Cottage Garden Update: Third Year

Hello readers, welcome to my blog, Panoply. Today I'm going to virtually walk you through my cottage garden, sharing updates I've made since last fall. This is our third spring in this home. Since we moved here in October 2021, my main focus has been in overhauling an overgrown Zone 7a landscape. For comparison purposes, this May 2023 update is a really good place to see my changes up until this point. Then, in this December 2023 update, I recapped work completed last fall.

By mid-April, I was very excited for my Proven Winners (PW) mail order to arrive. This was my first time ordering plants online from PW (no sponsorship), and it won't be my last. I am very pleased!

Many of these were annuals I wanted to put in containers, but there were also perennials. I'll share most details within this post. You may want to get comfortable, lots of photos and information in this post! But before we go there, and just one day before those plants arrived, I had a few garden mishaps.

I was attempting to hand prune my boxwoods, and reached for the tall one to the left of the front door (see leading photo) with my left hand, and cut with my right. Ouch! I cut my left pinky finger. Next thing you know, I had a vasovagal reaction and fainted on the way to MedExpress, but recovered once there. I am prone to do this with medical events on myself (shots, blood drawn, tooth extractions, and now cuts). 

Adding insult to injury the next day, I knew I couldn't plant, so I started weeding. If you're a gardener, you know you just begin, and think, "oh, I'll just take five minutes", and then it's an hour or more later......I got poison ivy on that same hand, and also scratches from who knows what. From that point on, I used disposable gloves over the cut hand, and long garden gloves over top of those. Those disposables were left over from Covid, and I use them a LOT when weeding. In fact, I just bought my second box.

But once the stitches were out (actually before, but don't tell!), I planted my containers with the new PW annuals. I planted two of the coral blends for each side of the patio French doors, and two of the purple blends for either side of the garage door.

Patio containers

I added solar lights to each container shortly after, as seen at dusk in the top photos of the collage below. The bottom photos show how much these annuals have grown since planting. The purple fountain grass will have tall plumes later in summer and into fall.

After the accident, I ended up using a hedge trimmer for the boxwoods. That took several hours, otherwise I'd still be hand-pruning.🙄 There are eighteen total boxwoods, plus one large, round-shaped holly. I am still nurturing a few boxwoods, which you can see in the photo below, that are recovering from the December 2022 arctic blast.

I did replace two of the boxwoods in early April on the northside that just looked the worse for weather wear from December 2022. I planted two more Purple Gem rhododendrons (a hybrid azalea). I planted one in the bed adjacent to this one last year, and together they make a nice trio.

I bought my front annuals from my local Capitol Market because PW did not offer geraniums online, only in retail stores. I found the salmon color I wanted in mid-April and snagged them because I missed that opportunity last year and settled for a more red color.

Some of my spring blooms included five varieties of peonies.

A Jackmanii clematis in its second year (new trellis from Lowes), underplanted with two new PW hellebores.

My irises are thicker than ever, and a couple peach ones passed along to me two years ago finally bloomed this year. Other passalongs are the poppies, the two-tone clematis, the yellow evening primrose, and the love-in-a-mist (nigella). Magnus coneflowers are in their second year. Of five drift roses, I replaced one, but transplanted the one I replaced into another bed. It may or may not last another season. I've mistakenly labeled the drift roses as coral in past posts; they are actually apricot.

I currently have four varieties of hydrangeas, the newest ones being the smaller white ones you see in the collage below. The bottom right is a Bobo from PW, and behind it is another Bobo original to the property, which I have transplanted five times, I believe. A survivor, for sure!

Because my landscape size is small, I am trying to scale most new plantings accordingly, and look for dwarf varieties. When I spotted this newest, smallest dwarf variety - Tiny Quick Fire - early in June, I bought and planted it in a bare space at the front of the house. 

The back walkway of the property has two narrow beds, and the blooms are just now coming in: daisies, bee balm, day lilies (and ditch lilies), and soon I'll have crocosmia on the left side, where the coneflowers and nigella are.

