DD has chickens, so I was enjoying it and your link!
That is beautiful! Are those huge ''stems'' really an old rose? That must have been a sight to see when it bloomed. I've always wanted to run a vine up a tree, or thru a lilac.
So what makes a Cottage Garden, well, "Cottagey"?
that's a rose of sharon (Hibiscus syriacus). My neighbors at my previous house had a clematis
growing in a cherry tree. It was just glorious. Two full bloom seasons on that tree.
tam
Boy were my eyes crossing. I reread to see you said Rose of ''Sharon''. I've been trying to catch up on a missed week of threads. Time to get off and have a glass of wine. ;^ )~ Later!
Oh, boy! I had no idea Rose of Sharon could get that big and grand looking!!
I do have a young Clematis virginianus planted next to the flowering pear in my front yard... perhaps next year it will start climbing and blooming for me!
Tammy that's simply gorgeous! I ;pve the idea of two blooms/season and will try something on that order on my non blooming trees also.
Great idea, thanks
Beautiful Tammy!
Wow! That clematis is an awesome sight - I've wanted a Henryi for years - that photo just pushed me into doing something about it!
After laughing out loud at the chicken stuff, I opted against them - with my luck, I'd get a Tiny Tim type rooster!
Murmer, growing up with chicken cartoons, I was ROTFL, thinking about a chicken with a ukulele crooning Tip-Toe. (I miss Tiny Tim now that he's gone.)
Monkshood would make a nice fall filler for a cottage garden.
I know they can be terrible pests (in another post I saw today they were called "hungry evil creatures"), but I have to say I'm not sure my garden would feel complete with Peter Rabbit.... Didn't somebody mention Beatrice Potter earlier? :-)
As long as he sticks to munching the clover, he and I will get along...
hahaha I'm enjoying the your fantasy! They are cute and won't be doing much damage this time
of year. At my old house, I swear they would wait until the flower buds were fully formed and ready to burst into
bloom before they'd mow them down. Very clever little critters. Out here in the country I don't have
any problems with them. I guess the wildlife enjoys those little guys.
I'd so love to have some bunnies hopping around, completing the picture -- but BACK TO REALITY I think I'll get a little concrete one.
Concrete bunnies would be far less pesky!
Actually, I can't really complain, as they do relatively little damage to my flowers and veggies... they really do seem to prefer clover for the most part, and we have plenty of that! I do use Grandpa's trap to run a "relocation program" if I'm feeling too outnumbered.
However, I do think they eat most of the buds off my crocuses (crocii?) planted along the side path.... I can find crocus foliage in the grass there, but I seldom see one blooming! I guess they aren't willing to wait for the new clover, LOL.
COTTAGE GARDEN.................................
oh wow, Mark
Thanks for the definition Mark, LOL.
Us English know how to do cottage gardens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
WOW Mark.........is Lauri gonna have fun there?????or what???????
Thats just a small part of it Demi............................ thats the very top of the garden!!!!!!
Cottage gardens are so easy to do....................... the trouble is people tend to plan them to much!!! The idea of cottage gardens is all the plants should grow into each other so it is just a riot of colour, shape and texture...... forget all the formal rows and such like rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plant what you what where you want and let it alone to do its stuff..........
I just have a city lot............and I cover every inch of it.........but I do like a little green grass...............Show us more...Did you send Lauri pictures yet???...............Remember she likes clems too..!!
wow! Love those blues Mark.
Breathtaking, Mark - and you are right . . . you English sure do know how to do cottage gardens! Would love to see more pics.
I love your flowers, Mark. Most of us can only dream of living in such a garden friendly climate, we have to battle much harsher conditions.
Maozamom,
I love the sidewalk strip planting. What do you have growing there?
Closest is canna stuttgart with a few wisps from Russian sage showing. Next is purple bee balm and a lovely daylily. I have the strip divided in three different beds so that the passengers from two cars can exit their vehicle without walking in the flowers.
Here's a picture taken of my backyard. I enjoy the bold, bright front garden more but I'm trying for a romantic look in the back.
Tammy, your Henryi looks wonderful climbing through that Rose of Sharon. Mark, gorgeous!! Maozamom, Your sidewalk planting is great. My bold, bright garden is mostly in the back and the more Romantic one in the front, but like you, I seem to be enjoying the bold one the most, so have starting mixing the 2 more. The canna foliage is so striking in your first photo.
