Do you have a cottage garden and if so what plant do you have?

[KiteKit]

Just that really. We live rurally and I always had a dream of having one of those romantic cottage gardens. we have lived here 10yrs and only got the money to start looking at the garden about 3yrs ago. We only have 1/3rd of an acre and most of it is grass and stone walls and old trees. We created one long bed at the front of the house, it is also about 4ft wide (or deep) so actually fecking huge when we started trying to fill it with plants. We did not have the finances to just kit it out at a garden centre so slowly over the past 3 yrs we have worked on it, buying plants in adli etc when they were the right ones. It has been slow progress.

Our only rule is that they have to be perennial plants - plant once and no more, dh hates annuals, they look so beautiful but then they die and you have to do it all again the next year.

We have lupins, foxgloves, tulips, muscari, primroses, alliums, peoney roses, helebores, hyacinths, snowdrops, cowslips, round box's to intersperse, campanula, bay, strawberries, blueberry bush, dog roses, rambling rose, agapanthus, hollyhock (may have dies) hydrangas and lots of acquilegia's, delphinium (may have died) calla lillies, giant daisies, lambs ear

It still looks a bit sparse in places - what else would you recommend?

Please tell me about your gardens!

Hardy fushias for later flowers
I think Crocosmia have already been mentioned
And how about rhubarb ? :)

I have ducks, thatbloodywoman. Well not mine exactly, but we have a river in our garden.

They are currently eating all of the frog spawn in the pond.

My next door neighbours have a knot garden (or is it a parterre), with herbs in - it looks lovely.

Agree with Sprung, they're brilliant. I find thalictrum delavayi (do check spelling!) fantastic too.

Also, a little herb garden is quite traditional and useful, I've just planted one.

Viola are great and naturalise quickly, and are virtually indestructible

Climbing hydrangea for the shadier parts of the garden.

Btw, I am soooo of the size of your garden!

I think this is the nicest thread I have ever started. I will print it out tomorrow so I don't lose all these wonderful suggestions!

Good to hear hostas are not up yet, there may be some hope for mine yet, they were fairly decimated by slugs last year though.

So many keen gardeners here, could I ask another question? As I mentioned we have wide stone walls on 3 sides of the garden with trees growing on the tops of the walls (2 are about 25ft tall) and we are now working our way from the cottage bed that we created to planting the tops of the walls. I have had limited success with keeping weeds at bay and getting plants to grow there. It is a bit wind swept and very shady in summer due to the shade from the trees. What would you recommend for planting there?

We tried rhodedendron but they did not thrive, I was thinking hydranga might be good to give some screening and wind break effect? any other ideas?

Thanks

Yes, scabious, and lots and lots of different coloured wallflowers. Alyssum too; and lavender; carnations and foxgloves.

If you struggle with slugs try nematodes - I have used nemaslug - way better than pellets I find.

I second SprungHasSpring with Erysimum Bowles Mauve. I planted two, side by side, two years ago, and they keep growing and blooming. Their flowering season is months long.

This is my garden in about May last year -- and it's thickened out since then.

Watching with great interest. I'm after a cottage garden too.

Lovely garden gatewalker i would say it will get fuller and fuller every year. What is the purple plant at the back? It's lovely.

Have just googled nematodes ewww but effective it seems!

I forgot that we have a huge poppy, carnations, lavender, catmint and buddelia too

That's the Erysimum Bowles Mauve, KiteKit.

And thank you!

Beautiful! I am definitely adding that to my shopping list (it is growing at an alarming rate!)

Kite could you ask MNHQ to move this thread to Gardening? It would be a shame if it went poof in a few months.

Yy to tons of lavender, there are so many gorgeous varieties. We have white, butterfly and the usual kind. It's lovely when it gets all bushy. Also lots of herbs, rosemary, sage, mint, thyme and tarragon.

We also have tiny climbing dog roses, Tudor roses as well as the large petal kind, all pale pink or white (technical gardening term). We also have some nice standard Japanese trees with pink and pale green leaves, these look great with all the lovely silvery greens of the lavenders. Also climbing we have Jasmine, honeysuckle, clematis and sweet peas, they suit the rambling cottage style. Veg wise we grown tumbling cherry tomatoes, courgettes, peppers and chillies, spinach and rocket and various salad lettuce. All the easy stuff.
The most cottag-y plant to me is anything daisy like, marguerites, feverfew etc apologies for the lack of anything vaguely correct in terms of plant names or tYy to tons of lavender, there are so many gorgeous varieties. We have white, butterfly and the usual kind. It's lovely when it gets all bushy. Also lots of herbs, rosemary, sage, mint, thyme and tarragon.

We also have tiny climbing dog roses, Tudor roses as well as the large petal kind all pale pink or white (technical gardening term). We also have some nice standard Japanese trees with pink and pale green leaves, these look great with all the lovely silvery greens of the lavenders. Also climbing we have Jasmine, honeysuckle, clematis and sweet peas, they suit the rambling cottage style. Veg wise we grown tumbling cherry tomatoes, courgettes, peppers and chillies, spinach and rocket and various salad lettuce. All the easy stuff.
The most cottagy plant to me is anything daisy line, marguerites, feverfew etc.
Apologies for the lack of correct technical terms, I'm very much making it up as I go along with regards to gardening.

I don't know what the hell just happened to my post, it's gone all sorts of bonkers! Take from it what you will if you can understand a word of it!

Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions. I will ask MN to move this to the gardening section so we don't lose everything.

So many beautiful plant to look out for the next time I am at the garden centre and I think the best tip I am taking from this is to buy 3 of them at a time (cost allowing) so it instantly looks more generous. With some of the plant I already have, I am going to buy more of the same (like lupins etc) and plug them into the gaps beside the already planted ones. The sun has been shining and it rained a bit and the level of growth in the garden is astonishing! Dh cut the grass on Saturday too and that always makes everything look 10 times better.

Afternoon all,

We're moving this thread over to the Gardening topic at the OP's request.

Perhaps the gardening topic needs to be easier to find!

Ooh - I remembered cistus- rock rose if no-one else has mentioned them :)

And have a look at this garden, a 'thread' a few items further down:

Overwhelmed by my acre..can you advise?

I made a perennial bed last year and bought a lot of the plants from Beth Chatto gardens by mail order. We have phlox, echinacea purpura, jasmine, salvia ostfriesland, agastache, campanula, achillea filipendula and sedum. We had verbena bonariensis poppies and cosmos which I am hoping will have self seeded. I also planted lots of allium bulbs in the winter. It was a lot of work last year but can see everything coming up now which is like magic

You have to have some honesty in a cottage garden.
Here's the flower,and the seed 'pod' afterwards.
They self seed well.

Oh I love those That. Are they called 'honesty'.

Has anyone said Mint but plant in a bucket sunk to ground level with the bottom booted out, to reduce spread.