Continuation of Cottage Gardens....

the arbor was put there for the clematis i just added
love my gh! I love that the garden is always changing-this is June the others were May

I can see a lot of love and time spent in that garden. Ü

Is that greenhouse "handmade"? ...it doesn't look like a kit...very quaint. I'd love to see more of it.
-T

hand made my my dh and I

i grew some mators and daylily seedlings on the south side of it this yr!

That is so neat. Did you get collect scrap glass, or buy it?

I have 8 panels of sliding glass door panels and would really love to do something like you've done, or maybe even do some hot beds, like the ones in Cornwall

one more for reality(winter is on the way)I need to get moving here while the days are warm-snow flurries this weekend!

Brr..that makes me cold just looking at it, lol...still looks beautiful, even frozen Ü

Dori....I love your garden....Jo

Notmartha, your garden is a perfect example of cottage style!! And that greenhouse is one of the best I've seen - the size has me drooling. Your area is gorgeous in winter - all we get out here is rain.

Dave your gardens look beautiful, too - send more pics, please.

Gram, I've been more than just a little bit pleased with the results of that last garden. I still fight a bit of grass coming up, but it's the "easy to pull out" variety. And occasional blackberry vine emerges as well, but nothing like in my poor Elm St. Garden.

So many beautiful garden pics! Thank all of you for sharing. You've all got me going through pics taken through the year and longing for those days of bloom. My favorite part of my cottage garden is the pink garden, and rose time is my favorite!

I'll start with some pics of the pink garden in May and June:

where to start, so many great pics to comment on...
notmartha, your gardens are simply breathtaking. I love the cottagey natural feel of them and the seasonal changes are wonderful.

dave, ignorant of the names of each of your plantings, but I really love the combinations and the tall growth of color.

Murmur, your beds are near perfection and I appreciate the lasagna pics. encouragement for mine.
wgnkiwi,(is wgn the radio station in Chgo?) your blank slate is just waiting for your touch tobring it to life. The picket fence )either the existing one or the link one) sets off both the house, which is darling and sooo cottagey and will se toff your gardens. Are you going to plant at the fence? I hope so, maybe climbing red roses or something like that as a background from inside with shorter things planted in front( back side from the street) for your pleasure out the windows.

trunnels, irises I recognise and adore. I will have some also, but I love your bed devoted to them. Are they rebloomers?

Early Bloomer, what is growing in your pic of 11/7 4:11? That one is a little fuzzy and I'm not sure but I think I'm seeing peonies, a long time fav of mine.

billypotter, you love to mow? have I got a job for you! well not really, but loving to mow shows in the pics, and you surely love to do more than just mow from the care your pics show to all your plantings, not just the grass.


Illoquin, I really like the structural pieces here and there among the beds. They set off the plantings beautifully.

You've all done such great jobs in creating your cottagey gardens and I can only hope to manage half as much. The advice on round-up, lasagna beds, patience and the 4" dead zone around the beds with edging barrier are all in the plans. I redid spraying ths morning with triple strength round up since single strenth had no effect. Patience to wait for the death of the bermuda is tough, but I'll do my best, followed by digging it out, layering lasagna and waiting some more for it all to jell. Hopefully I'll be able to get things into the ground before the heat comes. Tending a garden come summer is limited to daybreak and sunset hours, which is when I managed to get the patio done summer this year.

I hope winter in the regions which snow brings you many catalogs to drool over, plan and order from while waiting for spring.

Jude

Rose 'Erfurt' is highlighted in this one:

Although its breaking a traditional cottage garden "rule", I love splashes of crimson here and there with the pinks:

what rule? I'm not clear on rules for CG? please explain so when I get to plant I don't start out wrong.

Child psychology works really well on me; tell me I'm not "supposed" to do something and I'll try and find a way to make it work, lol.

Dori, beautiful summer garden photos, The snow covered garden area is very pretty, but I'm not really ready for snow. Yesterday's weather broke records here in eastern WA, highest low 50 degree and 60 daytime. Todays is different, down to 33 this morning, and not predicted to reach 50.

Loved your beautiful clematis blooms. I have several trellises and arch things for clematis, as they are one of my favorite plants.

Here are a couple more view of different areas of my garden. First one is of my west bank in early spring.

Donna

Gemini, wonderful! And if there are any rules for traditional cottage gardening, you must surely know that rules are made to be broken!!!

I was out taking pics a bit ago - the rain has ceased for a bit and the morning is actually quite lovely with a touch of sun. I'll resize and share later - I took one of the Elm St. Garden so you can see what happens if you let something go - lol!!!

I've read in some sources about the traditional idea of the English cottage garden saying that bold colors like magenta-purple and crimson are a no no. But while I love pastels, all thats gaudy holds my heart. So, its a rule, or shall we say recommendation, I choose to ignore.

notmartha that is surely a cottage garden!

And that is a lovely clematis - do you know the name?

Thanks murmur! I learned while working as a floral designer that some of my favorite designs came from "breaking the rules", lol.

Donna, I so love your garden; absolutely enchanting!

The positions we get in to get that perfect angle! While weeding I noticed this one and had to squat and get a pic:

I love the airy quality of astilbe in the garden:

And here is a picture of part of my bonsai patio showing the path to the swing that is place under the large Tilia tomentosa 'Silver Linden' that smells so wonderful the whole month of July. To the left is the large garden kaleidescope that my daughter gave me a couple of years ago to add to my collection of kaleidescopes. Left front is a wisteria bonsai. The white post is part of the support for the mist system for that garden room.

Donna

Dave....very nice!

