I was thinking a Mountain Laurel would work as an evergreen for the large area, but I may have to wait until fall to get one in, due to all the other stuff I have to get done. I originally planned it that way, but I always end up starting so much stuff that I run out of room to do everything I want. I am going to save the wonderful ideas for an arbor or bench with a path for a new area I will be starting. Mostly because if I want to add anything that will use that much space, I need a new home for a bunch of stuff growing in there. Also because I've worked on that area two whole summers in a row, and I want to sit back and watch it grow and see what pays off and what doesn't.
I have a single sprout from the cleome seeds, so hopefully more will follow : ) They got cold treatment and I think they may just be waiting for warmer temps. to germinate well.
The cleome I am trying is cleome serrulata, not the spinosa. It seemed so cool to me that we have a american version that I wanted to try that instead of the exotic one. : ) So I am really hoping it does well here.
Here is a link to my journal with all the stuff I am going to have to find spots to plant. It is much easier than typing 116 plants! http://davesgarden.com/tools/journal/viewbycat.php?cat=59757
I've been trying to remember all the suggestions while planning where to put everything, but I am already overwhelmed trying to figure out which plants will look good with what! The first thing I am stuck on is I have lilies (mostly orientals), and I want to plant something in front of them that will shade their roots and look nice with them, like the contrasting foliage everyone is talking about. Then I need to figure out what will look good on the sides of them and behind them. If anyone wants to suggest some combinations it would be greatly appreciated : ) This is for around a pool fence so it is not a very deep area, and I don't think reseeding stuff would work well there, because the seeds would probably end up in the grass, not where they are supposed to.
How do I make it a cottage garden?
Meredith,
I planted Heucheras around my lilies and I love it. It gives the area some focal point while the lilies are breaking ground and coming up, then in summer when the Heucheras need shade, the lilies are right there. In summer, the Heucheras aren't very brightly colored here (too much shade?) so the lilies truly have center stage. Then in the late summer, the lilies get sort of trimmed and and in the fall they get cut back, and the Heaucheras are center stage until the the folowing year. Plus the don't mind haveing a stake driven through their hearts. :) You can get seed of several different kinds if oyu don't have them. Just be sure the flowers are tall enough for the hummers because Coral Bells are a delicacy to them. If the scape have enough individual flowers, the hummers can be there for 3 or 4 minutes at a time.
This probably isn't what you wanted to hear, you probably wanted me to name a flower you already had started and have a bilion plants of, right? :))
You can buy them fairly cheaply in a coop, though. They grow really fast if you get the right kind, and get to be a decent sized plant in no time at all. (H. villosa hybrids)
Suzy
Suzy I have a bunch of coral bells, (I started some last year, plus I bought a bunch) but I have them in shady spots. These lilies are in full sun, so I don't know if the heucheras would like this spot. I think huecheras can take full sun in moist soil, but I don't have moist soil. I do have a lot of 2nd year ones that may over grow there spots and maybe I will experiment and see if they will work in that spot, but you are right that I was hoping to plant something I started this year there. : )
I probably should have said it was a full sun site earlier, and here is a picture of the spot. I spent all day yesterday getting it done. It has mulch down too, but it seems you all don't like mulch, it confuses you? LOL So I put a pic with just the good loam I spread, so as not to confuse you. LOL ; ) My husband would never be okay with me just leavin dirt in the yard, but it's a good comprimise so that I can plant as much stuff as I want : )
I don't know.... I have Heuchera "Raspberry Ice" (?) that's getting a LOT of sun right now... maybe it's handling it well because its just not very hot yet? It will be shaded by the house later in the summer, but it seems quite happy in full sun at the moment.
Okay I've been trying to figure out what to plant in front of those lilies and I think I'm going to go with suzy's suggestion of heuchera. I have some purple-red leaved ones that should look good. I have some in full sun by the road and 3 look okay, but I don't think they like that spot. So it will be good to move them : ) Now I have to figure out how to fit them in front of them, I planted the lilies too far out and now there isn't much room 8( These ones aren't good for hummers like others I have but they are such a nice color. Here they are amongst my bulbs, a learning experience there lol. I should not have planted them right where the bulbs are like that.
