I'm working on a garden, but since I'm in zone 9b its a "tropical cottage" and naturally some of the plants will be different. The plants that it breaks my heart I cannot have are peonies and iris - I have three iris, and only one will bloom for me here.
COTTAGE GARDENS, who has and who wants to start theirs?
Susan, I'm going to have to go back and look again, but I could have spent a whole day in your garden. I can't imagine that you need any help, but if that means that you'll be hanging around here I'm all for it! Do you know how many different daylilies you have? I kept thinking, 'I need that one', 'no, I really love that one'. I put in 4 or 5 new ones this year and will have room for more next year. can't wait. they just grow and grow on me. also added some new iris and lilies, but I can't keep up LOL
gram
sue I love all the pics :) You dont have to mow do you?
I love the pic of your house with the garden in front!!!
that's another thing I was going to ask...any grass at all? that's my goal - eliminate the lawn - serves no purpose!
I have eliminated all my grass. Me and the lawn mower never did get along. Sometimes I do miss that little patch of green I used to have in the middle of the front and back gardens, but not enough to go back to mowing. I've heard that artificial turf is really good looking now and hard to tell from the real thing, but I keep thinking that it would look funny in the winter. Maybe I would have to buy two pieces, one green for the summer and one brown for the winter and just switch them with the season, but then I'd have to give up some of my plants and I don't think I can do that. I have maybe 100 cultivers of daylilies. Too many really for the space I have. I will have to get rid of some of the more boring ones as the other newer ones get bigger. Dori, I look at your gardens and keep thinking that is the look I want, but feel like I sure have a long ways to go to get there.
Love how you planted both sides of the side walk! I don't have a curb so I know that I would have cars driving over my plants. I have thought of planting some of my daylilies, when I divide them, around the telephone pole. They are lining my driveway and the pole is close to that area, I think that would look nice.
Here is the front of my house and you can really see what a small area I garden in. This was taken early spring of this year. The photo above was taken Oct 3 looking down the sidewalk in front of the house. I am still surpised each year at how fast things change. I am considering putting a low picket fence in the front to connect the 2 arbors and provide more of a feeling of enclosure or maybe use a lattice type fence like the sides of the trellis. I would probably keep it low, maybe 3" tall and maybe 6' tall along the neighbor's driveway to the left since I grow vines there most years and could use it as a support for them, plus have a more private sitting area. Any thoughts on how that would look?
Susan
ladygardener1. Love your daylilies! Is that your driveway or the street in the photo? Could you put a stone edging around the outside of that area with the pole, maybe making it all a raised bed? I have a little problem at times with cars running over some of my plants too because my driveway is narrow. The people on the one side have also had their car slip on the ice and roll into my beds. Guess that is just one of the hazards of gardening.
Susan
Susan, I like the idea of the low picket fence, you could add a few wire trellis to grow vines like morning glories in places you want some privacy.
I too want to add some more fencing I need some privacy fence along the neighbors side (I live on a corner lot) and my watergarden and patio is on that side, the front of the yard I want to connect the privacy fence to the corner of the house with low picket & gate, that way it would form an enclose area and I could plant on either side of the picket fence.
Chris
Susan, I was standing with my back to the garage, the driveway is to the left, when I took that picture the gas company was putting in a new line, thus the dirt mound. I have 2 rows of daylilies that bloom early mid and late. I also enjoy deadheading them but I have been having health issues this year and have not had the engery to deadhead and pull weeds, so I took lots of pictures instead.
Here is one of the early ones "GoldenBoy"
Chris
This message was edited Nov 14, 2006 10:08 AM
I'm in the desert and in DENIAL! My garden is a cross between tropical and cottage :)
FK,
the more pics I see of your gardens, the more I know it IS possible here. I don't know if I have what it takes to get there, but I'm trying to get it "off the ground" this year. It's slow going. Someone indicated that yours began not too many years ago from a barren patch of browned out nothing. Do you have any transition pics? I for one would find them inspiring.
Thanks,
Jude
I wish I had before pics :( I bought the house in 2000. The back yard had a Mesquite and orange tree and nothing but granite gravel. Every week I would shovel gravel and throw it in the dumpster one bag at a time :)
The Mesquite covers 1/2 the yard now. Making a very nice micro climate. The orange tree was yanked last year, it was taking up valuable real estate lol! The most important thing in Phoenix is to get a nice tree planted, without shade...you'll need to start a cactus garden :(
NO, NO, NO CACTUS!!! I hate them with more passion than I have for most anything else.
So, a Mesquite? Are those the ones with the nasty thorns? I'm tryin to decide on what tree to get and getting dizzy in the process. What I'm looking for is shade, but also from the same tree, I want something interesting (othwise a sail would do the job). It doesn't have to bloom or have fragrance, just shade and nice leaves.
I checked the plant files here, but I'm not sure which variety would be best, hints?
I like the Mesquite because it has a lacy canopy. Allows for some light to come through. The branches can cover a large area vs. a compact tree that does not provide a lot of shade.
