The "English Garden"

[vfem]

Oh my goodness! And you are not following my blog? LOL

http://fromseed.blogspot.com
A Southern English Garden Grows

I'm trying to create an Old English Cottage Garden from scratch and seed. (Which is TIME consuming, but I want to it the right way... how everyone once did it.)

This year I'm mingling in my veggies into the front yard, we've planned an espeliar created fence along the property to add more trees without taking up bed space. We've got daisies, cosmos, poppies, Blanket Flower, Balloon flower and tons of herbs! We're adding roses.

Don't forget, you're not in england so if something doesn't work for you, do a search for some flowers that do work in your area. Determine if you want Perennial or annual that resow themselves with little help from you.


The best part of this lay out, is you just keep adding over time... get a simple idea of what you want and lay out and just go for it. You don't need to trim pick as much as you would in an English garden of the 18th century with all the highly manicured shrubbery. This leaves you time to work on the thing you want to spend extra time caring for... like the fruit trees and veggies!

Outside plants, think about good places for seats, benches and tables.... trellises and lighting!

When I think of English Cottage Gardens... I think Romance and privacy.

I'm still trying to get to the privacy! LOL

 

[patandchickens]

Pat, we're planning on doing these in a deep raised bed.

Yes, you said 12"... all I'm saying is, you will have to water more intensively than if they were on normal-depth soil (i.e. no ledge underneath) and some very deep-rooted things e.g. baptisia may not be as happy.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

Oh my goodness! And you are not following my blog? LOL

http://fromseed.blogspot.com
A Southern English Garden Grows

I'm trying to create an Old English Cottage Garden from scratch and seed. (Which is TIME consuming, but I want to it the right way... how everyone once did it.)

This year I'm mingling in my veggies into the front yard, we've planned an espeliar created fence along the property to add more trees without taking up bed space. We've got daisies, cosmos, poppies, Blanket Flower, Balloon flower and tons of herbs! We're adding roses.

Don't forget, you're not in england so if something doesn't work for you, do a search for some flowers that do work in your area. Determine if you want Perennial or annual that resow themselves with little help from you.


The best part of this lay out, is you just keep adding over time... get a simple idea of what you want and lay out and just go for it. You don't need to trim pick as much as you would in an English garden of the 18th century with all the highly manicured shrubbery. This leaves you time to work on the thing you want to spend extra time caring for... like the fruit trees and veggies!

Outside plants, think about good places for seats, benches and tables.... trellises and lighting!

When I think of English Cottage Gardens... I think Romance and privacy.

I'm still trying to get to the privacy! LOL

LOL well I guess I'll have to start following your blog! Perhaps I'll create my own too... Humm..

We had a hectic english cottage garden in the backyard at our old house that was done in 12" deep raised beds and we rarely watered. The point of the english garden is low maintenance and local plants and flowers. Obviously I'm not going to go with something that is a pain to grow. We keep rain barrels and we get a huge "harvest" of rain over the summer months, so I reckon this is going to work out. I may actually till up our plots for the garden and then lay my beds on top of that so that the roots have somewhere to go. The beds are mainly to keep it all "organized" and allow for pathways.

I know the basics that do well here, we already have a ton of coneflowers, forget me nots (a friends mum gave these to me and they seeded beautifully last year, so I suspect they'll be EVERYWHERE this year), etc. I'm trying to put together some bulbs that will come up successively through the season to create drama in the early spring and something through the summer as well.

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, we're planning on doing these in a deep raised bed.

Yes, you said 12"... all I'm saying is, you will have to water more intensively than if they were on normal-depth soil (i.e. no ledge underneath) and some very deep-rooted things e.g. baptisia may not be as happy.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I had thought about tilling up the square in the ground and the plopping down my bed on top of it. As I told vfem, the beds are mostly to keep it organized so we have pathways through it. We did this at the old house and rarely watered, except for the hottest of days. We also water from rain barrels, our roof sheds a heck of a lot of water and right now the rain barrel is overflowing. We're installing 2 more on the house, 2 on the goat shed, 2 on the chicken shed, and we'll have 2 on the garage/kennel as well this year. Lots of rain barrels!

 

[lupinfarm]

Well next saturday I have to make a trip into Bowmanville so we're going to hit up Home Depot and that and pick up some bulbs that will flower at various times of the spring and summer. I like to start with the bulbs, last year we did a huge planting of daffodils and glads in the front garden, a big wave of daffodils infront of the small kitchen garden, some daffodils and glads around the hydro pole, and this year I'll be putting 4-5 daffodils around each picket fence post.

The crazy way I flower shop seems to = english garden anyway. If I see something that I like, that'll compliment something I already have, that is right for the area and will last and do well and thrive, I throw it in the cart LOL. I'm an impulse buyer, whatttt.

 

[patandchickens]

Oh, you wanted suggestions for bulbs specifically?

Remember that adding a lot of bulbs to a perennial bed is a real complication (a couple little patches are not so bad), because spring-blooming bulbs will leave bare patches all summer that must be covered by potted annuals or leaning-over perennials, and the vast majority of summer-blooming bulbs are not winterhardy up here and will have to be dug up and stored over winter then replanted. Digging up and storing is a *pain in the neck* in my opinion, and I tend to forget , but everyone's different.

Make sure you mark ALL your bulb clumps REAL WELL or you will end up with accidental massacres when dividing perennials or planting annuals! I find that the easiest way to have bulbs in my perennial beds is a) plant tiny things like crocus or scilla around decorative rocks in the bed, and b) plant species tulips, that will seldom have to be dug up, around peonies, a foot or foot-and-a-half away from the peony root itself, so the peony foliage covers the 'hole' later in the season.

Spring-blooming bulbs:

earliest crocuses (C. ancyrensis is the very earliest for me)
snowdrops, although not real appropriate for a perennial bed
eranthis, ditto
scilla, prolific enough that even if you kill a bunch they will persist in bed
early daffodils (e.g. ice follies), early species tulips (e.g. ancilla or tarda)
Dutch crocuses (the large-flowered ones)
grape hyacinths
mid-season daffodils and tulips
late daffs and tulips

Some good summer bulbs:

Lilies of all sorts, right up to the point where you start getting
disease or bug problems decimating them
Leucojum (may need moister and shadier than you have? but hardy)
Crocosmia (*may* be hardy for you in a mild site with mulch)
Gladiolus, dahlias, Ismene/Hymenocallis, tuberose --> need lifting for winter

Be careful with the prepackaged summer-blooming bulbs sold at Home Depot or whatever - they are quite often moldy or badly dessicated, and usually not a very good buy. Examine carefully insofar as possible, or consider a garden center with better stock.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

None of my garden centres are open, although I saw that Rekkers was open when I was in town yesterday! So perhaps I'll have to stop in there next Saturday. I meant to go to Canada Blooms this year, we always do, and we always pick up bulbs while we're there but it kind of slipped my mind.

You say tulips around the peony? We have an enormous peony out front. Its quite old, and based on photos dates back quite far. The thing has blooms on it the size of my head. We're rehoming some of it this year, too much peony! We already took out almost half of it last year and replanted in various places around the farm.







..Anyone want some gigantic peony? lol

 

[patandchickens]

None of my garden centres are open, although I saw that Rekkers was open when I was in town yesterday!

It's too early to plant most summer bulbs anyhow, so there is really NO hurry at all

Pat