On the northside, I planted two more from PW - bronze star cardinal flowers (lobelia speciosa), not yet blooming on each side of the statue. Other perennials in this include daylilies and coneflowers. The annuals are pentas and purple queen spiderwort.

If you notice, my book reader has his sunglasses on, but joining him to his left this year is the cutest little hummingbird swing I bought! I'm hoping with the lobelia and pentas the hummingbirds will visit this bed. Other garden art is pictured below, the newest being Mrs Powers tuteur. She needs a vine!

I could write an entire post on size and scale of landscape planning, but suffice it to say this garden was waaay overplanted originally. I did keep several plants, but I am learning a few may eventually either need divided, replaced with a smaller varieties of the same plant, or replaced with an entirely different plant.

Two cases in point: 1) St. John's Wort (Hypericum) in the top of the collage below. I thinned out old wood and trimmed heavily this year, but it is so large in the front of the house, I will likely have to trim during summer. I will try to prune to the ground next year in late winter. 2) Lilac. I pruned this plant with a heavy hand and it is out of bounds. I've got my eye on a Baby Kim Lilac.

Weigela is another plant, which I love, and mine (Wine and Roses) bloomed for the first time this year since we moved in (original to property, but pruned to the ground November 2021 and transplanted twice).

Turns out it's planted a little too close to two of my transplanted baptisia, so it may eventually either need transplanted or replaced with a dwarf variety such as Snippet Dark Pink.

Here's another example of size and scale in the photo below. The circled 'sticks' you see are my callicarpa (Early Amethyst beautyberry). I pruned it to just six inches in February, and it's already huge. It just may not be the right choice for my cottage garden. This entire southside bed is still a work in progress. I have ideas but likely won't act on any plan until next year.

I love all the plants I have kept from the original landscape, it's just a matter of size and scale (and visual appeal, of course). Even with plants that are marketed as dwarf, you need to pay attention to the max size and plan on it growing to at least that. The other three larger plants you see in the collage above are dwarf butterfly bushes (Pugster Blue), said to grow to only 2' tall and wide. They will surpass that.

One last thing before I close on my cottage garden update. My friends know me as a highly organized person. For the garden, I journal everything from rainfall to grass cuttings to plantings and transplantings. Here's something I did just recently to organize plant tags. On a separate carabiner clip for each year of planting, I have a ring for annual tags and a separate one for perennial tags, with dates planted. It's an extremely handy reference tool!

I think I'm finished planting for the 2024 season (after just receiving and putting four more small plants in the ground on the 12th). However, I've already got my eyes set on a couple plants that are sold out until next spring. Current plants have had time to settle in and flesh out with nice spring weather. Looking at the photo below, just to the left of the house, to the right of the round shrub (holly) is one area I have plans for. In the words of Taylor Swift, "I've got a blank space baby, and I'll write your name."😉

PS - remember all the work and time I spent digging out lily-of-the valley last year from the bed above? I only found two stray rhizomes this year! I dug those bad boys out immediately and stuck them in a pot where they can't get out!

Below, summer garden views in evening. Here's hoping the hot spell this week (high in mid 90's, no rain expected before Sunday) doesn't fry my newest plantings. The water bill will be high, no doubt.

Thanks so much for your visit today. I'd love to hear your comments and feedback. If you do leave a comment, please let me know who you are if your name shows as anonymous. I try to answer my comments, and hope I can reach you by email. Otherwise, I will reply on this post.

Gardener in Training!

Happy gardening!

🌞💮🌻🌿Rita C. at Panoply🌿🌻💮🌞

A special thanks to Suzanne from Pieced Pastimes Saturday Link Party #623 , to Julie from My Wee Abode Tuesday Turn About #258 , and to Beverly from Eclectic Red Barn's Thursday Favorite Things for featuring this post!

Parties I Share With: Pieced Pastimes, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, My Wee Abode, French Ethereal SYS,  Eclectic Red Barn TFT, My Thrift Store Addiction, Our Hopeful Home, Karins Kottage, County Road 407 Farmhouse Friday