My Cottage Garden Survived the Three Weeks Away

I hadn't planned on being away for three weeks, because I didn't think Bruce would be in the hospital in Toronto that long, so I hadn't made provisions for my cottage garden.  But God sent the rain, and the weeds almost couldn't compete with my vigorous annuals and perennials. Other than some dead heading and a bit of weed control, I really am not that far behind on my postage stamp, trailer, cottage garden.

I like a garden bed that will withstand some neglect.  Here is how I start my beds: Flower Beds  and for some ideas check Flower Beds and Borders

If you need help with planning read A guide to Planning Garden Beds

Garden Views

Rocks are such a wonderful addition to patios in cottage gardens, 

whether they are flat patio stones or natural rock groupings.

Perennials Up From Their Winter Graves

The perennials seemed dead a month or so ago, but gradually life springs forth. The miracle of resurrection displayed every spring in my garden never fails to excite me.  The earth cradled life through the long hard winter, protecting it.

And now we see the evidence that it was never really dead, only resting.

Here are a few shoots you may be seeing now if your garden is in a cold zone.

Bleeding hearts are popping up in my garden dressed in fringes of red.

Autumn Crocuses have a lovely leafy show in spring and then the flowers pop up in fall.

 Here is one you will probably recognize.



I'm always happy to see that my delphiniums are back.

But this one has me stumped.  It's four or five feet tall, it smells marvelous like a heliotrope, and I was told that it was one,

but I can't find any pictures of heliotropes with leaves like these.


The garden is so full of promise right now, and I am out there daily, even on the odd days when the snow comes back to annoy us.

I worry over every spring flower that has to fight for its life, during the late snows, but I rejoice with every new shoot that pops up through the cold ground.

It's great that resurrection day happened in spring.  We are constantly seeing reminders of its reality as we wander through our gardens.

Are my dreams bigger than my stamina?

As we moved from place to place my cottage gardens got bigger and bigger until they were almost more than I could handle.  The garden in Paisley was lovely, (The people who bought the house said it added $10,000.00 to the value of the house) but keeping up with it was a full time job.

The next place had a smaller lot and I loved working the cottage garden I created there, but then we got called to teach at a  Reservation up north for part of the time and I started to wonder if I shouldn't cut back some more.

When we finished on the reserve we bought a mobile home on a tiny lot and I immediately got rid of all the grass to satisfy my garden craving.

But it wasn't quite enough, so I got a 10 x 30 ft garden plot across the street, and helped a daughter with another.

This year spring fever hit me hard.  I offered to help one of my daughters revamp a small garden bed, another daughter is going to let me work in her big back yard adding some of my own plants and making the beds bigger, and the twelve year old across the lane wants me to help her start a garden in front of her trailer.

I may be as busy this year as when I had the big garden in Paisley.

Planning Changes in the Garden

February is my favorite garden planning season.  I go through my photos and check the different seasons for gaps in the floral display.  What will bloom during that specific time that will enhance the whole feel of the cottage garden?

Is there a wee bit of available ground where I could add a new perennial?

The pot of flowers looked good on the garden hose box; I'll have to do that again but planted with something pink this time.

I wonder why the delphiniums were so pale compared to these old fashioned ones I had at the last place.  Can I find some of those deeper blue delphs this year?  Putting the two together would be sharp.

It looks like the delphiniums bloom at the same time as the pink rambling rose I used to have (in the background).  My daughter kept a slip of that and now has some new plants from it.  I could take one if I could just find a spot for it, but I would have to be careful not to let it get out of hand; those thorns are treacherous.

It might work on the other side by the front walk.  There were quite a few annuals there and even some onions on the other side of the path.  I did plant some roses along there so the rambler might fit in quite well as long as I could keep it from reaching out and grabbing someone on their way to the front door.

The other thing I need to do is to decide if some of the perennials need to be moved in spring. 

Were some of the colchicum (autumn crocuses) too crowded to peek out from the thick vegetation?

All these are fun questions to think about and work with when the bitter winds are blowing outside, and the garden is covered with all that white stuff.



March is only a week away though, and that means spring is just around the corner.  The dreaming, planning time will not last for long.  So get out the pictures, or flip through mine and enjoy yourself.