The Cottage Garden
When we moved into The Cottage in Dec 2022, almost all of the garden was lawn. This included the side garden that connects the driveway to the back door, which we trudge through every time we enter or leave the house. As you can imagine, I was eager to bring some diversity and interest to this part of the garden ASAP, to bring us some joy on a daily basis without the need to tackle the entire garden at once!
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Aside from a mature (and somewhat unwieldy!) rambling rose entangling an old fashioned lamp post, and a disused water reservoir, it was a blank slate just begging for someone to fill it with luscious planting and interest. Given the stunning rose and the fact that this section of the garden is surrounded on three sides, I decided this would be the perfect spot for a small but bountiful cottage garden.
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I keenly started sketching in the Spring, and was soon marking the ground to visualise the potential flower beds. One bed is now in place, bringing some immediate joy this year, surrounding the restored water reservoir with its new solar pump. The plot is starting to bring more pollinators into the garden already, but there's still a way to go yet.
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Join me on my cottage garden journey!
Coming soon...
1. The brief
I'll describe what I hope to get out of this patch of the garden, so you know what I'm aiming for!
Coming soon...
2. Creating a design
Rather than drawing this part of the plot as a formal plan, unlike the Rose Garden, I have been designing this patch more fluidly with rough sketches and playing with paint on the ground...
Coming soon...
3. Preparing the beds
We dug the first bed in quite swiftly so as to bring some element of interest to the garden for my own sanity; endless grass doesn't quite do it for me! However, there are more beds to add yet, with lots more beautiful planting to add...
Coming soon...
4. Planting up
This is often the most exciting part of any gardening project: putting the plants in their new home and helping them to flourish.
