By special request.

From Neal! I posted a pic on another forum and Neal asked if I would post it here. I have lots of pics if I can spend time looking for them, I have many folders so full it gets difficult, and almost impossible to organise them.

I guess my garden could fit into the cottage garden category, although it didn't start that way I am slowy filling up all the spaces and leaving paths between the beds. Perhaps I should set up a new Folder for cottage garden pics, I already have one for 'Garden shots' apart from the others, hmmmmm, it must be getting on 100 now! Just counted, 89 folders.

This was taken in early September, after a very hot summer for here and dry with it. A little rain and slightly cooler weather, the sun shining through the shadows, mist clearing, I remember the wonderful feeling now and it brings a smile. Gardening can be so fulfilling, and being able to look back on the joy it brings is a winter warmer and gives an eagerness to view it all over again in the coming year.

Mmmm... looks wonderful - thanks Wallaby and Neal!

More? Please?

OK! The poor Eucalyptus tree was recently blown over in strong winds.

Beautiful. How much space do you have, Wallaby? You always have such interesting plants.

More please.

Wallaby1, i LOVE that trellis! I'm so limited in my thinking of them; i.e., that they have to go up against a wall or backdrop of some kind. It looks like yours sort of acts as a three-dimensional frame, adding height and depth to the bed. Gorgeous plantings. Magnificent overall design.

Oh! I have visions of my garden beds growing up to look like that someday, with swaths of green grass running between lovely cottagey plantings, a few archetectural elements (more formal plants, trellises, etc) here and there to give your eye somewhere to rest....

WOWZA!!!

In addition to the other comments, its the green HEDGE in the background I am most envious of! Oh, to be able to screen off the neighbors without a brown board fence!

Suzy

Thank you Janet! I knew folks over here would be nuts over your gardens. Your use of heirlooms and species gives a wonderful feeling of nostalgia.

Forgot to ask questions. Were you able to save the eucalyptus? Are those shots different agles of the same area? Is your Falstaff rose in the border of that area? Ok, enough quizzing, lol.

beaker, 1/3 acre including the drain which runs along the front of the property, it's a national waterways drainage system which each section along a property is owned by the adjacent dweller but which is actually a National system so it 'should' be kept clean by the owners. I have made good use of the drain, it has an old Victorian engineered brick lining with a deeper rounded well as it emerges from the pipe under the bridge. It mostly dries up in August so can be dug out, I get a lot of gritty soil mixed with leaves from it which in a few months breaks down from looking more like leaves with some soil, to looking like a rich soil. This I use for all my potting.

The private road is included in the 1/3 acre which runs on the other side of the hedge to the garage, which is never used for a car! The hedge is a Lleylandii, they are quick growing but need cutting back once a year, we do this mostly in early October with a power hedge cutter and if you have a man with strong arms it doesn't take long. It hadn't been trimmed properly when we moved here 9 years ago, but I got it in shape and now it looks great. With Lleylandii if you cut off all the new growth it doesn't grow again, so anything too far gone is a goner, but they bush out nicley and fill all the gaps if done correctly. Also a good wind break, but the worst winds here come from different directions, the hedge is on the south side. The neighbour on the other side benefits! I can be frozen on my side, he is like in the tropics on his. I use his greenhouse, fair exchange!

The Eucalyptus was really unsaveable, if coppicing they have to be done at 2 years or it can kill them, some coppice better than others, it was a very quick grower so outgrew the strength of it's roots. I will put the E. niphophila in it's place, it's slower growing, there is a huge hole in the sky now! The roots hadn't come out or broken, just lifted at one side, and they were quite strong but the top won over the bottom with gale winds to 81mph. The thickest stem was around one foot across at the base.

Neal, the first shot is the path going behind the bed to the right in the second shot. I'll get more angles posted, just give me time to find them!

I don't have a Fastaff rose, I have Tradescant, is that the one? The rose bed is to the left in a kite shape, will give a shot of that, but I have some roses elsewhere too.

estrya, the tellis or pergola is made by ourselves from 15mm copper tubing, the house is Victorian and I wanted to continue the theme, but everything I seem to like is of a Victorian design anyway. Even the kite shaped rose bed is a Victorian design and I didn't know that!

A note on the designing, I first get the plants I can't live without, THEN make the beds to fit them in. Somehow it always seems to work out perfectly. I hadn't a clue how I would do it for a start, one of the most difficult things to do I think is first make a bed and then try to decide how to fil it up. I think that can lead to disaster, trying to find plants which will fit. If you go with what you like, the rest will flow. I was trying to design on paper but nothing seemed quite right, when one day I looked out the top of stairs window and it was all there in my mind's eye. When laying out new beds I use canes for a start, then lay a hose pipe down and move the curves until I think they are right, then go upstairs and view from above. That is where I see if it looks right.

