No Idea Where To Start

Some very good advice already given

I'd be inclined to hang fire before taking any drastic action. This will give you time to consider your options with regard to what you want as the finished article (just so you know, a garden is never finished ). It's probably not a good time to start given the current weather anyway.

Cheers...Freddy

 

OK, I may have misunderstood. Have you just arrived in the house? or been there a while and just decide that it is the next project?

If you have just arrived there is a lot of merit in doing as little as possible int he first year. Obviously it needs taming, but the passing of a year would tell you what flowers, and when (including bulbs currently underground and so on). Also where the sun shines and is warm ... where the rain floods and is wet ... where the frost never clears all day long, and thus will be cold for plants.

My advice would be to take photographs often. At least every fortnight, perhaps every week. Photograph from roughly the same place each time - e.g. standing in each of the corners and facing towards the middle. If anything is newly in flower then photograph that too, close up. Store the photos in folders with the date, so then you will know what flowers and when, and you can upload pictures of things in flower for them to be ID'd here.

 

Wow very good advice I think I will be doing a general tidy first - does anyone know how to keep on top of paths that keep getting weeds.

Love the idea of also doing pictures as things develop.

We have been here nearly 3 years now - which is quite embarrassing but I would like it to have a look and feel of a cottage garden if that makes sense.

 

Lots of us "lean" towards Cottagey here Graham,
can't beat it for me...
Jenny

 

Put a membrane down and relay the path on top. If it is a gravel path then make sure the gravel is reasonably deep, too "thin" and weeds will be able to get a hold.

You can spray the weeds with weedkiller - but then you have unsightly dead yellow foliage left behind. You can burn that off with a flame-gun, and then you have unsightly black bits left behind - although fewer than the yellow dead leaves, and they will probably wash away in the next rain.

What you want is not to have weed seed in the first place. If your garden has been unkempt then you will have lots of that, and it will be germinating for years to come - as the says goes "One years seed is seven year's weed". Make sure you chop the heads off all weeds no later than when you seed the first flower forming, and make a New Year's Resolution to get on top of the weeds. It will take several years though until they stop coming up. On bare earth just hoe it once a week ("Never let the weeds see a Sunday"). Keep the edge of the hoe sharp, and the process is effortless and only takes a few minutes; gives you a calorie-burning work out too (although I have no idea if that is a useful benefit for you, or not. It IS necessary for me!!)

You probably have a fair idea where the sun shines, and the frost lingers, where you would want to sit, and if there are any bulbs etc. that you want to keep, and any bushes that you have really enjoyed the flowers / berries. So you could crack on with whatever style you would like to create IMHO, and make allowances for any of those things by just keeping them in mind.

I think too many gardens just run borders, often narrow, around the perimeter of the garden, which I personally think is boring. I think, particularly for cottage garden, a divide across the garden gives you colour from the house, and an area of lawn etc., and then you can create an arch through that dividing border (with roses or a clematis over it) and then the area beyond can be a winding path of some sort, or island beds, or whatever, with flowers to enjoy, but not directly visible from the house.

If that sounds like a large project then perhaps design it so that you can convert the area beyond the "divide" bit-by-bit over the years.

One benefit is that only the bit visible from the house needs to be tidy, "guests" don't need to wander into the bit beyond at times when it isn't presentable Just cut the grass and the borders around it will appear tidy (so long as not overgrown with weeds!)

@ARMANDII garden is rather like that, not sure he is that far away from you, and he's always complaining he has got too many plants. Wangle a visit and then you'll probably come away with both ideas and boxes of his spare plants!

Make a list of the practicalities though, so they aren't overlooked. Washing line? Hard-material path to the compost heap, or back gate, for use in Winter time? And so on.

 

Just a suggestion, and of course we all have different tastes, but when it comes to layout, I try to follow two simple rules in the garden:
1) Try to break the garden up into sections, so that you can't see it all in one go so it seems bigger and more interesting
2) Avoid straight lines as much as possible. Straight lines don't really happen in nature, and also they draw the eye to make everything seem closer.

I wouldn't be embarrassed about having been there 3 years. I've been starting mine for nearly 4 years and I'm nowhere near done. I find that my plans keep changing as I go along, as I find what works and what doesn't in my particular patch, or as a success in one bit inspires something else.

