Creating a cottage style garden?

Hi

we aren't terribly good gardeners, and we don't have a lot of money, but my dream would be to create a v. small cottage type garden out the front of our house. We have a small bit of grass (wouldn't be so brave as to call it a lawn! :P ), which is never used, with a stone path to one side (grass on the other side of path is neighbours) and a bit already dug out under front window where we successfully grow delphiniums, lupins, hollyhocks, aquilegia year after year. I guess my thought was really to extend that kind of planting, by digging out all round the grass so we are left with a smaller square in the middle and heavily planted borders all round. Eventually we would like to put a wooden arch with climbers over it over the stone path (have asked neighbour and she would like that too, so is happy that half of it would be on her side). Been looking at lots of pictures, and bought lots of appropriate seeds (hoping to try and grow most of it ourselves in greenhouse), but I don't know how to go about getting that natural, random, full look that a cottage garden has (ie: tall and ground cover flowers)... and how to combine shrubs with perennials etc so that it has something to look at all year round.. I know it can't be achieved overnight, and I know it will be hard work, and thats all fine, I just need to know how to go about getting the basics of it right which can then be built upon. Would welcome your thoughts, good and bad! Thank You!

 

Thank you! are there any shrubs you would recommend? I have a spare Buddleia and White Lilac lurking about waiting for a final home? Will get some pics and report back.

 

Spring bulbs is a must

 

Some random thoughts:

Photograph the garden every two weeks (from the same spotS each time) so you have a chronological record (e.g. to refer back to in the Winter)

Make notes. I have a list of all the plants in my garden (in "walking order" i.e. the sequence that they are planted in the beds) in a Note-type APP on my phone, and after each one I put a date for when it started & ended flowering each year - so I wind up with:

Some variety 20Jun13-31Jun 01Jun14-15Jun

and so on (I do it this way because it is easy to position the Cursor at the end of the line to add the next "event date", or to position the cursor at the end of a line, press RETURN, and create a new entry - at the right place in the "sequence" - for something newly planted). I also record the height of the plant in its first "good" season (usually year 2 for herbaceous perennials).

I use that data to shuffle things around; the dates tell me what was flowering at the same time as something else, so i can move them near each (or not!), and the height tells me, reliably!, how well they actually do on my soil.

You might think it a bit OCD though?!! Nothing like having enough data to then reach a better conclusion IMHO.

Shrubs are 5-7 years before they are a decent size, so harder to measure-and-move them, and all the more important that they are [researched and] positioned correctly for their eventual height

Have a look at the Seed Swap, in the Autumn, to increase the number of plants you raise, cheaply, from seed. Here's the thread from last year's seed swap:
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/2014-seed-swap-status.54678/#post-735432

Now is a good time to sow Perennials as they will be reasonable sized plants, to over winter, for planting out next Spring. You'll need some facilities for over wintering them though, but for things that are rock-hardy a sheet of some perspex or similar, supported above them which will keep the worst of the wet off them, might be enough. If you are on free draining / sandy soil then planting them, even if small, this Autumn might do (but you'll have to do battle with Slug pellets next Spring, as the plants will not have enough "bulk" to survive if they get attacked - Valentines Day is the milestone to remember as the start of slug control ...). Of course if you have a greenhouse, or cold conservatory, or even a cold frame, then overwintering will be easy for you. Keep in mind that a pot gets cold on all sides, and the top, and may get precious little heat from Mother Earth from below (e.g. if it is stood on a solid patio surface), so the roots will get much colder, in a pot, than if they were planted in the ground.

I would have a look at Chiltern Seeds and Nicky's Nursery for seeds of "somewhat unusual" plants. Other purveyors of fine, and unusual, seeds are available Packets probably average £2.50-£3.00 each, and you'd be unlucky not to get 5 plants from a packet - many packets will have enough seeds to give you far more plants than you need.

If you have a little cash, right now, then Constantine Garden Nursery are having a closing down sale and many of their plants are being discounted to £1.50 each (generally in 2L pots)
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/constantine-garden-nursery-closing-down-sale.67527/

 

Original cottagers would have grown what was cheap, easy to grow and readily available. They would also have been easy to propagate so bits would have been begged from family and friends. I recommend that you also do that - if you are able to start off with a clump donated by someone and split it up into 3 , 5 or 7 little plants and place them in groups you will make the garden look generously filled quite quickly. It would be hard to do this at garden centre prices. Also, you will end up with large clumps of each variety, thereby avoiding a 'bitty' look.

As you acquire more plants you can remove any that are too big to find space for them.

Suitable plants for this process are sedums, shasta daisies, campanulas, asters, lysimachia, stachys byzantinus, hardy geraniums, polygonums, helianthus and many, many more.

However, structural plants such as shrubs and climbers will probably need a bit more thought and planning, best to put them in first, then work round them.

 

Thanks all for your kind suggestions!

I can't find my camera to take a pic at the moment (think darling daughter has nabbed it surreptitiously as she went on trip to London recently and she does not have one but posted lots of pics to FB..hmmm!). Will measure the garden and get back to you on that. It gets direct sun from first thing in the morning til about 2/3pm in the afternoon? is fairly sheltered, although it does get very cold here, so I try and buy things that I know will be hardy. Have included a very basic drawing of garden layout, and what I would like to do. If you can suggest any *bare bones* shrubs, and where you might put them I'd be very greatful! (I can fiddle with the flowery bits, but structure I know nothing about at all).Thank you very much.

 

Found an old pic of the garden, before we planted the cherry in the middle (happy to move that if necessary)