I even hung the baskets on the trellis because I couln't think of where else to put them, and it has worked well, perhaps stopped it from blowing away too, but the wind did bend it a little with the heavy waterlogged baskets, it straightened OK. I have a white Wisteria growing up one leg of the trellis which I will try to train around it, the flowers grow to 3 feet long, can't wait to see that. Clematis are on all the legs too.

I'll post and put more pics on in another post.

Stunning. More pictures, yes! :)

OK.

This is from the front side of the right bed lookin towards the left.

Across the smaller middle bed to the left bed. The middle one has a mixed lot of Campanula species I grew from seed. The purple foliage is Lobelia from seed I took from L Russian Princess, the foliage is dark and flowers bright pink-purple but from seed I got a variety of colours. They don't go rampant but do fill in wiht some colour later after the Campanulas have finished.

In the middle of that bed is Dahlia Cafe au Lait which I leave in the ground. On each corner is Rosa Rhapsody in Blue, this was September and it was the hottest year on record with no rain for months, we had only then had a small shower or two. I have a Rose Blue Moon in amongst the Osteospermum at the left which is the front edge, it did well last year but this year it got chopped off (not me). The Osteospermum is a white with grey-blue backing and a deep bluish eye which opens to little yellow flowers and gets a pink flush on the petals as it ages, I don't know the name as I got it as cuttings (so kind of the adventure park!) On the outer edges of Rhapsody in Blue I have seed grown Platycodon Fairy Snow which puts on a good show, along the middles of the sides I have some Heuchera Silver Indiana grown from one I had. I also have some Papaver Coral Reef from seed amongst for early colour, and a few species Tulips and other bulbs for spring, but I need to bulk up on those.

The bed at the back is the rose bed, mostly done for the time but I had some late flowers, there is Viola Freckles around the top sides, a bright pink Osteospermum at the bottom corner I bought as 'Prostrate Purple' which is hardy and can flower from quite early for months. A few self set violas crossed from pansies and the wild heartsease keep filling some spaces there too. Pics of that later.

The bed behind, the left one in the second pic, has some evergreen shrubs, an Acacia dealbata tree, Pittosporum Eilsa Keightley, Rosa Crazy For You, Hydrangea Annabelle, some peonies recently replaced another shrub, and I have had to take out my Viburnum plicatum Mariesii as it died for some reason, may have been the dry hot weather but it did seem to lose some growth before. Such a shame as it was really full of flower and a good show, but I have put in Magnolia sieboldii instead which I got off ebay as a young plant (tried from seed and still waiting!). The tall yellow shrub is Ceanothus Pershore Zanzibar, behind that is Magnolia Susan which I grew from a small plug. Forsythia Fiesta at the rear around the bend, it is a lovely foliage shrub. The dark leaved Dahlias along the edge are D Bishop's Children which I grew from seed, there is also Aster Island Series Tonga (I think!) which always puts on a fantastic show with no mildew. to the right of that I have Pittosporum Tom Thumb, a purple leaved dwarf shrub with Clematis Piilu scrambling through it. Also some Aquelegias Petticoats and gold leaf Ruby Port for early colour before the Dahlias get going. A few purple Crocus and Narcissus Tete a Tete along the front edge for spring colour.

better post or we will all get lost!

This is the last bed I did, many plants I had been growing in pots from seed waiting for a space and this was it. The pic is taken from the other side of the drain on the road side. I got most of them put in last June, and then had to spend all my time watering them to keep them alive!

A longer shot, the bed behind is the right dahlia bed, you can see the pergola behind it.

I see you have cat tails growing there, so it must be a moist spot.

From the other side of the new bed, work in progress trying desparately to find gaps for some fuchsias and wrongly named irises.

Yes beaker, that is in the drain, I have bog plants along the edges of the bricks near the bottom.

More later..

Wonderful! Thanks for the tour of your incredible gardens!

wallaby1, Thank you for the tour of your garden during this particularly grey winter. I am now going in search of some Lobelia seeds that will produce something akin to you Russian Princess. I ordered some dahlia's this winter, but all of them are short varieties as I am not sure I am ready to stake many plants. I am encouraged by the way you have mixed them into your beds. Your use of hose to lay out the beds is exactly what I do. My poor DH always gets very nervous when he sees me dragging hose out to virgin lawn. I then head upstairs to check out the view and plead for help. I am spying a nice spot right now that needs some hose to encompass a possible new bed as soon as the recently frozen ground thaws. I love the trellis or pergola that you have built. Patti

Patti my original Russian Princess is buried behind the Aster and last I looked it was dwindling, I was going to dig it to save it but never got around to it. I don't think I have had seeds the same since the first I took off, but then I haven't really looked, and last year it didn't flower as it is smothered.