Notmartha...your gardens are so pretty and yes, very cottagy, I would love your greenhouse, you are very talented to have built that.

gemini....beautiful, love that Astilbe too.

I think a little red adds so much punch to the pastels, it makes them pop.

In this part of the garden I've completely broken away from tradition and filled it with hot colors. From where I view it, the background is dark, shadowy woods, so the bright colors really glow.

Donna, that last pic makes me want to visit and sit and enjoy a glass of iced tea!

Gemini, when I was in floral design school, our instructor actually told us to break rules!!!! Your gardens are lovely - absolutely cottage style, hands down. I'm a fan of astilbe as well.

Donna, your gardens are gorgeous, too - I think you've gone above and beyond in creating such beauty in Eastern WA.

This is Elm St. I can't just plow it under as there are a few nice plants I would like to save, including a lovely azalea. Also, I think plowing it under would just get the roots going. Most of what you see is grass and weeds. I think the name of the grass is "Cemented In." As you can see, all is not heaven in my gardens - lol!

I have to have lilies and roses squeezed in everywhere possible!

Now I want every plant I see, and I want to break the rules (as soon as I know what they are LOL).

Notmartha (Dori?), your entire garden is wonderful! the gh, built with your own (and your dh's) is a dream come true. love the trellis. I think I have that clematis, or one very similar...Dr Ruppel or Asao? let's think of the winter one as frosted instead of frozen as in 'sugar frosted'.

Neal, I agree with you I think any color should be appropiate (sp) in a cottage garden and red is a great eyecatcher mixed in with the other plants. Really liked your happy foxglove. I do like astilbe but haven't been too successful with them. Hope to have more when my woodland garden trees are a little older. Most of the trees in that area are only 3 or 4 years old so still quite small and not creating much shade.

Donna

So true Murmur. How can rules be applied to creativity?

Last one for now:

This is the approximate same view as the earlier photo with the Shastas - how the seasons change everything, eh?? That variegated grass would take over given the opportunity, but I like it.

Donna, while moving to a woodland environment has certainly presented challenges, some things that I'd never been able to grow well, like astilbe, love it here. I've found if you can give them lots of moisture and organic matter they will tolerate sun. And thank goodness for foxglove; I'm so glad to have those traditional looking spires in the cottage garden, especially since lupines and delphiniums don't tolerate our hot summers.

This is looking into the backyard - the sandbox garden (the one my stepson created with me) is looking pretty empty as I took a ton of stuff out and have just begun replanting. I think I'm going to like it though. I need to put some topsoil, or even bark, around those stepping stones and the two to the left will be moved - just had to set them somewhere. The garbage can at the back has newspapers for lasagna gardening . . . need to move that darn thing so it doesn't spoil the scenery! The dark object is dh's smoker which he had to have, but doesn't use. Maybe I could grow a clematis over it?

Murmur, I hope you and your garden have not been harmed by all the rain in that area. My youngest son lives near Sumner/Bonney Lake but on a hill and no flooding.

Doesn't look like just grass and weeds to me. Looks like early fall. Yesterday was such a beautiful day here, broke records all over the place, Was 50 degrees yesterday morning and got up to 60. This morning more typical for this time of year, 34 degrees and not predicted to reach 50, but I think the weatherman is wrong as the sun is shining nicely. But I am not doing any gardening outside, just a little in the gh.

Donna

Doggone it, I had a rather lengthy thing written and I accidentally closed out dg and lost it!! LOL

Donna, thanks for the concern - we are lucky here, we're in a rain shadow from the Olympic Mountains and get far less rain than the rest of the PNW. And we are on a good slope and have a drainage ditch at the back of the property (I have renamed it Murmuring Creek - my "grandma" name is Murmur).

This picture was taken from my deck and gives a bit of an idea of the creek, although it's full of grass at the moment (not to mention that variegated grass that I put on the edge on purpose!). The property on the other side is not mine, although I obviously am moving in a bit with my cardboard and my re-potted plants!! When the owners of that property clear cut the alders two years ago, it was devastating - they left all the scrap in tall piles . . . it looked like a bomb had hit. I had a party for my 60th birthday and invited friends to go out there with me and sow wildflower seeds. I thought it was going to be quite a success, but didn't realize how the thistle, nettles, blackberry vines, tall grass, etc. would take over. So it's quite a disaster. I would like to at least clean up the area along the creek on the other side. The arch I got recently (a freebie - don't you just love those?) and is really tall. I put it in by myself which would probably have made America's Funniest Videos if someone had been filming me!

I did get the owners to leave a small grove of alders for me, which surprisingly enough they did.

You're going to get sick of my barrage of photos! Last one for today - I promise. But notice I said "for today."

This is the oval garden in the center of the front lawn - now that most of the flowers have died back, my little follow the leader kids show up. I think I have 15 statues in that garden alone.

Murmur, I've seen some of your pics before, but never, ever get tired of them. and never saw your kids...how cute is that? that trellis is great..how on earth did you put it up yourself? it looks really tall. I like your variegated grass, too. the canada geese eat anything in my yard that resembles a grass. I've been thinking of putting some tall ones behind roses or thorny things where they won't go.

Neal, that's a great philosophy in itself...lilies and roses all over. I could start with that and just fill in with everything else. I always like your combinations.

Donna, I am enjoying your pics so much. charming ideas.

Here's what the Roundup did. I will till & plant it shortly.
Bernie

ahhhhhh....beautiful dead sod Bernie! That should be a lovely new bed! What are you going to plant?

inquiring minds...or nosely neighbors lol
carol