Do I qualify as a Cottage Garden ?

?

Same bed, from a different direction.

I love it! It definitely works for me.

I always think that it must be a real challenge to garden in an area that has a short growing season. You have a nice garden.

Not really short growing season, just a really cold winter. Last frost was mid April & first frost will be late Sept . or early Oct.

Very pretty! Love the wishing well. Yep, I could spend the afternoon there.

Very pretty cottage garden, CountryGardens. It is a nicely shaped border with interesting rock accents. I particularly like the use of the small rock path in the border. What are the red and blue flowers in the first picture? How long and wide is the border?

On the right are geraniums, center is a rose, left are wave petunias in a pot.
Blue are butterfly delphiniums.
I never have measured it. It grows every year!

This is the opposite side. Shade of flowering crab.

No question about it - a lovely cottage garden!

Yeah, we took a secret ballot and you're in! hahaha

Nice garden, and nice setting, too!

Suzy

A lovely garden with lots of interesting shapes
and colors. Oh, yeah - it's a cottage garden for sure.
Please pass the lemonade.

It's so 'cottage' that I think it would look perfect at my cottage!

Yup, qualifies as beautiful, whatever the style (I'm no expert!)

How many years have you been working on it? (Please say a lot!)

It was a patch of wore out perennials when we moved here in 1982. There are still a couple things from the original.
We added the pond about 10 years ago.
Every year it gains a little in size. There is a new area to the south of it that will probably get hooked on in a few years. That part is nearly full sun, so I have been putting Iris in there. Also a few lilies. Rest is annuals for now. (Always need to save places for the plants that come from Round Up.)
We are easy to find, anyone traveling through southern MN, D-mail me & I will give you directions. Someone is always home.
Bernie

Well, it was worth it, IMO.

PC - LOL! A Lot of years, AND a paid crew that helps keep it weeded and moved those boulders, right?

Bernie - It gets bigger every year? I guess we can assume you don't have to fight with your dh for more lawn for your flowers, right? ROTFL!

I thought you had a bunch of glads? Where do those grow?

Suzy

I am the dh.
Still have enough lawn that it takes many hours to mow.
Glads are grown in rows in the field. Sold the first bunch yesterday.

Too bad you live so far away - I have a no-work lawn care system, 5.5 hp.

Edited to add - I bet the fields of glads are glorious. Is there a thread where some pics are posted? Do you sell them yourself to individuals or do you supply some one with them?

This message was edited Jun 27, 2007 8:53 PM

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/498789/
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/426152/

All go to farmers market. Some people contact us there to order wedding flowers. Did 3 weddings last year, 2 on deck for this year so far.

We pick 3 times a week, so there is never a lot of color.
Bernie

Another.

Sure, that makes sense.... *sniff*!

Do you ever wonder what it would look like if you just let them all bloom and didn't cut any? Bet it'd make an incredible aerial shot...

How big is the area you plant your glads in? Could we see a photo of the deck where weddings are held? You obviously work extremely hard!

It's 4500 sq ft. Kind of an odd shaped piece.
No, no! The girls just bought the flowers from us!

Ah . . . my mistake, I was picturing you having a deck for people to hold weddings at! I guess that would be a bit much, wouldn't it, in addition to the flowers!! I did flowers this weekend for a small wedding at the most incredible site! It's on a tiny lake, surrounded by woods and gorgeous gardens. Today the wedding could be held outside, which hadn't been anticipated - I'm sure the bride was delighted. The reception area is an old barn that has been transformed - absolutely divine!

Cottage gardens in USA look soooooooooooooooooo much different to our English cottage gardens.........

Mark

Oh, Mark, We have so many things to fight over here that you can't imagine. And the pink and rose and lavender colors you guys so admire get so washed out in the midwestern sun...they are just blah! We can go 90 days with temperatures in the 80s, but no rainfall. Parts of the country would have temperatures in the 90s wih no rainfall for 3 months. How do you think the cottage roses would like that?

I can't even grow roses thanks to these guys -- the lovely Japanese Beetles we have for the month of July. The flower under it is a dahlia, though I realize it is unrecognizeable.

I figure our cottages looks different, so why not our cottage gardens?

Suzy

Bernie, That's a pretty garden. I like your pebbley path.

Mr. Crocosmia, you must post photos.

Wrightie, Don't you like my dahlia, too? ROTF!

Oh carp. I'm having a weird day. I keep missing posts.

Illoquin, that Dahlia of yours is .... ~something else~! Have you tried the trick of companion planting using Four O'Clocks? Or putting down Milky Spore? I've heard mixed reviews about both, but I've been giving it a try.

Hey, Bernie, here we call it a farm yard!

Mark, I think the reason that cottage gardens here are so different, aside from the obvious weather differences and color problems, is the scope. We tend to do things on a rather large scale, and the true cottage garden is/was a tiny yard planted to the hilt, no? And then there's that whole grass thing - there was actually a pamphlet or book written about how American it was to reject the flower filled little yard and plant large lawns of grass to give the American view of freedom full sway. This was, I believe, in the 19th century and we seem to have bought it hook line and sinker.

I've been trying to get rid of as much turf as I can and my goal is to attain a somewhat more traditional CG, but that's a long way off. My CG is only two years young. *sigh*

Well, that's 2 years you have on me, lol. And there's a good chance what little that is established in my yard will be dug up, anyway....

PC, why are you going to dig it up? I apologize if you have addressed that earlier and I've forgotten.
Pat

We have a leaky area in our basement. Very leaky, sometimes. There's a number of fixes - some more dependable than others, most of which are incredibly expensive, and only the 8k one is guaranteed (yipe!).

So, my bright idea is to put a continuation of the front porch all the way up to the corner of the house, which would make it connect with side porch, and protect that area completely from any rain fall, if that makes sense.

Of course, that area is one of the few that's actually landscaped... but I have a love/ hate relationship with it anyway, so...

Ohhhhhhhh bummer!! I hate having to rip up something that I have "finished" but, if you are not satisfied with it anyhow, this will give you ANOTHER opportunity to do it in a way you would like!

Yay!!!