Chicken bald back

[Purplemaniacs]

I live in a little village and there are some lovely cottage gardens.

 

I want to try to create one at the front of my house.

 

Any suggestions of plants that you would include.

 

Chrissie

[Olly]

Hollyhocks and foxgloves at the back, for height. Aquilegia which will self-seed and hybridise like mad. Forget-me-nots. Michaelmas daisies, marigolds and nasturtiums. A true cottage garden would have herbs and vegetables in, you could use a couple of perennial herbs for structure e.g. lavender or rosemary? Southernwood (Artemisia) is another favourite of mine. Sage will grow quite large if you let it and there are some lovely silvery and purple varieties. Alchemilla mollis (lady's mantle) is another one that self-seeds and it looks lovely when wet. Theres so much to choose from, it will depend on the size of your border and position and so on. Ask the owner of one of the gardens you admire for advice and I bet you'll come away with some cutting and seeds!

[chickencam]

My front garden is a mix of perennials and annuals, with a couple of shrubs for a bit of structure. We have a large bay tree, a shrub lilac and a small pear tree. Then the perennials are aquilegia, geranium Johnsons Blue, hollyhocks, lupins, foxgloves, anenomes, and hellebores, annuals, I like antirrhinums, calendula, cornflowers. I tend to fill in the gaps over the winter with pots full of pansies then daffodils. It is a bit of jungle at this time of year because I have a huge bleeding heart in the middle that flowers and dies down pretty quickly in the summer.

 

Hardy herbs like sage and rosemary work well so long as you keep them trimmed.

[Valkyrie]

Penstemons and roses all fab together. Saxifrages and some rockery plants look good at the front of the border - like aubretia.

[craftyhunnypie]

Herbs...definitely! In a border I have a large rosemary, chives ( which are pretty in bloom at the min). I also have a French lavender, hollyhocks, dahlias, marigolds, calendula, nasturtiums & stocks. I'd like a camomile too if I can find one to put in I have a mystery plant growing that I think is a weed, but it isn't at all. It's about to flower & when it does it looks lovely & very cottage garden. Yellowy orange tall flowers. Lupins are another cottage garden flower. I had 2 of these last year, so hoping they will appear again this year.

Emma.x

[Valkyrie]

I allowed a weed to grow and I kind of like it - it can spread but easy to pull up where you don't want it. Fig wort. Really interesting little flower and growing quite tall this year at the back of the border. Had some double ragged robin that I picked up at a National Trust shop. That came back again this year - thought I'd lost it a couple of weeks ago but I put compost over the crown and new leaves are peeping through!

[stu]

We have a mix of plants and herbs (most mentioned above)... our rhubarb is in the flowerbeds too, a well as the bay tree.

Don't forget that if you plant a lot of perennials in there, you might be faced with a lot of open space during the cooler months and waiting for them to shoot again.

 

Our gardens are a work in progress, and some things just either don't work or just look wrong... be radical..!! but be prepared to be 'un-radical' too, when this happens.