Velvet Mesquite Tree Prosopis velutina
Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa)
Screwbean Mesquite (Prosopis pubescens)
does it matter which or will any/all have the same lacy canopy?
Jude, Check out the thread MaryMcP started in SW Gardening forum re her research on trees for this region. I agree about the lacey, filter light afforded from the Mesquite.
This message was edited Nov 15, 2006 7:58 AM
will do. thanks Aguane and FK
Jude, have you seen this articles on trees for Arizonia/? Looks like you have a lot of possiblilities to select from.
http://ag.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/html/pubs/1104/earth.html
wonderful, thank you.
I just spoke with SPR asking if they would kindly move their power line so I can plant a tree which will grow larger.
They have to send out one of their 'designers' to see if it's warranted. Then they'll tell me how much it will cost ME to move THEIR power line.
Ah, the trials and tribulations of wanting a garden.
Wonderful photos & ideas on this thread!!
Susan, I don't think "too many daylilies" makes a garden un-cottagey, LOL. Your beds are lovely! About your idea of partly enclosing your front yard with a fence... I like it! I think it will anchor your arbors and make them seem more connected to the architechture of the house. However, I would bring the fence a little forward of your arbors so you don't make the inner area of the yard feel too confined. I think if you ran your low fence just 2 or 3 feet in from the walkway, you'd have room to do a bit of planting to soften the outside...
Hmmm, let's see if I can do the trick with drawing lines on your photo.... Hmm, resolution is pretty low, but this may still work...
Like this...
whoops, sorry, even using hot pink that line didn't show up, especially with the big copyright thing....
OK, so let's try the thousand words approach instead...
Short section of fence coming from the right side of the front arbor to a point 30 inches in from the sidewalk. Longer section of fence running along sidewalk to the corner of your yard. Fence then runs along neighbor's driveway and makes another 90 degree turn in to meet the front edge of your side arbor.
I know you want a taller fence along the neighbor's driveway, but how about stepping up the height with successively taller panels rather than going from a 2 or 3 foot fence along the sidewalk to a 6 ft. one at the driveway corner. I think that would be a good transition and would create a more welcoming effect as well as not giving your neighbor a sense of claustrophobia as he backs out of his driveway. For more privacy, you could put an additional 6 foot tall panel of fencing on the other side of your trellis...
I did a quick scratch-drawing attempt like so...
Lincolnitess - I vote Yes to a little low fence -- it would really set everything off! Critter's idea is a good one.
Fishknees - What a hoot! Looks just like Ohio or Massachusetts!
Suzy
Susan, I love critter's idea too! I think it would add an even more cozy feel, yet very welcoming and inviting.
fishknees, beautiful use of annuals to create a cottagy effect.
Thanks for the ideas critterologist! I think we have a city ordinance here that the fence would have to be set back 4 ft from the sidewalk, but not positive. Also not sure how close to my driveway or the neighbors driveway it can be. There really is more space in the front than it looks in this photo, so I think even with the 4 ft set backs, it would be roomy enough for a small setting area. Here is what I came up with last night at work. Can you tell I have some quiet times at work? That one of the good things about working nights. In this sketch, I thought of adding narrow 12" trellises above the fence, and have the fence support posts 8' tall or just a little shorter than the trellises. That way I could grow vines up the posts and across the top trellis areas, plus hang plants down from the narrow trellis areas if I wanted to The corner of the right I think I will angle just because of where the scrubs and little evergreen tree is located. That way they would be inside the fence and I could plant maybe another scrub or rose in the outside corner triangle to add height to that area. Does that make sense? Continue below.
susan
For part two of the plan above, I would like to add an arbor over the front door like the other 2 except have the roof peaked and then add a flat roofed trellis to cover the area above the large front window. You can't see it in the photo, but there is a sidewalk that goes from the driveway on the right up to the front steps and there is room for a park bench under the window. This would give that area a little more shade and call attention to the front door. Do you think this is too much? Would it be better without the trellises above the fence? Also I am wondering if the whole thing would look better white than the current dark color of the trellises? Of course the big question is where the money for this project is coming from and will my poor overworked brother reallty want to do it for me? I have a feeling it will be in the dream stage for at least a couple more years. In time, I would like to put light grey siding on the house with white trim. The roof is a combination of dark grey and brick red, which looks brownish from a distance, but I think if I painted the door and shutters a barn red, it would bring out the reddish tones in the roof. Any other suggestions? I am open to any ideas at all since I can't really visualize what it would all look like.
susan
I have a cool program that you can scan your own house and draw in and add all kinds of stuff freehand or add predesignated materials, plants, hardscape, sheds etc. It is really cool but time consuming for me. It really helps to visualize. I have 20 notebooks of pictures of landscape ideas, what we want etc. It is still fun for me to draw it all but the program is cool because it is 3-d and you can come in close or far and at any angle. If you want to see what your plan looks like from the bedroom window, you can etc. I will find it to tell you the name of the disk. It is so nice. Cottage is my favorite stly and I am starting over now in a new yard. My old yard I designed the curved brick ribbon walkways and we formed and poured them ourselves, then I layed out the curved bed between our house and neighbors with some small trees, evergreen shrubs staggered randomly, vines and selfsowing herbs and flowers and bulbs. It also had 2 huge willows with Algerian ivy under( which is now strangling the tree) and similar planting on the other side and along the sides of the walkway. I love climbers of every kind and don`t think you can have too many in this region to make a cottage garden.
zone 11..wow! do you have pics? it sounds like what you've done is really neat! I have similar software (3D Home Architect Design Suite - used to be a separate program called 3D Home Landscape Designer, but now it's part of the suite).