Meredith,
Aren't Heucheras supposed to be really shallow-rooted? If you go out after a nice rainstorm, I bet you can wedge all of those out without touching a bulb.
Suzy
Yeah, it's all a learning experience, huh?
I have 9 in that bed in the picture plus I have (had) another 4 out near the road. The ones near the road weren't as happy as the ones in the pic. Plus last fall I moved them forward so the bulb foliage didn't grow up throught them. So I used those near the lilies. I went out right after my previous post and they are in their new spot. I was thinking on waiting until fall to fix the ones in the pic, because I need to dig up the old tulip bulbs that are there. I won't plant tulips there again, because I don't want to dig them up every year, although I do enjoy them along the walkway.
Just passing thru, love all of the beautiful pictures. : )
~Lucy
Meredith, it might be a moot point, but tulips and dahlias sharing space is an ideal combination, at least timing-wise. Plant dahlias, harvest them about 2 weeks after first frost, plant tuplips in their place.
Tulips do not need but 10 days ripening after the petals fall off. Yeah, yeah, somebody will argue that point, but I have been pulling tulips up for years on exactly 7 days after the petals drop and storing them in mesh bags in the barn to replant in the fall, and they've been happy as clams and rebloom the next year. Tulips get most of their energy before bloom, but it might be the manure I give them, too.
Everytime I plant tulips or dahlias I amend the soil, so after 10 years, you can bet that I can grab the stems and foliage and pull them up like radishes...no diggin required! I use pretty much pre-composted horse manure, and yeah, I know, people are going to argue that point, too, but tulips are very, very different than daffodils and most other bulbs. Tulips like quite a bit of nitrogen (so do dahlias) and they love horse manure as long as it's not hot against the bulb.
I have some tulips that are 29 years old growing in a bed I made the year we moved in. I made it by putting a foot of manure on top of the ground and planting them in it. The manure looked just like soil, so I thought I was taking a cheap short cut to making a raised bed. LOL! The manure has decomposed, long ago, and the tulips are right at the top of the soil line, but they have increased and bloom reliably every single year.
Suzy
Interesting... I ALWAYS just leave my tulips in the ground. I let them ripen & eventually cut off the old foliage.
Psychw, In Idaho, do you have wet summers or dry ones? We can have really wet summers, and the tulips just don't come back. Oh, some might, but it looks pretty bad when you have one or two blooming where there formerly were a couple dozen.
VERY dry normally and we have to water. Mine are multiplying nicely.
Wow Suzy! That's awesome info! I tagged it, it's the first time I actually got the tag page to work. Thank you. : )
Suzy, you always have such great information...
Well, thanks!
Psych, I am guessing that it's the combination of heat and wet with heavy clay soil here that rots the tulips out. It's the most likely thing since yours come back so reliably and it's such a bad combination for so many bulbs.
At this point, with all the soil amending I've done, it is quite possible that my tulips could return, too. I don't even know since pulling them up to plant dahlias has become my method....I literally don't have any room to plant the tubers unless the tulips are removed. :)
EARLY BLOOMER!!!! I got so caught up in Meredith's Heuchera-Lily-Tulip idea that I forgot to say, "Your pictures are delicious, and I have always loved your place." I'm sorry I didn't start out with that statement 1/2 dozen posts ago!
Suzy
Suzy, Thanks so much. The lupines and foxglove I started from seed last year are just starting to bloom in the arbor bed. I'll post an updated photo in a couple of days. I guess I'll have to try your tulip method since mine almost never come back the second time.
Meredith, I started the cleome seeds indoors in one of those little portable greenhouse units. They're basically just a set of shelves on wheels with a plastic cover. I just use window light and no extra heating pads etc. and have had pretty good luck.
