Help me plan a cottage garden!

I would like to extend my current gardens to incorporate a cottage look and feel, and I'd love some advice from your veteran cottage gardeners.

The following is a small slide show of 'before' and 'just after' planting last spring (2008). I need to add more images because there has been significant growth (and also some snow damage to the leucothoes). Also, I have added three new gardens to the backyard, none of which are in the below pictures.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/skwpt/garden/?albumview=slideshow

I have a Cape Cod house with grey shingles and white trim (and live on a street of mostly Capes), so the cottage look is right up my alley. My soil is acidic, but I don't have any one location that is considered full sun. If I extend the backyard shrub border along the fence, however, I know I can get a solid 4-5 hours of sun in summer. The sun dips below the tree line in the woods behind my house after 3 PM, and those darned oaks and maples just keep growing!

The front needs a wide path from the front door to the driveway, but I haven't put one in because I can't decide between bluestone, slate, and brick. Which would be more cottagey? I fear the bluestone is too formal unless I can install the slabs in an irregular pattern.

The following list includes some of the plants I am thinking about, and I am wide open to new ideas and suggestions. The light requirements seem right for almost all of them, and I'll need to think about placement (color and height). I really like the look of purples and blues and pinks and whites and yellows. Maybe an accent or two of something brighter (like red), but don't think I have enough sun to support more of the really bold colors.

Clematis 'Polish Spirit' (thanks, ClematisGuru!) for the fence -- btwn the 2 terniflora currently working their way up and the Mayleen
Campanula Persicifolia 'Alba; and 'New Giant'
Hollyhock 'Black Beauty'
Heuchera 'Canyon Melody' and/or 'Patricia Louise' and/or 'Raspberry Ice' and/or Heuchera x brizoides 'Silver Scrolls'
Aquilegia 'Yellow Queen' and/or 'Winky Blue and White' and/or 'Winky Series Rose'
Viola 'Etain' and/or Viola odorata 'White Czar' and/or Viola cornuta lutea 'Splendens'
Chrysanthemum superbum 'Becky' and/or 'Highland White Dream'
Delphinium 'Dusky Maidens'
Dianthus deltoides 'Arctic Fire'
Digitalis grandiflora 'Carillon'
Lavandula 'Munstead' (maybe not enough sun, but I so lust after lavender)
Geranium 'Johnsons Blue'
Phlox paniculata 'Franz Schubert' mixed with 'David'
Dianthus barbatus 'Novena Clown'
Anemone tomentosa 'Robustissima'
Filipendula rubra 'Venusta'
Tiarella cordifolia 'Running Tapestry'


I have a bazillion books that I took out of the library for this long holiday weekend, so I will probably find more perennials I want to add to the list.

Can anyone suggest anchor shrubs for a cottage gardens? I'd think hydrangeas are cottagey. What about a macrophylla Mariesii 'Blue Wave'? Or should the garden contain just perennials?

Note: The cottage garden will be extended from an existing garden that contains 4 Rhododendron 'Cunningham's White', 1 Rhododendron 'Royal Purple, 2 Viburnum dentatum 'Autumn Jazz', 2 Pieris japonica 'Dorothy Wycoff', 1 Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy', 3 Clethera alnifolia 'Ruby Spice', and tons of Geranium macrorrhizum 'Spessart' as groundcover.

P.S. I work at home a couple days a week, and I can look right out the bay window from my desk to the empty spot that will one day be my cottage garden.


This message was edited May 23, 2009 7:18 PM

Wow! What a wonderful list of plants - I think you will have a fantastic cottage garden. Some other plants you could consider are Digitalis purpurea (i know that you have the grandiflora version on your list, but the purpurea looks so cottagy, adds height, and does well in part shade), maybe some astilbe (again thinking about your lack of full sun), I love my lupines, and they should do well in your climate, and how about some roses - if you can find a spot in your part shade that does get at least 6 hours. Also, I love alchemilla mollis in a cottage garden. Oh, and daylilies. Take a bunch of pictures now, and a bunch of pictures as your garden starts to develop. It's so fun to watch the progression of a new garden.

As far as shrubs go, I think that the beauty of a cottage garden is that almost anything goes. So plant what you think is pretty, and will do well in a part sun area - hydrangeas sound perfect (they will need some sun to bloom).

Looking forward to seeing pictures!

And, I love Concord - we used to live in Stow, and miss it very much.

Thanks, pgt. I was admiring Digitalis purpurea at the nursery yesterday, but they hadn't supported it, and it was all bent over and broken. I'll try my luck at another nursery. I pick up two each of Siberian iris and Monarda 'Blue Stocking' and one Poppy. The more the merrier.

Astilbes are a great idea. I am growing 'Hennie Graafland', 'Professor Van Der Wielen', and 'Sprite' in other locations in my yard. Maybe I'll just divide some next spring if any grow big enough this season.

Dayiliies ... I have always shied away from the ideas of bulbs, but now I am not so sure all lilies are bulbs. I'll have to do more research because they are such friendly little plants. I've always been afraid of roses, too, having heard they require much maintenance. But I recently learned they are being bred to be much more hardy and disease resistant.

Did I not mention Alchemilla mollis in my list? My original plant came from my mother's garden, which is now ready to divide. I also purchased several new alchemillas this spring for ground cover in the front yard. I will definitely have lady's mantle in the new cottage garden. And I might move some of my nepata, which is getting leggy because it's not getting enough sun.

I will take pictures for certain. I am so glad I took pictures the spring after we moved in, and the only things growing in the entire yard were two scraggly yews under two huge oaks.

I had a busy, laborious weekend, but the new garden plot is ready for planting. I still have the hard part of deciding what goes where, but soon I get to plant.

I am not familiar with Chalfont, but I lived in the mid-Atlantic region for several years (Haddonfield and Margate, NJ) and worked in both Philadelphia and Mt. Laurel, NJ. I loved it there, though I was equally happy to come back to New England.

I didn't garden down there. Do you have as many rocks in the earth as we do here? Unless I want to rent a backhoe, sometimes plants end up going in a different location because we unearth huge rocks we just cannot move.

I got lucky with the site for the cottage garden, and encountered only two rocks that weighed over 100 pounds. Bent the pry bar getting them out, though!!

If you want to try a tough and easy rose, try one of the knock outs http://www.conard-pyle.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/koplants.splash

They really are disease free, and I have some in quite a bit of shade, and they do really well.

Daylillies are different than the asiatic lillies, which is what I think that you are thinking of. Daylillies are hemerocallis, and they come in all different colors. An easy popular one that blooms all summer is Stella de oro - its a happy yellow. But there are tons of different kinds that you could try. If you want, when I divide my Stella's in the fall, I can mail some to you to just give them a try.

We do have fairly rocky/clay soil here in Chalfont. We also have a cottage up in the Poconos, at a glacial lake. Those glaciers dragged many boulders and rocks along with it, so I have the same problem there that you do up. I look for little pockets of dirt between rocks to plant my plants.

Can't wait to see pictures of your garden!

--Pam

Those roses are gorgeous! It would make my mother happy, as my maternal grandmother was a magnificent gardener and had many roses.

I plugged in my zip code into that web site, and I am delighted to see that my favorite nursery carries them.

The Rainbow (Rosa 'Radcor') looks a bit like clematis montana 'Mayleen' with its yellow center. And that The Sunny Knock Out (Rosa 'Radsunny') makes me drool. There's no reason I can't have two, right?

I have always admired Stargazer lilies, but I think I will go for something yellow, so I just might take you up on your Stella offer. Hopefully I will have something worth trading by that point, once I learn how to do it. So far, I have only shared my bigroot geraniums with neighbors, but I don't think they would mail well.

Your cottage in the Poconos sounds wonderful. My hubby and I are in the process of looking for land for a summer cottage. Unfortunately, he wants mountains and deep woods, and I want ocean with plenty of sun. ;-)

Kelly

I thought I'd add some pictures to show progress with my cottage garden. Here's the bare plot. Note that the finished product is actually 2.5 feet wider and longer than this image shows because I screwed up the math when I designed it. :)

Now, I realize you're seeing a lot of shade, but I took the picture around 7:30 AM. That bed gets plenty of sun.

Look! No sooner had I finished amending the new garden bed but my new plants arrived! Can there really be 70 plants in this box? (Ugg thrown in for scale.)

Oh, joy.

Oops. Turns out they sent only 61 plants.

Everything in the ground.

Note that there are a couple more mature plants (2 monarda, 1 lupine, 1 phlox, 2 iris, 1 poppy). That's because while I was waiting for my order to arrive, I went to the local nursery to buy a spade (rocks killed the one I was using), and I saw pretty plants.

I have no self control.

So right now, lupine, iris, and poppy are blooming. Here's a picture of my new favorite plant (papaver alpinum).

Now that you can see all the plants in the new bed, how long will it take before the tiny specimens reach mature height and start to fill in?

I am thinking 2-3 years.

Next up: mulch! Must keep weeds at bay because I'd like to avoid stepping on the dirt to prevent the soil from compacting.

That is going to be one lovely bed. Just wait, next year it is going to be nice and lush and beautiful.

I hope so.

The finished picture makes it look like everything is lined up, but I really did try to stagger things and make V and W formations with the plants. If I feel it looks too structured next year, I'll throw new plants in the mix or just move stuff around.

This weekend I am on the hunt for kitchen herbs. And mulch.

My cottage garden is coming along. I took the attached picture during the one day of sun we had in June (it rained that night, so I can still say it rained EVERY DAY in June!).

I am bummed about all this rain. You'd think we lived in the Pacific Northwest. The poppies have been trying to bloom, but heavy downpours shred the petals. The daisies are just now opening up, but I am struggling with powdery mildew on my monarda and phlox. I sprayed with neem, but I am pretty sure the relentless rain washed that right away.

