The Cottage Garden, Year 2

 One of the very first projects I worked on in my garden was ripping out the bushes in front of my house and creating cottage-garden-style beds. Last year I mainly worked on the bed to the east side of my front door, which you can read all about here. That bed looked beautiful in the spring, but I discovered in the summer that the late afternoon sun was settling on my 'Twist-N-Shout' hydrangea and burning it to a crisp. I also discovered that I had poorly planned for winter, and that bed looked positively naked in January. My solution was to move the hydrangea to a shadier spot and replace it with a rosemary I've grown from a cutting. That spot might be too wet for rosemary (the surrounding plants need a lot of water), but since the plant is free I don't mind experimenting.

The first cottage garden bed from year 1 (above) to year 2
(below).

Everything else in that bed has pretty much doubled in size. The irises are currently covered in blooms and flopping all over the place. The climbing hydrangea has almost covered the trellis, and the lemon balm and bugleweed are competing for space.

Clockwise from top left: foxglove with iris, lemon balm with
bugleweed, hydrangea, and rosemary.

 This spring I finished filling the bed on the other side of the front door with plants. Much less planning went into this one than the last one. I just couldn't make up my mind, so I kept sticking plants I liked in there until I was done. It's a mix of plants from the first bed, other freebies, and a few impulse purchases. I played a lot with textures in this bed. I'll probably rearrange it next year after I see how all the plants do this year.

The new cottage garden bed 

Clockwise from top left: pink 'Flower Carpet' rose,
'Barbecue' rosemary with 'Silver Mound' artemisia,
hydrangea, iris with lemon balm.

In addition to the plants pictured above, I added some summer-blooming perennials which I'll add pictures of when they bloom later: 'Robert Poore' summer phlox and 'Summer Berries' yarrow. I like the appeal of different plants coming into bloom at different times, so those should give me something to look forward to during the heat of summer.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions!