I am really getting tired of winter. I can't wait to see everything I planted in the fall bloom and grow! I'm jealous of my neighbors with huge bulbs and saucer magnolias in bloom in their yards. I wish I had planned ahead in the fall and planted some bulbs for forcing indoors...I need to plan to do that this year. At least the snowdrops and vinca in my yard have started blooming. That was a pleasant surprise recently.
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| Snowdrops in my yard |
The best thing to do this time of year is to plan ahead for spring's garden projects. One of my goals for spring is to transform one of the masses of boring hedges in front of my house into a flower bed. I decided shortly after I moved into my home that my Tudor Revival-style cottage needed cottage-garden style in the front yard. According to Wikipedia, "The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure." Doesn't it sound perfect for my little English-inspired Tudor cottage? So I did a little Googling to get some cottage garden inspiration from the world-wide web.
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| Cottage garden picture from talesfromcarmel.com |
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| Cottage garden picture from talesfromcarmel.com |
The first two pictures are borrowed from the Jan. 5, 2012 post on the blog
"Tales from Carmel". The pictures are both of the same garden--first in April, and second in August. You'll notice there are different things in bloom, but there is still plenty in bloom both in spring and late summer. I love how it's practically overflowing with plants: clematis, delphinium, hydrangeas, fuschia, salvia, poppies, viburnum, lilies, snapdragon, petunia, roses, and chrysanthemum. I have a stone walkway leading up from my driveway to my front door, and I dream of it being lined with an abundance of flowers on both sides like in this garden. Maybe one day. I notice, too, that the color scheme sticks to white, pinks, purples, and blues. Those are all colors that I like, and they blend so harmoniously here. It definitely has informal design and dense plantings--two of the criteria for a cottage garden.
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| Cottage garden from hgtv.com |
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| Cottage garden from hgtv.com |
These two pictures were borrowed from HGTV.com. I love the variety of textures, especially the spiky plants like iris, delphinium, and salvia. In both of them you'll notice the use of garden ornaments--in the first a birdbath, in the second an urn. Garden ornaments are very common in the modern cottage garden, and I think they give a sense of permanence and timelessness in a garden that changes weekly. The first one, especially, is a good use of traditional materials: brick walkways, a stone birdbath, terracotta pots, and an arching trellis. Something else I noticed in both is how they used plants to give structure and order to what is otherwise a very chaotic landscape. In the first, they use low boxwood hedges as an evergreen border. In the second, that perfect lawn, as well as the trees in the background, give consistency and calm.
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| Terry and Vanessa Winters' modern cottage garden |
This image comes from an article in The Guardian about modern cottage garden style trends in the UK. They even have a list of suggested plants if you're curious. In this picture, they achieve order by repeating the same plant throughout the bed--in this case, alliums. I love alliums (those flowers that resemble white puff-balls--they also come in lavender and purple), and I hope to plant several of them.
This at least gives me a start for what I hope my next flower bed will look like. Next step: narrowing down my plant list!
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