The only things that are blooming right now are viola, geraniums, daisies, alium, and that alpine poppy is still kicking butt, where the other poppies aren't as strong.

Nothing else, but I don't yet know what to expect. All the other foliage looks very good, and is either getting nice and tall (delphinium) or thick and bushy (campanula, lavender, hollyhock, yarrow, coreopsis, anemone, etc.) So I am not sure if anything else will bloom this summer.

I am still learning about what to plant so that it blooms at appropriate times (as in, having something blooming at all time) and actually looks good together, lol.

Last year's campanula/yarrow/digitalis plunk down turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The deep blue, apricot and yellow looked beautiful together, especially against the grey shingles of my shed on rainy days.

In my new cottage garden, I am happy to see the daisies turning their their sunny faces to the sky, and Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' is now blooming profusely, and I can already tell it's going to crowd out the alchemilla mollis, which I planted too close.

Other plants in the cottage garden that are sputtering along are alpine poppies, Viola, and Dianthus. I think they would be performing better if we hadn't had rain every day in June. A nice weekend is ahead, so who knows what will pop up.

The monarda is pushing out wee buds, so I hope to see some color soon, and my heuchera is sending up shoots. I didn't even know heuchera bloomed! I though it was all about the foliage.

Not much else is happening in the new cottage garden beyond foliage growth with the hollyhock, campanula, digitalis, lavender, achillea, campanula, coreopsis, and anenomes. The iris, allium, and lupines have faded.

I imagine that if those other plants aren't blooming, I shouldn't expect to see flowers this year, is that correct? Aside from the anemones (which still might bloom in Sept), it's the season for flowering for the other plants, so they might pass me by this year.

My vacation starts tomorrow, and guess what I am going to do! Make new gardens!! I am going to prepare at least one bed that I install from seed only, some of which I hope to get from the seed trade and some other rare/heirloom seeds from selectseeds.com. Wee!

Been watching your progress,sounds like you are doing great.
It looks like you take lots of pictures, I have found that to be immense help in my gardening,even better than a journal(that I have trouble keeping up).
It is a great tool in the winter months when planning,or just remembering where things were.
I would not give up on blooms plants have a habit of blooming out of season while getting established.

I do take a lot of pictures, gardengus. In fact, I am looking out my window right now, marveling at how much growth the year-old andromedas and viburnums put out. I'll have to do a comparison shot.

As for my seed garden plans, I am not sure if I should start sowing seeds this fall or it I should to more research and planning. I don't have a grow room with fluoresent lights, so I need to be able to direct sow. I admit that intimidates me a little. I also want to have a bit of control over the placement, so broadcasting a handful of mixed seeds isn't what I want to do.

In any case, my seed purchase arrived today. So this new garden will contain:

Ageratum 'Blue Horizon'
Alpine Sea Holly 'Blue Lace'
Balsam
Chinese Forget-Me-Not 'Mystery Rose'
Cleome 'Rose Queen'
Cornflower 'Jubilee Gem'
Cosmos 'Seashells Mix'
Cosmos 'Vega Mix'
Feverfew
Foxglove - White
Larkspur 'Giant Imperial'
Love-in-a-Mist 'Persian Jewels'
Morning Glory 'Heavenly Blue'
Pimpernel 'Gentian Blue'
Poppy 'Dawn Chorus'
Poppy 'Imperial Pink'
Poppy 'Lauren's Grape'
Poppy 'Lilac Pompom'
Poppy - Corn
Poppy - Oriental 'Princess Victoria Louise'
Poppy - Shirley
Queen Anne's Thimbles
Rose Campion
Salvia - Clary Sage
Sweet Rocket - Mix
Sweet William

So many plans, so little time!

I almost never direct sow any more. Several reasons mostly the weeds always seem faster than the flowers .
I can strongly recommend the winter sowing method. There is a whole forum on it.I sow most things in February when I have a lot more time and leave all the care to mother nature.
I have about a 90 percent success rate . I keep a few seeds back on the real special plants.
The biggest problem is there are always more plants than space.
Below a picture from June of some of the opened milk jugs needing to be planted.

I can see how weeds could be a problem. As in, which are the new plant shoots and which are weeds? Also, because you can't really mulch a seed garden, those weeds would be very competitive.

I guess I will have to do some research this summer. I imagine at the least I will need some kind of light system. When you say there is a whole forum on growing seeds indoors, do you mean at DG or elsewhere?

Yes , There is a form on ''winter sowing'' here at dave's ...just go to the top click on communities look under general gardening ...toward the bottom ..it is alphabetically listed.
Wish I could link you but I am computer challenged.
Do not go out and buy lights , the kind of winter sowing I was referring to is outside.
I use empty milk jugs ,poke holes in the bottom ...cut in half (almost) put in soil seeds tape shut (leave lid off ) and sit outside in February . When it gets warm enough to plant ,and the plants are big enough I open the jugs and plant away. No muss no fuss. ^_^

Oh, that's an even better idea. I can handle that. And my deck gets lots of lovely, warm sun all winter with no leaves on the trees.