Autumn planting in a cottage garden

[lavendersun]

So, exams, work and holidays mean that I have not planted anything at all this year and have spent two days at the most in my garden My borders need an almighty chop and are past their best - just returned from a two week holiday and the place looks awful, well just the beds really. Lots of lawn which someone cuts and strims round the edges/trees twice a month.

What can I plant that will look pretty from now on in the cottage garden theme. I like the sort of perennial plants that our local NT garden has if that helps.

I can't remember a lot of the names of the plants in my garden tbh, I put them in years ago and am not massively keen but have upwards of 1/3 acre.

Things that still look good are agapanthus, verbena, cosmos, statice type things, mollis(?), wild geranium type things, lots of lavender and buddlea. Hollyhocks, delphiniums, foxfloves and lupins all very tired (and some sort of mallow) and cut back.

Any recommendations greatly received, it is going to look really bare tomorrow (have almost filled a 1 ton bag with trimmings!).

Thank you wise gardeners - Lavender .

[lavendersun]

Oh also, I usually grow a fair bit of veg in four raised beds 12' x 6'. Haven't done that this year either. Can I do anything useful with them this year do you think, otherwise I could just dig a lot of horse manure in and leave them for now.

[chamerion]

What about some bergenia? Evergreen, perennial, flower in the spring. Some flower twice. Some have attractive leaves in autumn/winter.

[lavendersun]

Thank you, I will have a look at those, have now filled 2 x 1m3 bags of trimmings from one massive bed!

Raspberries, fennel, this mallow thing, mint and lemon balm are absolutely rampant. Last year my mint was a metre square, this year it seems to be double the size.

Might get someone to help me once a month for a few hours, clearly I am not spending enough time out there.

[agoodbook]

hydrangea
crocosmia ( you may beable to buy some inpots in flower at the moment
asters
dianthus keep going into autumn
dahlias
chrysanthemums
veg
you have time for kale/chard /overwintering broad beans/garlic/shallots

mmm - I'm sure I will think of others :)

[Rhubarbgarden]

Echinops
Kniphofia
Nerines

[lavendersun]

Thank you both . I have got hydrangea and crocosmia (didn't know the name of that one though).

I will report back later after my trip to the nursery.

I found a lovely hibiscus that is about to burst into colour behind 3ft high lemon balm and the rampant raspberries last night. I wish I knew that raspberries would try to take over the place when I planted them 9 years ago.

[lavendersun]

I have returned with a few plants, mainly perennials as usual. I bought for instant gratification in the main . I have got most of the plants already. New to this garden is scabius, a lovely lobelia with blue stems, lythrum.

Also bought netpeta (have tons already but this new one is pink), more delphiniums, aconitum, penstemon, campanula and cyclamen.

I bought dahlias too, I am not a fan generally, they remind me of my Dad's garden where some of the beds were like soldiers standing to attention.

I love all your suggestions Rhubarb - think I might order some of those online as my local nursery doesn't have them.

I might rethink the massive bed next to the gravel where we park our cars - it needs the most attention out of anywhere else in the garden and we don't spend much time there - must be 30 foot by 8 foot, takes a lot of time in relation to the rest of the place.

[shovetheholly]

Wow, lovely colours and such a gorgeous selection!

Be careful with aconite - it's quite literally drop-dead gorgeous because very poisonous.

My only suggestion was going to be putting in spring bulbs, because we are coming up to the time of year where these go in! J Parkers bulbs do great, cheap multipacks with hundreds of spring flowers to brighten your space.

[lavendersun]

Thanks, shove, I have got tons of bulbs, but you can never have too many. I was thinking of Allium varieties too.

I found an aconite earlier, hidden by something else. I didn't know that but always thought most pretty things were poisonous, foxgloves etc., etc..

I live rurally and have lots of bunnies who break in through the picket fence when they are small enough , I don't mind it one bit!

I have just cleared the raspberries (again), they take too much room for their small yield.

I think that everything I bought today will have to go where the raspberries are (next to the car parking bit) which is a shame as I won't see them, so I think I will return to the nursery for another haul tomorrow - good thing about living rurally, plants are very cheap £40 for today's lot

[funnyperson]

In mums garden the crocosmia go brilliantly with asters: She has swathes of crocosmia of a pale translucent orange and purple asters with good foliage and a great big hardy fuschia of deep magenta and purple,
They have taken over from shasta daisies which took over from day lilies pinks and lavender which took over from aquilegia and saxifrage and forgetments and crocuses and snowdrops

[funnyperson]

I like my ceratostigma, hibiscus and fuschia magellanica and the cosmos and hostas!

Your haul looks great!

[shovetheholly]

lavender - what a shame you won't see them! Maybe your garden is telling you it's time for a new border any excuse

I like this crocosmia/aster combination idea. I have just found a single orange crocosmia growing right next to my purple thalictrum. Must have been dropped by a bird or something! I've avoided oranges and reds in the garden, because a lot of my spring and early summer planting is quite pale and muted. But I have to admit that the colours really do look good and by this time of year I am ready for something a bit more brazen. So I am considering going for it and busting out reds and purples in the autumn and just going for it!