My species dahlias grow to 5 feet tall and don't need staking, they have very tough stems if not as thick as the hybrids, I haven't had any blow over yet.

This was taken early June 05, everyting was a month late as it was so cold, but the flower show was spectacular.

The border behind the Dahlia bed.

Personally, that's exactly what I would like my garden to look like! Gloriously beautiful, Wallaby!

just stunning...I'm impressed with everything - even the edges on your beds. wow.

Aaahh yes, Tradescant is the one I was thinking of. Is Ostiospermum perennial for you? I got a Magnolia sieboldii in a 1gallon pot in spring of '05, and it has done very well. I've never seen one in person; it will be so exciting to see blooms someday.

Thanks so much for sharing your garden pics! I'm so enjoying them :)

Thank you all, a pleasure to share. Edges, they can be pesky things. I go around with the back edge of my hand trowel when undesirables start creeping in, and the grass is only rough stuff with all sorts growing in it, it can be a little bothersome for a while but after doing it for 2 or 3 years they start to behave better. I have a weed which sends out long thin runners and shoots up all over, it loves newly dug soil, and makes red seeds.

I also put my own leaf/grass cuttings compost on the beds, most of them have had one good mulching and some are really due for another but it is needed elsewhere for a while yet. I do have a lot of compost due to tons of Horse Chestnut tree leaves, I keep 2 large bins on the go and leave one to mature/top up while I use the other, no special treatment just time. The compost helps to keep the soil friable, plants love it as it keeps in moisture, provides some food and the plant roots have a good growing medium making for healthy plants. It also plays a large part in keeping down weeds.

Moles can be a nuisance, they tend to go along the edges of beds for their worms which live under grass edges and come out at night to munch on leaves, but I have to live with them eating my healthy worms!

Osteospermums that I have are hardy and multiply, the white one is more rampant but controllable. The purple one has grown really well but some twitch grew through it so much I had to lift it last year and replant, it doesn't have much spread space as it's in the bottom point of the rose bed and some get mowed off the sides.

See if I can find Tradescant, which has been slow to grow but last year I had a nice little 'standard'.

The colur of Tradescant is usually nearly black but last year it was hot and dry, this seemed to affect the colour, later I had some more red and late August some looser formed ones which were close to their blackness.

This pic is quite true to the colour, it's a difficult one to capture.

Wallaby, you have it all!

Beautiful settings, and I love that tall hedge!

Corinne

taramark I do feel happy with what I have, that is something good hey? To go out in the garden on a summer's day, enjoy the butterflies, and what I have created, is so satisfying. Anyone having trouble with what to do with their garden, just do what I did. Get the plants you KNOW you have to have, then the rest will follow as you need to find a space for them. It has to be good if you love the plants! There's something about plants which we really love, some we think are interesting, but only in other people's gardens. If a plant makes your temperature go up then that is one you must have.

Some may have seen this view, it's from the path going under the Horse Chestnut tree, taken early June 05. I had my camera in my hand, the light was getting low, 8.30pm, and it struck me as a good opportunity to capture the view, not planned. I find most of the best pics are the ones which present themselves unannounced.

Looking through the pathways, rose bed to the left, another bed to the right in the foreground which you haven't seen yet.

Oh that is a beautiful view! So inviting, the onlooker is drawn down the path to see what wonders lie beyond. One of my favorite elements of a cottage garden.

The view from the top of the bank in the opposite direction.

I have a vegetable strip along the fence to the neighbour, a potato patch at the rear which gets too much shade for anything else, I grow potatoes on it each year even though you are supposed to rotate, some do well others not, but I usually get at least 5 months of potatoes from it.

I have three 6' x 8' greenhouses along the back fence, which get morning sun and midday shade with some afternoon sun. The huge tree shades a lot of the garden but it has it's uses.

There is a plum tree which was already here, young but in need of pruning to make it grow, which it did and I get lots of Victoria plums. So do some wasps, butterflies and moth grubs, but I don't need many and they do so I am happy for them to have a food source. I made a bed around the plum tree with some hydrangeas and other plants.

Towards the house I made another triangular bed, and the raised hosta bed under the edge of the tree as grass didn't grow well there. I used the trunks from a multi-stemmed Sycamore tree on the roadside border of the neighbour over the hedge which needed cutting back, it had already been cut back and produced many trunks. These were bolted together at the corners with threaded metal rods.