Oh, I like both of your designs! I think it might be a little overwhelming for the house though to execute everything in them... but it's hard to tell from photos. (In your first photo, you're right, the yard looked less deep than you described, and it looked like the front trellis was set back at least 6 feet from the sidewalk.) I do like the idea of doing something with the entrance... have you thought about adding a front porch (just a little one) with a peaked roof rather than an entrance trellis? You could still put lattice on either side of the porch for vines, but a solid roof might make the entranceway seem more a part of the house. Or are you going for that arching-roses-over-the-door cottage look? As you said, it's hard to envision it all.
I really like your fence with the overhanging trellis, but if you do that and also do the trellis across that front window, that seems like a lot of heavy horizonal lines, might weigh down the lines of your house too much. If you need the window trellis for shade, I would think about doing less of a fence... Maybe just let the front arch be free-standing and bring a fence from the side trellis along the neighbor's driveway, perhaps with a low section of fence turning the corner for just a short distance along the sidewalk, giving you enough of an enclosed space to make a cozy feeling sitting area.
A lot of this is a question of function as well as form... think about what your functional requirements are for additional structures... Do you need shade above that window? Do you want to screen the view from the house to the street or sidewalk with a fence? How much privacy do you want from the direction of your neighbor's driveway, just a partial screen for a sense of enclosure, or are you trying to keep him from watching you garden in short shorts? As you think about what works and what doesn't work about your current space, some of the decisions will become more obvious.
With a project of this magnitude, you want to be sure the final result will delight you!
BTW, I think there are some real design experts over on the Curb Appeal forum (aka Garden Design).... you'd probably get more advice than you wanted (if you haven't already, LOL) over there, but you'd get some good input, too.
That is hysterical. Grampapa, that is the same program I have, it is cool but it takes some time to finess if your not real computer saavy or an architect. I don`t know where my pictures of the yard are and I`d go over and take some but it is the wrong season, things are starting to go dormant. In the spring, I`ll do it since my x still lives there and my son part time.
I've got that same program but got frustrated with it... I grow so many things that aren't on the list, and I would like to have more generalized options, like a vaguely shrub-shaped form that I could adjust height and width on to "stand in" for something that's not on the database. I also had an issue with some plants in the database showing up as the wrong size by orders of magnitude when I placed them into the "landscape." I think I need to take another crack at it and see if I can make it do what I want it to do... Last year, I gave up and went back to my graph paper, LOL.
I have real issues with the plants that are available in the software, too. but I pick something that looks like what I want, resize it, rename it, and use it. I get as close as I can. I originally bought it when I was designing my new home, then added the landscape design. they aren't adding anything new to the landscaping because they aren't selling it anymore.
I haven't gotten too far with the cottage garden yet but I have a design for my new rose garden that's going in next spring. the brown in the background is the footprint of the house...I've had problems getting the house to stay at the same elevation as the landscaping,
pretty cool gram. i've been looking for software to do these things and have come up dry. I guess pencil and paper will still have to do for a while more.
Your design looks like it'll be grand.
Gramps I like your drawing and it seems to flow well. You had better luck with the plants than we did I guess. It was like a job trying to figure everything out and if I put something in wrong it would erase things I did not want errasesd and frustrate. so I am with you guys, pen and graph paper. I burned leaves yesterday and am taking it easy today because all my yard work , hurt my back.
grampapa, your rose garden looks like it is going to be lovely. I like having things in 3D like that. I think I do have a program somewhere I have never used. Maybe have to give it a try this winter.
Susan
This message was edited Nov 18, 2006 4:37 AM
The way I plan my gardens is this: I go into my garage and see that I have 10 daylilies and 3 Black Jack Sedums still in plastic bags . . . I gasp in horror as I rip them all open and find that, bless their hearts, all but maybe one daylily has survived my neglect . . . then, despite the chilly air and oncoming darkness, I dig holes wherever I can find an empty space that I think "might" be appropriate for said plants. I tell myself that I'll "fix" it all in the Spring.
Of course, the 200+ bulbs are still sitting there.
And my hands have not yet warmed up. Yup. It happened just a little while ago.
sounds like as good a plan as any LOL gets the plants into the ground, doesn't it? so far my rose garden is only on paper....no, wait, it's not even on paper...just in cyber space :0)
I do both. I plan, track the sun's pattern, painstakenly select plants, then my plants arrive and I plant them entirely by instinct. I have some weird inability to follow my own plans in the garden.