Unless you're the Ground Force team, you can't build a garden in a week (and besides, I have suspicions about what happens to those gardens in the weeks after the cameras leave). Its all about the journey rather than the destination.

 

I agree with C1. Even though I've been gardening all my life, and when we moved here 7 years ago we then started a couple of borders immediately, most of what we have created has evolved, and the ones we are embarking on now we were sure certain that we knew what we wanted last year, although that was different to the year before ... and the year before that! ... and now we are making them they aren't the same as the plan. And we will modify them during the next year or two, as they grow & evolved. After that we'll probably leave them alone though, as major changed once the plants have got a few year's growth on them take time to fix & regrow.

Priorities for new gardens:

Shelter. Hedges and some trees to keep the wind out otherwise the new plants will take longer to establish. If you are exposed around you (rather than in the middle of town) then perhaps plant Eucalyptus for speed and a light canopy tree, and cut it down in 5-10 years time when the garden has grown up. Plant the smallest Eucalyptus that you can buy (or grow them from seed and plant in Year Two) as they do not establish well once they get to a fair size. Don't buy them in the garden centre for that reason (unless they are tiny tiny !)

Drainage. Nightmare to add later, easy enough to do on day one. Consider putting electricity in the same trench as the drains - if you want to have lighting in your garden for nighttime, or to get electricity to, say, a greenhouse or shed at the end of the garden. Electric fan heater is the easiest & probably cheapest form of heating for "just frost free". If you want to heat a greenhouse to, say, 10C then electricity probably not the cheapest fuel.

 

Lovely Posts those @Kristen. Makes me feel like starting all over again. You are a true Gardener my friend,
Jenny

 

I'm green with envy at your success in such a short time @fat controller

 

The way that I see you've been there three years so have a reasonable idea of what is there that you like and what you would like gone now. So that's your starting point.

I agree that if you have the space get rid of the straight lines.

I have to ask (please don't be offended) - what is that watery thing in the bottom left of your photos? Has the ideal spot for a full sun bed.

My final thought is that you should make the effort to seek out less common forms/species of the common cottage garden favourites. The reason that I say this (and it is a personal point of view) is that you want to make your own mark on your garden.
For example; Foxgloves (Digitalis) are a staple of the cottage garden - this is also a Digitalis but (to my eyes at least) far more striking as it is unusual.


Take a look at this set of mine on Flickr. Most of these are hardy, but not all. If you want any info on them lift the photo from Flickr and post it on this thread and I'll answer your questions here.

 

If you would like some ideas for borders, Waitrose website has a gardening section which includes planting plans (Ok, so the plants they recommend they sell, but you don't have to *buy* them there!)

For example:
Budget Border
Cottage Garden Scheme with Grasses
(More can be found "here" )

They also have a section called: "Right Plant Right Place"

When looking at plants you fancy (only to get a bit of a wallet shock when looking at a garden centre offering) consider if you could grow it from seed; try looking at your local Freecycle for similar and don't forget Boot Fairs can often be a good hunting ground for plants too.

 

Thanks for the photos - it looks like it only needs a bit of TLC to make it a delightful garden as there seems to be a good framework of shrubs already.

There are loads of things you could do to change the layout, but the first line of attack is general tidying to help you get to know the plants and feel like you're the one in charge!

I would recommend mowing the lawn (not yet, maybe early March?) and taking an edging tool around it to cut a neat, defined edge where grass and soil have spread into the borders. It is amazing how this smartens everything up. Also, systematically remove overwintered weeds like dandelions, creeping buttercup and wood avens from the borders. They will rapidly bulk up and flower as soon as we get any spring weather. You could start that job any time.

Path weeds are a pain. Getting down on hands and knees and trowelling them out is one option. If you can't face that, you could use weedkiller, very carefully. If you don't mind mess, you could cover the worst areas right now with flattened cardboard boxes or lengths of black plastic, weight them down and leave as long as you can bear the sight of it. This would suppress some of the weed growth. But no use if you're a tidy soul and the path is in full view.

What is that rectangular stone/wood thing in the middle of the lawn? Is it a pond?

There will be the remains of last years dead plants in the borders which can be trimmed away any time from now on. However, if it is a shrubby thing with green under the bark (scratch it with your finger nails to find out) don't cut it off. As others have said, don't start digging as there are sure to be good plants lying dormant under the soil even if their tops seem dead.

Photograph examples of anything you are not sure about and we can help identify and tell you how they should be treated.