Would like advive for more of a cottage appeal

I'm told that 'Cecille Brunner' rosa tolerates a good deal of shade. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/51965/

Well, that's good to know - I knew about the Zepherine, but I love the Cecille ...

What a wonderful thread to read! And I wrote down the computer program because I could get HOURS of entertaintment from playing with that!~

W2B, your home is beautiful! I can see that they have whipped you up to a fenzy of new ideas you are dying to go implement!!! Isn't it fun to hear all the wild ideas! I'm looking forward to see what you do as time marches on.
Pat

I will have fun...looking and dreaming..
Next year is already being dreamed up..

Thanks for letting all of us share in your dream. It's been great!

This was a really fun thread to read! W2B, your home is just darling! Nothing boring about it.
I really liked the design that included the Italian cypress. The little benches and impatience in the yard will be pretty if you do it!
Thanks for a great read.

Fun thread! I love the computer program. I'm looking for it now too!

I think the door in a slate blue or teal color would be nice. Then paint the shutters to match.

Why can't you be the first one to put in a picket fence? I bet others will copy!!

The house looks really darling. I think you just need more plants and then the waiting game while they get established. I agree about the climbing roses or other climbing plants. I would like to see an arbor or two in the front yard. Maybe some bird houses.

Even if you just put a section of picket fence up somewhere, even if it was just more of an ornament, maybe the kind with birdhouses on top of some of the pickets.

I want to see the inside of the house now!

Gwen

Your house is adorable without anything but I love what was done with that software........would like to have that!!!!!!!!

Thanks,for all the nice things you guys have said..was shocked to see people are still looking at this thread... I'll tell you one thing, you wouldn't want to see inside today..Been rainning out, and it's my brother b-day tommorrow so I've been baking and decorating a 3-D john deere cake!!! I'd rather be in my yard!!!! I would love to bring the impatiences up the driveway and around that tree, but I'm afraid my dogs would tear them up. They road race around those two trees on the front yard... Will want and see in the spring...Maybe someone else will come up with something too.
Thanks again for looking.

"Road Race"... that is so true of dogs!!! My brothers dogs dig up ANYTHING they plant in the back yard.

I think you might consider something other than impatiens...............for color.........so many pretty cottage perennials, etc................plus coleus, etc................you could maybe get into the rudbeckias, echinacea............plants that you can depend on to come back for you each year...................

I'd love to just have perennials, and then just add a few annuals for some fill ins.
I've really been trying to stick to that, so each spring I'm not buying a ton of plants.
I think I'm going to take the Butterfly Bush out that is under that big window.....

Lavender and/or rosemary make a lovely hedge or path border! Very welcoming...

Nothing has a better fragrance than lavender or rosemary...............good idea...........

And when you've spent time with rosemary, the scent stays on your clothes and skin for hours... mmmm....

Yep, the puppies will smell FANTASTIC after running zoomies through it all day!

Mmmm .... and that way you won't have to season them before you.... oh, never mind.

OH PC!!! I laughed so hard! One of my sons has your kind of humor AND he dislikes dogs. He is always half hinting... doesn't come right out and say it USUALLY! LOL

Whereas I *love* them... sliced thin ....a little garlic...

Just kidding, I'm an animal nut.

Yeah, she's especially *nuts* for dog meat.

Marinated.

SEE!!! That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about! He asked me to give my sister Marie BBQ sauce for "Maggie" (her pug). The brat was in Korea so he wanted me to buy it and give it to her for Christmas (shipping is awful). They eat dogs in Korea and he thinks THAT is great thing. "Finally something a person can do to ENJOY a dog." Sorry dog lovers, that is HIM speaking not me!

LOL ... how could I not add that the direct translation for dog meat in Mandarin Chinese is "fragrant meat"? You kidz are a turrrrible influence on me.

Hey Sticks---design my landscape! :D I liked the image of the pink flowering tree in the beginning images you did--for this landscape---crepe myrtal?

want2bee, what a cute home you have! What a gorgeous expanse of lawn to work a cottage garden around. You've done so well with the place already!

tir....a little tree for your sprawling estate?? i can't even begin to imagine something like thatt....where the heck do you want the little tree?

A picture paints a thousand words....

Sticks, not sure I follow. Said I love that flowering tree for want2bee's yard, looks great there! "Sprawling" haha---you are so cute...my place is hardly sprawling---but by the way...I DID plant one of those little trees next to the drive. But I didn't mean to detract from want2bee's thread....just complimenting your design work here. :)

my brain wasnt following either...thanks so much:)

and yours is sprawling:)

Well it's a wide house but not very deep so it can be deceptive on size. :)
Where did you buy your software from?

ebay...but amazon has it too....and someone else said that sams has it also....

I am really having cabin fever!!!!!! Lots of COLD and Snow!
I need some advice, I'm thinking of adding brick pavers along my driveways and sidewalk to give it more charm...Does anyone know how to do it...I'm wondering do I have to use cement or mortar to hold them together and lay them in a sand bed? Any advice would be WELCOMED!
thanks

Places like Home Depot will have instructions, maybe even online, and sometimes they have classes/clinics. I think preparing the underlayment of gravel/sand is important, and no, you don't have to mortar them together... I think the usual thing is to sweep more sand into the spaces between the pavers, often using a heavy tamper or a vibrating machine to get it all packed down if I'm recalling right.

I think brick or stone looking pavers do add a lot of charm, especially when you soften their edges with a little groundcover such as creeping thyme...

They even have a mini dwarf version now of monkey grass and liriope to put between the bricks, stone or pavers. They never work if you put mortar......I know as I tried. Critter's idea is much better but I have never even used anything to pack it down but my own labor (LOL)

We had patios put in (more labor than I wanted to do myself), and they used a vibrating machine. to settle the sand into the cracks. I'm pretty sure they tamped the sand down for the base with a flat weighted thing on a stick. Don't you love my very technical terms for all this equipment... :-)

For a border, I think you could just sweep the sand in between the cracks, but you might want to get a tamping tool to make a firm base along the edge... you don't want your pavers tilting & settling unevenly.

Maybe it is because we have that blackland clay farm land but my nephew put in an area for my brother (his dad) about 60 feet long and curved out in different places about 20 to 25 feet by hand. That was 3 years ago and it is so nice in the backyard for plants to sit on in pots.