Need some advice on how to bring all my gardens together

Hi Y'all,
Please excuse the long description but I want to paint a picture for you. I really love cottage gardens and I think I have a textbook palette for one. I live in a small, humble post-war bungalow, set squarely on an acre lot with a 4' weathered picket fence on all sides. Three sides of my yard are very sunny. The other 1/4 is partially to fully shaded by the house and surrounded by an additional 6' fence.The front yard is a large expanse of grass/weeds ,divided by a weathered concrete walk, flanked by 100' maple trees at the street. I just planted 3 varieties of poppies along with wildflowers in the beds at the base of the house up front. There are also black irises, a couple of hibiscus trees along with some Hollyhocks, Niagra from seed. Won't be flowering till next year, though. The side beds at the base of the patio have foxglove, moon flowers and hyacinth bean.On the shadier side of the house there is a bog garden leading tothe other side of that 6' fence with a gate flanked by cannas, a banana tree in one corner with passion flower vine and the other corner with horse-tail grass.on the fence. On the other side of the house, there is a screened-in porch overlooking a new potager 32'x25' , somewhat formal in design. My landscaper pal used the extra dirt and rock to create a bonus bed in the front corner of the yard. It is shaped like a boomerang, roughly 30'x30' and 8' deep at the center bend. On the back side of the house the yard consists of a beat-up brick paver'ed patio. The back walk to the driveway is built from those same brick pavers. On one side of the walk is a table and chairs with an umbrella, a bench-seat swing, covered by an arbor dripping in wisteria and a hammock back behind it on the back corner of the yard. On the other side is an 1800 gallon pond, with a couple of spillways, surrounded by bonsai'ed rosemary, creeping jenny with pea gravel as the ground cover. Two lichen-covered adirondack chairs flank a slab of bluestone balanced on chunks of granite as a table. The left side of the 6' fence is covered with yellow jasmine and the shaded side has a mature creeping hydrangea, male, no flowers, bummer. The back door is flanked by fern and moss beds.
I would love a meandering path with tall sides so that each garden comes as a pleasant surprise but I am concerned about creating shade.Also, I would love to install another mirror image island on the opposing corner of the front yard which is very shaded by the maples as well as the neighbors huge magnolia. I want to add more beds in the front yard so that the grass is secondary and minor. I think I have lots of the elements but I can't figure out how to make it all cohesive I would love some feedback including what in the world to do with that boomerang bonus island. All I can come up with is a sunflower, pumpkin patch with some asparagus and artichokes. That seems so blah and incomplete.

Sujo, please, please don't be offended, but that is so much information that I really can't picture any of it. Can you post pictures of the differant areas and ask questions about each area? That might let a lot of DG'ers help you.

I am not offended at all. I was actually a little hurt that so many people viewed my post and no one responded. (sensitive, artsy, left-handed type) I thought maybe my post came across as obnoxious somehow but now I understand it was simply overwhelming. I will post pics in a series.

Here is the front yard.

Here is the potager and the bonus island

Here is the pond

My yard is very flat and I want to add some height variation with structures, beds and plants. I would like to create a sense of surprise and wonder as you encounter each area. Sort of like , "oh wow, I didn't know there was a pond over here!" or "oh, what a quaint little hidden spot to sit and chill"

Here is a good yard shot to give a sense of the site

Sujo, sorry I can't post much tonight. I have to get ready for church tomorrow. Now that is great! We all can see what you are talking about. Great yard! I will post tomorrow. Now I hope many others will start posting. Smokey

I like your place, cute house! What if you start with bonus bed? It's an interesting shape. The inside of its curve could be the start of your meandering path. On the other side of path you could put in another bed so that the path is going thru them. You could extend the path (from both ends) towards the center of the yard. The path extentions would be going in different directions, naturally. Along the path(s) you could put in more curvy beds, kind of like the bonus bed. Some of those beds could have berms or evergreens in the center. The idea is not to be able to see easily thru the bed. That way you have to follow the path in order to see more. Does that make any sense?

The photos definitely help! I hope you don't mind if I repeat your first post and insert a bunch of breaks so the descriptions of each area are easier to distinguish... maybe we can get ideas going that way about one feature/portion of your yarden or another...

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Hi Y'all,
Please excuse the long description but I want to paint a picture for you. I really love cottage gardens and I think I have a textbook palette for one. I live in a small, humble post-war bungalow, set squarely on an acre lot with a 4' weathered picket fence on all sides.

Three sides of my yard are very sunny. The other 1/4 is partially to fully shaded by the house and surrounded by an additional 6' fence.

The front yard is a large expanse of grass/weeds ,divided by a weathered concrete walk, flanked by 100' maple trees at the street. I just planted 3 varieties of poppies along with wildflowers in the beds at the base of the house up front. There are also black irises, a couple of hibiscus trees along with some Hollyhocks, Niagra from seed. Won't be flowering till next year, though.

The side beds at the base of the patio have foxglove, moon flowers and hyacinth bean.

On the shadier side of the house there is a bog garden leading to the other side of that 6' fence with a gate flanked by cannas, a banana tree in one corner with passion flower vine and the other corner with horse-tail grass.on the fence.

On the other side of the house, there is a screened-in porch overlooking a new potager 32'x25' , somewhat formal in design. My landscaper pal used the extra dirt and rock to create a bonus bed in the front corner of the yard. It is shaped like a boomerang, roughly 30'x30' and 8' deep at the center bend.

On the back side of the house the yard consists of a beat-up brick paver'ed patio. The back walk to the driveway is built from those same brick pavers. On one side of the walk is a table and chairs with an umbrella, a bench-seat swing, covered by an arbor dripping in wisteria and a hammock back behind it on the back corner of the yard. On the other side is an 1800 gallon pond, with a couple of spillways, surrounded by bonsai'ed rosemary, creeping jenny with pea gravel as the ground cover. Two lichen-covered adirondack chairs flank a slab of bluestone balanced on chunks of granite as a table. The left side of the 6' fence is covered with yellow jasmine and the shaded side has a mature creeping hydrangea, male, no flowers, bummer. The back door is flanked by fern and moss beds.

I would love a meandering path with tall sides so that each garden comes as a pleasant surprise but I am concerned about creating shade.

Also, I would love to install another mirror image island on the opposing corner of the front yard which is very shaded by the maples as well as the neighbors huge magnolia. I want to add more beds in the front yard so that the grass is secondary and minor. I think I have lots of the elements but I can't figure out how to make it all cohesive I would love some feedback including what in the world to do with that boomerang bonus island. All I can come up with is a sunflower, pumpkin patch with some asparagus and artichokes. That seems so blah and incomplete.

Oh, you can use that 4 ft. weathered fence as a wonderful backdrop! Are there beds along the fence? If not, that's one of the first areas I'd plow up and prepare for planting, along with your new island bed(s). If you don't want to put a bed along the entire fence right away, consider putting quarter-circle beds (they don't have to be geometrically precise) in the corners, then adding a few half-circle beds (again, just roughly circular) along the length of the fence... with the space you're describing, you could probably make these at least 8 feet across at their widest point. Then later on, when you start looking for more space to plant, you could plow up strips (3-4 feet wide) connecting those beds for a continuous bed that curves in and out as it runs along the fence.

Berms or evergreens for height in the center of your garden areas, with curving paths around and between them, will definitely break up the sight lines for a cottagey feel. I like to put taller plants on the inside corners where paths curve, also... not necessarily something solid and tall, maybe a stand of hollyhocks (really tall) or even plants like salvia, gaura, Verbena bonariensis that send up tall stems of flowers to screen but not quite block the view beyond them.

I think the biggest thing is to pick half a dozen areas you'd like to develop & improve, then tackle them one at a time, working with a master plan that shows where all the beds and pathways will be eventually. Otherwise, you'll keep growing, buying, and planting stuff... and it will just disappear into the yard. Staying focused will really let you see the results of your efforts!

Hey Sujo, I lost where you were, glad I found you again. I found this website that might help you build some 'walls'.
www.evergreenplantnursery.com/Evergreen-Privacy-Screen
You could also use trellises with vines on them to help create 'walls'. To help not creat shade you could leave a grassy area around each bed to keep the 'walls' from being to close. You could put a bench to sit on or something of interest in the grassy areas.

Great feedback!! Myezek, I love the idea of the meandering path following the same line as the "bonus bed" for the beginning of the path.
Smokey Sc...I love the link!! am not able to blitz the yard......YET.
Critterologist ...the 4' fence is the only place I am "allowed" to add beds at this time. I want to plant an evergreen climber along the entire fence line that flowers. (what?) I will add all sorts of yummy plants along the base, something like columbine, moss rose, or really cool ornamental grass. Again, any suggestions as to what?

Had a really wonderful (NOT) discussion with my hubby who suddenly wants to keep all his beloved, weedy and patchy grass. He will only agree to beds at the fence for now. It's my garden, why does he suddenly care?! They are going to be deeeeeep and curvy.

