The Cottage Garden

We started our cottage garden back in March but I had been scheming for nearly a year prior to the first sod of earth being dug. Here is the 'before' photo of our front garden. It was low maintenance but fairly uninspiring.

Then Mr Bee slaved away with a shovel and garden fork to produce four enormous bags of turf.

Finally, after nearly three months of digging, fertilizing and planting it is nearly complete.

There are still a few bare patches which will need to be filled in however I think I will wait until next year to see the true size all the perennials will grow to so as not to overcrowd the bed.

The 'Dark Knight' delphiniums are doing very well but I need to invest in some plate supports to strengthen them again the bracing sea breezes. I fear that a good 'fresh force 5' breeze will snap them off at the base.

The scabiosa are clumping nicely. The bark chip mulch may not be a traditional cottage garden accompaniment but its weed suppressing qualities are excellent so I think I can be excused in this case.

We used a little of our home grown compost and it resulted in the arrival of of our own home grown vege. It may be a pumpkin but we will just have to wait and see.

The white foxgloves are fabulous. They too will need some protection from the wind.

I only planted four lupins but now I have seen them blooming I wish I had found space for a few more; perhaps next year.

The first of my 'Deep Secret' roses is about to burst from its bud. They are blood red and have a very strong scent. Ideally I would like to be able to grow enough of them around the garden to be able to pick bunches for the house.

The frog is another of my cast iron pieces I carried home from a Christmas holiday to Tasmania. He has rusted up nicely hopefully lending a bit of country and rustic crediblilty to the garden. Eventually I would like it to take on a wild but slightly controlled look, with plants self seeding and clambering over each other. There is still work to be done here and there but we are definitely on the way to our English/Guernsey chocolate box cottage garden.