I'll show you my gardens if you show me you Yours. :o)

Annie, keep posting photos - your design is lovely and it will be great fun to watch things grow!

Annie's new garden looks great. I like the graceful curve of the border - what fun to be beginning a new garden!
I've been working on my garden for about 25 years and am constantly moving plants around until I find the spot where they are happiest. Gardening for me has always involved a lot of trial and error. But isn't that the fun part?

twofewaninimals...can't compete or post photo's as really this will be my first full spring/summer/fall gardening experience...but thought I'd say I have a dog 'border collie' her name is "Sailor"...you wouldn't tell the difference between mine and yours...hard to garden as she's always giving me a ball..

Soulgardenlove ,The roses on the left are Ballerina.
Toofewanimals, many of my roses are very fragrant.I walk in the garden smelling like a dog...

Ykid - You had me chuckling in my coffee this morning ... 'smelling like a dog'!!

I need to run out and take a picture of my Alliums this morning ...
toofew

Toofewanimals, ya know, if you read the word Alyssum wrong you can end up thinking its Asylum.. I kept wondering why you were planting flowers near the Asylum's boarder. :) duh... It's fun to be dyslexic! :)

You all have wonderful gardens, they are all just beautiful. Lush and full and wonderful! My gardens around the house are in flux at the moment since I have roofers in and after them stucco/painter/plaster man in... and we're in the process of figuring out how to tear up the back walk, so, I won't show you pictures of that.

If I could figure out how to post a picture from photo bucket, I'd show you my split rail fence garden.... Oh well..

Diann

lovely!! :)

Susan

Annie, I like your garden. It looks so fresh and new--ready for things to take off and grow. Please update with photos as the summer progresses.

Toofewanimals,an English-woman told me the meaning of "smelling like a dog".
I am laughing like you!!!!
My dictionary isn't good!
I rectify :" I walk in my garden sniffing like a dog"
Ciao : )

Ticker-I love that asylum/allysum confusion. If you are remodeling I can understand. That is one thing that makes me think I am in an asylum! LOL!

Murmur and Daltri, Thanks for the kind comments on my flower bed. I'll try to remember to post pics later on.

Chris,
This is my 3rd summer on this bed and I've moved things around a couple of times already! I started with just a couple of the coreopsis, one shasta daisy, two salvia, and the butterfly bush. All very small and cheap. I divided/moved the coreopsis and shasta daisy last fall. I also planted the grass at that time. And you're right--it's trial and error. Because now I don't like having the grass go all across the front. :) I think I'd like it more as a focal point. But I'm not sure. I think I just enjoy change. ;)

oh--and this year a couple of people gave me some canna, perilla, and lyreleaf sage. I've really enjoyed learning about the different plants.

This message was edited May 18, 2007 7:56 PM

Here is a couple of shots from my garden. I am attempting a cottage garden like theme.I really love old fashioned plants and heirlooms.

a floribunda rose, im not sure if its considered cottage garden.i am new to this:)

strawberry foxglove emerging........

here is the old wisteria vine that grows all over my trees and field

one view of my garden.

last one, i hope you enjoyed my pics.i will post more whenever other things start blooming.i have lots of other plants.i am not sure if it qualifies as cottage gardening but i have limited space with lots of plants so i guess thats a good start:)any help or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
thomas

Thomas, I consider roses cottage garden staples. I love bleeding hearts too! I had a large one at my old house. Dug it and planted into a whiskey barrel to move it here. It was huge and bloomed beautifully that first year, then died! Seeing yours makes me think I have to plant another one. I love this site! Keeps me even more excited about my garden!

Love it, fburg!!! Couldn't be more cottage garden-like . . . it's delightful . . . don't forget your promise to show more pics later.

fburg,
Very nice. I love watching things bloom.

here is some different textures of foliage.roses,dianthus,linaria,poppies

i don;t know if incarvillea counts as a cottage garden plant but i should in my opinion

the wisteria vine keeps the lily roots cool, perfect harmony.i didn't even plan on that happening, nature helps itself i guess

This is my meditation area. I had a deteriorating wooden cap over the well last year. Last fall I replaced it with a slab of sidewalk slate. Buddha now rests on that slab. Sprouting around him, mixed in with the monarda, the lemon balm, the stachys, the sweet flag, the lavendar, and the catnip are nasturtiums "Empress of India", nicotiana/jasmine tobacco, and cosmos "Candy Stripe".

-Joe

Love it!!! :)

Thank you very much! I fell in love with the back yard of this place before I ever saw the inside. I knew I wanted to buy it when I found the catnip and the lavender. Now all I hafta do is make it more cottagey. It's a work in progress.

This is an older view of the same area. I have a postage stamp sized yard. I am working on getting rid of all of the grass. :) I used to have to mow around the wellcover. No more. Now it is all mulch. :)

I love some of the paths I see people have made. I'm slowly adding and editing from what I used to have. :)

-Joe

This message was edited May 21, 2007 4:06 PM

Fburg & Joegee, great photos, both of you! And such fun to hear about works in progress!

fburg,

I don't think it's the plants that make a garden a cottage garden, but the style in which they're arranged. Dale_a_gardener posts in our cottage garden forums. He's somewhere around zone 10, so a lot of the cooler weather cottage garden staples don't grow for him, but he freely substitutes in form and/or color, and gets the same effect. :)

Here's a thread defining in broadest terms what constitutes a cottage garden. I'm surprised it isn't stickied to the top of this forum:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/667391/

I think, with a cottage garden it's not what you plant, it's how you plant it. :)

See: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/701958/

-Joe G.

This message was edited May 22, 2007 11:40 AM

i agree, i find it challening to have something blooming throughout the season.its something i will have to work on in the future.i just try and put lots of different plants together in tight spaces.cram as many plants i can with different foliage and forms together.

Excellent Piece of Gardening pictures.

Lillies this morning :)

Lots of Blooms. I see this outside my bedroom window.
:)
Susan

Trumpet Lilly leaning, white guara, grasses, and pink knockout in the back :)

Susan

Cottage garden kitty.. Leo :)

My Don Juans will cover the fence once they get established. Most are in their second year.. some had to be replanted this year. I will learn to root my own and grow more :) I need to go ahead and start tying them up to the white fence :)

New this year, miniature Sun Sprinkles in a front bed :)

Fence post at driveway :)

First blooms from callas

Susan

I love happy accidents :)

Susan

The Don Juans are coming out from behind the fence. Love them! :)