By the way, my plan for the bonus bed after an angry trip to the garden store this morning is a combination of skyscraper and lemon queen sunflowers at the fence along the back edge of the boomerang, which is about 12" below the rock line at the rear of the bed. I am sprinkling a bird/butterfly wildflower mix over the entire bed and then starting from the back and working forward but not necessarily the entire length of the bed chinese lanterns, zinnias (various reds, oranges) ornamental gourds on trellis in the center, pumpkin vines crawling at the base of the gourds, dwarf cherry nasturtiums, white allysums and moss rose towards the front. I plan to border the left, right and front edges with a combination of orange and pink blooming seedums, white salvia,hens/chicks, lamb's ear,various silvery perennials and whatever else catches my eye next trip. I love the idea of intensively sowing but I am worried I am over-seeding.
Thanks for the vent....

The people that revamped our back yard around 10 years ago designed it so it was as if you were walking from room to room. We are also flat, flat, flat. We do have a lot of trees, most of which we planted 20 - 25 years ago, which helped.

They planted these wax myrtles (on the left) to screen our bedroom windows from the neighbors, but I'm running out of room for roses, so am considering getting rid of them

Now that I look at the picture, you can't see the wax myrtles behind the crepe myrtle

This message was edited May 13, 2009 8:43 AM

Another "room"

Lovely yard Irwells50.

Thanks, ksgarden. I think you have to work hard to make things interesting when you don't have any elevation change. We'd been trying different things for 20 years with varied success, before we finally got a professional. It was expensive, but no more than we'd spent in the past on things that didn't work. Now that I've looked at a lot of different gardens (that weren't created by the same 3 people in our small rural area) I might have been able to come up with something pleasing, but this great resource where we can see other's gardens wasn't available then.

Another thing to consider is finding a landscape architect that can come up with a plan that you can implement. I think our main problem is we never addressed the yard as a whole. Would just do something to one area at a time. Better to decide what you want for the entire property, then implement as you have the time and money.

Hey irwells, that last "room" rocks. What is the tub on the right side?

By the pergola? It's my great-grandmother's washtub. Mother could remember her doing the laundry on Mondays. All I can say is YUCK! No wonder people weren't overweight back then!

I found my husband to be much more amenable to large, curvy flowerbeds once I took over all the mowing and edging. It took some months of my mowing the yard to convince him that I wasn't going to change my mind and ask him to do it. After two years, he actually brags to his friends that he no longer has to do the mowing. You can do quite a lot with an acre. The fenced portion around our house is only 3/4 acre and we have 26 separate flowerbeds (some only partially completed) including two vegetable patches.

Sujo, have you made any progress? I have been following this thread . . . post some recent pictures if you have any!

I was crusing around, looking for a old thread when I saw this and wanted to bump it.

I like also adding tall flowered shrubs to make "fences" and add privacy between rooms. I have had Arches too into small enclosures to add that "secret garden" feeling.

You have a blank slate there to play with. That's a lot of area to cover. I definately wouldn't make straight borders, use some curves. Check Chuckette's photos of his yard, he has created such beauty and it's like you are walking from one room to another. I think he post on the landscaping and design forum. Fantastic photos and you might get some ideas and inspiration from his photos. I probably would make the first beds next to the house, then built from there using curved beds along the fenced line. Do you plan to do all this landscaping yourself or hire it done? That's a big yard, do you plan to start with nursery or garden center plants or plant seeds yourself. If you've never wintersowed before, this would be a good reason to try it. I don't know what your budget is but it's going to take lots of plants to fill up that yard. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day, so you may have to do only one or two beds each year. Another idea is to go to a good nursery and take pictures with you and talk to a designer. See how much they will charge to draw up a sketch or design for you. Maybe they will give you a break if you agree to buy your plants from them. Sometimes I think it is a good idea until you get the feel of doing it by yourself. Another thought I had was contacting a garden coach in your area. Just google "Garden Coaches" and put into parenthesis your county or city. Might have to do it by state, then the website might break it down by county or cities. I found one from a magazine article and she came out and only charges $50 an hour for consultation.
How close are you to Atlanta area? I bet they would have one in that metropolis.

Just checking to see what progress you made on your flowerbeds this spring/summer. You were talking about wanting sunflowers I believe. Check out Tom's blog and his beautiful sunflowers. They are not the great big plate size blooms that one thinks of sunflowers being. He calls them something else. Starts with an H..www.seventhstreetcottage.com is his blog. He plants a lot of interesting flowers/shrubs,etc. Maybe you can get some ideas from his blog. He has some pineapple sage that is so pretty and looks almost like red salvia. Did you have a chance to look at Chuckette's photos on the landscape/design forum? I haven't looked for a few months to see if he and his wife have any new pictures posted.