Susan
Mark, thanks for the words of encouragement for what you want, where you want it and let them do their own thing. I'm hoping that all the seeds I've been collecting will sprout in and amongst the bulbs I got into the ground recently. No specific plan in mind, just groups of bulbs and the seeds will go all over the bed. Likewise to the city lot, so limited somewhat, but mostly the climate is what limits here. I've tried to select things that have a chance of surviving the summer but time will tell how well I did. Also, I tried to choose self seeding varieties, so I can add to them next year (ot this if necessary) in patches that aren't full enough. It's my hope that with massive plantings that the bermuda grass won't have much chance of taking over the new bed, but I still feat the worst on that count.
Toasting my morning coffee to all.
Jude
Jude, you sound like you're feeling better about gardening in that climate - it seems like a lot of people have managed to do it well. I admire your perseverence.
Maozamom, your gardens are lovely - you've done beautifully with your colder climate!
Murmur,
yes, feeling better since I see a bed actually formed. though it's not as I had planned it, so what! it's a bed none the less and it's going to have flowers, some veggies and be wonderful!
Jude- some of the best gardens completely stray from our plans. I think you have just the right attitude if not climate to have an enjoyable cottage garden.
maozamom, thanks for those kind words.
I'm not so sure about the slime here when it hits 115 in the summer, but I've determined that I can only do what I can do, plant, water, feed, water, water, water, water and try to provide some shade, water, water, water. More than that is beyond my efforts.
Jude....................... the best gardens are the ones that are never planned..................... you stick with it!!!!!!!!
Hope all the seeds you have thrown about do their thing for you................. if you want any out of my garden, just let me know ok....... i have lots of seed you could use............. including wild flowers!!!!!
Mark
Mark, I'm always interested in obtaining more seeds of what I don't have or even more of what I do.
If you have seeds laying around that are in need of a new home, hot in the summer and little shade available... send them on. I'm in the address exchange.
I'll put together a list of what I have and send it to you so you can see if there are any you'd like.
I'm concerned about getting them into the UK tho, I tried with another resident and even sent them in little packs inside of a DVD case and NOT labeled seeds. To date, they haven't arrived and they were sent over 6 weeks ago. Is UPS a better way to ship into the UK? It's available for me if that's a better choice.
off to compile my list for trade.
maozamom - Love that canna foliage! And your beautiful backyard fence. I haven't had good luck with bee balm, maybe I let it dry out too much? It was close to the house in a south-facing bed. I do love the shaggy pom-pom heads.
Mark, check d-mail.
I believe there's a procedure to send small amounts of seed internationally. Its been published on alpine
list servers. I'll post over in the rock garden forum and search around a bit. I don't think you need to do
anything under handed to get them into the states any longer.
Tam
All I know about it Tammy is that what I sent to the UK hasn't arrived and what was sent to me fromthe same address came without a hitch.
I don't know about process to send to UK... sorry I didn't read carefully enough. I know there was a huge stink
about phytocertification for stuff coming into the states. We almost had a full ban on any seeds that weren't
accompanied by certification proving they were not weedy. Only big seed companies could afford to do the work
needed and only then for very popular seed types. Thankfully sanity prevailed and the compromise was for
small seed lots to be accompanied by some sort of documentation. I just don't recall the specifics.
But all this was for coming INTO the US. LOL
Tam
I have never had a problem sending parcels to the states.......................... but then never had a problem receiving parcels from the states!!!
Prairiegirl- I don't water and this bed has lots of gravel from the shoulder of the road. I do add lots of organic matter and I use different sedums as ground covers .
Jude, my son lives in Phoenix ,this is the same person who named me after Chairman Mao, is always teasing me in winter about how nice it is there and in summer he doesn't have the high humidity . But of course he comes to visit here in the spring so as not to miss a great season and I remind him that it's hard to beat the beauty of autumn in Ohio. We agree that there's lots of challenges in both locations but at least I don't have to worry about snakes.
I don't worry about snakes any more than you do maozamom,
they're here just like they're there, but I haven't seen one ever. I don't go out into the desert or climbing outcrop rock formations so not much chance they'll come strolling down my street. Mostly here with walled in rear yards, one has to live out a ways to have snakes be of concern. If that's the case, then there are javelina, bobcats, coyotes, black widows, scorpians.....
I have none of them at my house, or if any are here, they are completely unseen and not troublesome at all.
I worry far more about the challenge of gardening here than about wildlife of the unwanted kind.