spring when it was just planted.
Oh, and on Dori's post someone talked about Arbors at the back of a suburan lot. We are lucky to back up to school propery that is a very small wood. The path is maybe 8 ft long, but I like to think it gives the feel of being longer.
Here it is in Sept.
Dori, this is the arbor I have the roses trying to climb and I would like to put clematis on each side too.
And here is what I'm waiting for in April .... one of my favorites bulbs.
Fritillaria michailowskyi.
I love these pictures of your beautiful cottage garden. Thanks so much for posting them. They're inspiring.
2few, nice gardens. Here is one photo I took this week, at a clients home.
Lovely pictures! Thank you for sharing, I love to see full garden pictures :)
Toofew, lovely!!!
Twofew,
Boy! Does this make me long for summer!
Your set up is similar to mine! The set up, as in I have a corner like one of yours (by the air conditioner) I don't have a picture from that angle, and I have already posted the two pictures I have of my garden a couple of times, so unless you want to see brown overlaid with a dusting of white, you have to wait until April when the daffodils bloom :( A long way away.
I don't have as many flowers as you do -- but by next summer, if even half these seeds germinate, I will! LOL!
Thanks for sharing the pictures!
Suzy
Thanks everyone.
Dale, very nice picture, lots of color packed into one little area. I've never been to Florida in the winter. We seem to go only in summer or early Fall. I'm kind of surprised you have so much in bloom now. We go to California in the summer too. Man, oh, man, those 2 states are WAY too HOT in the summer!
Suzy, My husband really wanted me to somehow hide the air conditioner. Plant shrubs or put trellis's around it. I just couldn't seem to come up with a plan I really liked so I just plant the tall Rudbeckias around it in the summer and he seems happy with that.
We had a bee infestation where the hose from the air conditioner goes into the house. Part of the plastic surrounding the hose desintegrated (spelling?) so the bees had a way into the house. That made it very interesting last summer!
Oh and that corner holds the outside electric meter, the hose, the composter and the air conditioner. We can't see the garden from the house, but it gets pretty good sun. Hubby didn't like the idea of me planting daylily seedlings that wouldn't bloom for 2 to 3 years in a 'good' part of the garden, so that is how they got regulated to the 'ugly corner' garden. ;o)
I love this color hyacinth - woodstock.
toofew
Very nice, Toofew. I especially like your pot rack. Where did you find that?
Hi Beaker, I bought the pot rack at 'Franks Nursery', now sadly out of business. I usually put all my Amaryllis in that. When the Amaryllis bloom, they get taken to the front of the house for morning light only, keeps them blooming longer and can be seen from the street.
I love to see what people from the suburbs do to make use of their limited space. Also, we are bound by being good neighbors to keep our gardens looking presentable. I don't think a bathtub in the front yard, even filled with flowers would be a big hit in my neighborhood ... now, maybe hidden in the back. LOL
Here is the front of the house now. LOL
toofew
too - loved the beds with the allysum ringing it. Did you use seed or plants?
I try to ring most of my beds. I've always used impatients as they were shade beds, but we had to chop down a bunch of trees and this will be the first summer they are sun beds. I've been trying to think of what to ring them with. So far allysum or vinca are about all I can come up with...I need non stop bloom.
Realy nice Toofew, I love your pics.
I live out in the sticks in England, and have spent 5yrs trying to develop little cottagy plots in nothing but weed and grass, getting there however.
Hazel
Sarv, The year the picture was taken, I used store plants. The next year I used plants from seed, but turned out I didn't plant enough, so only a portion of the garden got 'ringed'. I had winter sowed the alyssum too, and it didn't bloom as fast as the store plants, so didn't turn out so nice, but was cheaper.
I wanted to say that even though this bed faces south and west ... big time sun. I plant inpatiens (started from seed) next to my daylilies. Only about 5 plants in the bed to give a riot of longlasting color. The inpatiens don't do well until the daylily leaves give them a little shade and then they take off and do great with just that tiny bit of shade.
Hazel, would love to see some of you pictures.
toofew
Toofew, I am in love with your garden. Please give address and time you will be absent for a weekend, so you won't see me back my truck into your yard. Smiling here, but I have heard of folks stealing individual plants from gardens (what is this world coming to?) and thought I'd just love to have your garden in my yard. It would go into immediate situational shock tho. Being a desert here.
So I will have to resort to stealing ideas... that is acceptable, right? I've always loved alyssum edging - it looks like lacy petticoat showing beneath a colorful skirt. Your path garden looks like it goes on and on, very creative use of path... this is idea I will be copying.
I haven't been stopping in the cottage gardens much -- altho it is my favorite form of gardens. thanks so much for sharing yours. ~Blooms
This is not a cottage garden since it is mainly hosta's, but thought I'd post it. I have hosta, turtle head, astilbe, ferns, and hardy geraniums planted. Also a ton of spring bulbs in there that will bloom before it becomes a 'shade garden'.
Brand new garden in 2006. I found the stepping stones in someone's trash and made a path on the right side of the picture. I was tired and didn't do a good job, but it is on the list for this summer. Also, some boards left over from tearing down our old deck were used to make a 'bench for flower pots' is on the right side of the path.
The Border Collie is our 'dog on loan'. A friend lets us have her whenever we want ... sometimes I really miss having a dog. She is deaf, but great with hand signals and a super dog and competes in some local competitons. Ki is her name.
I'll have to take a picture of the hosta garden this summer, I really thought I had a picture of when all the plants were in.
Fabulous - and what a find the stepping stones were!!!
I think the path you made with the crazy paving is just fine. unless it needs leveling. you just need to fill in the spaces between them. with dirt or little stones [for drainage] and it's perfect. Do find the pic of them planted, altho I can vision it.
Blooms, the path does need to be leveled a little. I'm thinking of pea gravel inbetween the stones. Right now the whole area in one 3 ft snow drift.
perfect reason to just dream a solution. LOL
my garden
Is a lot of work
I think the neighbors get to see it more than I do
I prefer to go to public gardens
and see what the pro's are doing
Dale, I think most of us would prefer to see YOUR gardens!!! Public gardens are great, of course, but seeing what our co-members of DG are doing is the best of all for me. Thanks for your wonderful pictures this morning - it's gray and wet out here in the Pacific Northwest . . . in fact, we had quite a "sleet storm" early on. The cats were all very alert at hearing it hit the skylights. It was quite hail, but was heavier than rain, so I guess it was sleet. It has stopped now and the barometer is forecasting sun. Somehow I doubt it!!
Dale, I love the cottagy look you give to Florida landscapes. I also love bold tropical plants, but in your area your style is a pleasant change of pace.
Dave, great gardens! Love the way you presented your pics.
Also, I never would have thought to put calaidiums with purple cone flowers. A very nice look!
Dale I will take a personal garden most any day and yours is wonderful. Can't believe your first pic, here is one I just posted on another thread..........me thinks we like the same colors!! Didn't think your gardens were possible in FL. Thanks so much for posting.
Joy
toofew, thanks. I wish I could grow some of the perennials that you have in your beds. I get tired of changing out the garden twice a year.
Joy,
Me thinks your right on with your color schemes. I use many others in the gardens I work on tho.
Here are some annuals (for me they are annuals)
I like tropicals too
I like to try new flowers compositions. That is one of the reasons I like this site. I really appreciate others photos of their gardens, you can always learn from others and it is not a bad idea to share success.