The hosta bed was filled with mostly soil/leaf mixture from the first digging for 20 years of the brick lined drain, there was plenty of it, with some extra compost added. Some tree roots have ventured up through it, moles have undermined some of it and it needs a top up, but otherwise I am amazed that most of the hostas keep doing well, one has diminished but probably has a mole run under it.

What a clever, clever idea - using tree trunks for the frame of a raised bed! Beautiful - and the Hostas look wonderful.

Those pictures are fan-tab-u-lous, Wallaby! My gosh, it looks like you have 5 or 6 acres the way the paths bend and turn!

The grass path is one thing I am having such trouble with! How do you grow such nice grass when that is the path you have to walk to get a shovel or to get compost from one end to the other? I just don't understand how you -- and several other people -- can have such beautiful grass paths!

Suzy

Murmur, I like to recycle, the funny part is these items come along just when I need them, I already had the hostas in pots and had no idea for a start where I would put them.

Neal, you have lots of woodland paths too, I would love to walk down those.

Illoquin, perception is a strange thing isn't it! The last bed near the drain, and the one on the right in the last picture weren't part of the original plan in my head, but it can expand once the main part is done and everything starts to fit. The plants in pots and seed growing are still well ahead of the beds though, if I come to an end and still have plants left I'm in trouble! Often one thing makes way for another, but there are times when I am wandering around trying to find a place for a plant.

My grass pathways are really just old meadow grass, with lots of moss, but on the slope and the paths where they get walked on the moss is disappearing, it doesn't like to be walked on so that is to my advantage. It always looks better when freshly mowed of course, and much of that area I think has had a lot of top soil pushed back (the bank) to level for the house leaving only poor soil. No matter how much I tried to improve it, rake out the moss, feed, the nutrients just don't hold so I leave it to gradually turn into gardens or moss free paths.

A view across from the bed to the right of the rose bed in the 2nd to last pic. Looking down over the middle bed in front of the pergola, the last new bed you can just see to the right, the angle is a little fore-shortened making it look closer. Taken on 28th June, the lilies are ones I grew from a few offsets from some free lilies.

Love those deep reds with the blues and purples. Is that a carnation type dianthus I see at the lower left of the last pic? I've grown very fond of dianthus the last couple of years.

Yes Neal, it's one I grew from seed fromT&M, I think I got 3 plants from 10 seeds and th eseed cost a bomb (offering 14 seeds now fro £3.29), it's called Dianthus caryophyllus Peach Delight, a carnation type which grows 24-36" tall and is fully hardy. It did survive the last hard winter but I really ought to take some cuttings as these plants don't often live for many years.

Got a good night pic somewhere, along with another Dianthus which was crossed with caryophyllus and has self set but didn't do much last year, perhaps they will this year as they are still around and perhaps need 2 years.

Peach Delight resting on Leptospermum nitidum, this was taken on 16th Novermber 05, late and it turned really cold in mid October.

Wow! thats a tall one! The tall D.caryophyllus types get extra spindly in our summer heat, and completely refuse to stand up. I am trying a red form of a short one I received in a trade that got a little floppy last year, but I think it needed more sun. It has been moved to a brighter spot, so we'll see. Aaahhh, remembering that wonderful clove fragrance.....:)

I love to see all these large gardens with winding paths and large plants. We moved to a smaller home with a very limited area to garden in. So everything in there has to be things I absolutely love.I usually can only fit in one of each plant and I have to be very aware of not letting things get too large in scale or they would overwhelm the area...Looking at all your gardens gives me such pleasure. Keep up the great pictures!

Neal that Carnation is a bit more sturdy than most, and as you can see it stands up until it has flowers, then there's always something for them to rest on, if not they never lay on the ground. I don't think mine have grown that tall. I had one of those ruby clove scented ones, it grew well and lasted for years but I think it finally expired, it was amongst a few I got from seeds and none of them were what they were supposed to be. I did try growing some and think I may have had some in pots but they never seemed to want to grow well, I think they have disappeared now. Wonderful scent, must get some more!

teacup, what a comforting name! Even though I 'appear' to have space, I still have to be very selective, you have no idea how many 'selected' plants I have!

A view of the Lily bed taken from the kitchen window (good job it doesn't show the dirt on the windows!) Oh yes as you see I have catus collection too! A cloudy day but probably hot and little rain for a long time, I was surprised how things held up. In the bed at the rear you can just see the red parent lilies of the ones in that bed to the right of the yellow lilies, only 3 of them and they are not so good as the new ones now. Taken 6th July, I seemed to take a lot on that day.