In the photos I posted earlier in this thread you might have noticed the split-rail fence in the background. It's been an ongoing project of mine for several years now and I added another section this spring. It's made from locust trees I cut and split on my property. Here's a couple photos of this years addition.
early_bloomer
This message was edited Jun 2, 2008 11:03 PM
One more photo.....I have one more section of fence to finish but I'm waiting until next spring.
early_bloomer
Love your fence, early_bloomer. : ) Are the logs just laying across each other or are they attached some way? What kind of base are they sitting on?
~Lucy
EB, Great fence!!! You split those logs yourself? OMG! That sounds like some serious work! I have seen bitty log splitters, but nothing tat would split a whole tree like that. I suppose you did it with an ax? Pioneer style?
As a teenager I LOVED to split logs for fences! I remember helping with a Girl Scout camp, dragging the logs back from the forrest and then slipping the wood for the fences. Usually my friend and i would get the wood dug back and then some kind but misguided man would try to take our wood to split for us!!! Ohhhh-noooooooo... splitting the wood was the FUN PART!!!
Anytime you wanna revisit your younger days, you come on over, Pat. That fence is *great*.
Ya, I still love that kind of work but I feel like the line from a country western song, "my mind says "oh no you can't" but my pride says "oh yes you can!"
I do something stupid then hurt like heck for days!!! (I went skeet shooting and wanted to learn how to use a manual launcher/thrower. I could NOT get the hang of it and tried for a LONG time!!! I could barely move the next day!)
Oh dear! I can relate.
They are just stacked--nothing needed to keep them in place. For a base I use round sections of the same trees I make the rails from. It is a lot of work. I use a splitting maul and 3 wedges, starting at one end and working my way along. Old Honest Abe would be proud of me. Locust is very stringy wood and rarely splits cleanly.
early_bloomer
You have a beautiful place.
Well, you did a great job, E Bloomer. : ) I love the look. : )
~Lucy
The fence really does look great. You must have a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it! My cleome seeds still haven't sprouted : ( I tried 3 different ways with them too, so they may just be duds.
Here's my garden on May 28th, I can't wait until more flowers open.
Thanks everyone. Lots of sweat, a little blood, but no tears .........yet. When I started I just planed on doing the small area of white pines around my fire ring. The project kind of took on a life of it's own.
Meredith........You must have gotten some bad seeds. I started a couple varieties from seed and they are doing well and the ones that self-seeded from last year came up as thick as grass.
early_bloomer
I can't get over how good that fence looks. That last picture is sooo pretty. : )
~Lucy
I have another updated picture, with a lot more growing. The front still looks thin but there are a lot of 2nd year perennials that appear to be creeping, hopefully next year they will be leaping!
Very nice Meredith What are the dimensions of your bed? Typed that word (dimensions) three times and consulted the dictionary. It did not look right.lol I need to go back to elementary school.
Thank you Indy, It's about 30' wide and 15' deep. Although it tapers off to about 7' deep on each end.
Those heucheras I planted in front of my lilies are not happy. I don't know if it's too much sun or maybe fertilizer burn, but their leaves are all crisping up. : (
Those with dark leaves like 'Palace Purple' commonly burn in the sun.
I thought I'd pull this thread back up. I saw that someone else had posted a similar topic - What exactly is a cottage garden? So I thought this would be helpful. So many people posted so many wonderful ideas and pictures here.
Here is a picture of the bed I started the thread about in August. Everyone can see why I hadn't put anything we talked about in it. There were just too many plants already. I didn't have any where else to put them all. This year I should have much more room to work with, since most of our back yard will no longer be a construction zone.
Meredith, that will be lots of fun! I've enjoyed being able to dig perennials (where I've crowded them too much, and they've outgrown their spots) and use them to fill in be gaps in new beds. It always amazes me how that little thing I planted a year or so ago is now ready to divide and give me more plants. As more beds appear, plants mature, and casual reseeding begins, it gradually takes on the look of a Cottage garden more and more.
Yes it should be fun! I ended up purchasing lots of seeds of more cottagey type, self seeding annuals this year. So that should help me. I am also starting an entirely new bed that I plan to do with all the wonderful ideas I got from every one here. : )