[lavendersun]

Funny, I gave up on hostas years ago because of all of the slugs! Where I live is semi woodland, I don't use pesticides, couldn't buy enough copper (I would be bankrupt) and those beer things were a bit useless - decided to quite while I was ahead!

I have spent the morning planting after the rain yesterday, the ground was just so hot before then so I left everything.

I always feel that I plant without a plan though , other than tall things at the back I don't really think about it enough, I know that!

[shovetheholly]

lavender - I have a north-facing shade garden with a tree, so basically slug paradise (though on a much smaller scale than yours by the sounds of things ). I am having great success growing hostas in terracotta pots right by my fern border. It really works!

[lavendersun]

Really shove. I had masses of hostas when I moved here and took them up in the end because I was so sick of the slugs, they looked rotten.

Any ideas on where to find a nice planting plan - I have lots of books but end up ignoring them.

Also have brick and flint walls surrounding and dividing up the garden and find that some plants aren't too happy near the walls (lime in the cement I suppose).

Am almost thinking of getting someone in as I seem to have a recurring theme.

1. Buy lots of lovely perennials and plant without a plan.
   
2. Fail to devote enough time to garden.
   
3. Have a major cut back/clear out of all the perennials that no longer have enough room.
   
4. Repeat
   

OK, it is generally on a three year repeat but I know I could do so much better! A massive garden is not really a good idea when you are not terribly committed ime!

[shovetheholly]

Yes! I know what you mean about the destruction of the bloody slugs! My hostas weren't just torn to ribbons - they were nuked, right down to a few pathetic lookign stalks. My BIL told me to put them in pots and I ignored him thinking 'What does he know?' and got rid. Then he bought me one, and I grudgingly gave it a go, and he was right! For extra protection you can put them in saucers of water.

Your garden sounds LOVELY, btw. I am so jealous of your beautiful-sounding walls. They must look stunning. There's nothing as wonderful as brick in a garden. I have privet, bleurgh.

I bet your planting isn't that bad and that your garden just needs intervention more regularly! I tend to go in once a year, over the winter for most things (spring for grasses), and divide/move things that are getting big, then mulch the soil round them because I am a lazy cow and can't be bothered weeding all the time. I have to admit, it takes half a day over a few weekends, but it means the garden is ready for the spring and that it's never at the point where I really need to hack anything back. It might sound like a lot of work, but honestly it is actually easier this way. (A bit like weeding is no job at all if you go round quickly once a week, but becomes a nightmare if you do it only every few months.)

I look for plant combinations and border designs I like on pinterest, and then try to figure out a way of putting them together so that I maintain year-round interest. It's like a complicated kind of a puzzle and it gives me so much joy to mull it over. And then I get the actual plants and find that they don't work, or that something is bigger than I thought and I have to move them!! Every single year is different too. But I am just an amateur - there are some real pros on this site who will be able to give you much better advice

[Leeza2]

I'm assuming that your garden is sunny and with sandy free draining soil. So the penstemon , hydrangea ,lythrum and ( some ) campanula will want a damper/ cooler bit of the garden

Slugs love delphiniums almost as much as hostas .

And dig up that mint now and put it in a pot , before it takes over the whole garden

[Leeza2]

For car park border - I'd take out the perennials and go for easy shrubs and bark . Maybe with some bulbs . Go for a mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and have some with coloured foliage < shhh , very uncool >

[lavendersun]

Not that sunny Leeza - the massive bed is on the eastern side of a 7ft brick and flint wall that separates the car parking bit from the lawned bit of the garden. Soil isn't really sandy but free draining.

Only the lythrum is new to me and that is now on the other side of the house - west side. I have never had a problem with slugs on my delphiniums and they have been in for 8 years - definitely not the slug magnets that the hostas on the south side were. Hopefully the new ones won't be slug magnets either.

The mint has been here longer than I have (my garden used to be the orchard/herb garden of the local big house). I reduce it by 3/4 every year. Fairly happy with that as I doubt I could eradicate it successfully.

shove, thank you, I might try one in a big pot, I have got a couple of old half barrels that are empty next to the woodpile

I have found a gardener 6 miles away who sounds lovely (a lady). She is coming round for a chat with a view to her spending an afternoon a month here - worth it for the lack of frustration on my part!

I actually used to be really keen, spent my childhood/teens helping my Dad look after his huge garden, he fed most of the village for free. I have so little spare time these days I really can't be bothered most of the time and then end up feeling frustrated with it all.

[lavendersun]

I like perennials Leeza - we have bees in the adjacent field - love the fact I am providing lots of flowers for them even more when it is overgrown.

[lavendersun]

Must add that the bed next to the cars is under a 60ft high oak tree - probably a 40ft canopy but not too shady low down as the tree is so massive.

[Leeza2]

I agree that perennials are lovely - I only suggested the shrubs as you said t was too much work and you didn't spend much time there

Which lythrum did you get - I have the tall magenta purple one which many people think is too bright but I love it . I have it next to pysocarpus diabolo and sidalcia Elsie Hugh .