Last Weeks Pictures from my Cottage Garden

newyorkrita

14 years ago

Here are some pictures taken around the yard. This batch is from about 2 weeks ago.

Woodsey Area

Shady Corner

View down to the sideyard

Stocktank Pond

Sideyard Rosebed

Kerria in bloom

The view from my back patio

Lilacs blooming

The Azealeas just starting to bloom.

Azealeas in full bloom.

Another Shot

Just a shot of one section of the front yard to show how Cottage Garden it all is. This section has roses, daylilies, lily bulbs and siberian iris all growing here.

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Comments (14)

christinmk z5b eastern WA
14 years ago
Oh, it's beautiful Rita! Such wonderful bold strokes of color in your garden! I wish I could get that much impact in my garden.
My favorite shot is the one looking from your patio. With such a great view I am sure it is hard to pull yourself away! The azaleas are amazing.
Your Kerria is beautiful. Mine is so spindly and has few blooms. I wonder if a higher zone makes the difference?

Thank you so much for the pictures!
CMK
User
14 years ago
Amazing...I see your azaleas and think I am in my yard here in Alabama LOL. I can't believe how well they do up there in LI. Your garden is a dream. c
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This was my first year so people at the wintersowing forum can certainly provide better or more complete advice than I can, especially for cooler zones. I used two liter containers. I cut them in half and used my band saw to cut slits in the bottom for drainage. I used Scott's pro potting mix with a bit more peat moss tossed in for the medium. I soaked it well, scattered my seeds, and cut a slit so that the top half could slide back down over the bottom. As for watering, I only had to worry about that when I planted out. Things germinated for me a lot earlier than some because of a warm spell in early January. We got up into the 70s for a week or two and everything started popping. As soon as they have two sets of leaves, the true ones, I planted out. I watered them well when I set them in the garden and walked away. Because it's still so cold, slugs and pill bugs weren't an issue. And these were all hardy perennials, not annuals. Some things that should bloom the second year are already blooming for me thanks to the warm January. They got their vernalization early and I didn't have to wait another year. If you sow in the early fall, you can do the same in colder climates. The bottles create a little greenhouse and protect the seeds from birds and squirrels. This year, I plan to do things a little differently. I'll sow fewer seeds into smaller containers. At least 3" of soil is necessary though. Trying to divide containers of nicotiana and petunias drove me crazy. I'll just be planting the entire hunk as one plug this time around. I still direct sow some things like reseeding annuals. I still grow tomatoes under lights inside. But for perennials, no muss, no fuss, toss, plunk and run. If you have any questions, the people at the wintersowing forum are great and are more than happy to have newbies join the fun. :) Here's how I prepare my containers. Wintersowing with a bandsaw - Youtube link.
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Very nice, Rita! I love the mixture of plants and the depth of your gardens. Your garden reminded me about our property when we first purchased it years ago. My son wanted to live in a jungle, so to speak, and he wanted me to have plants and trees all around so as not to see the road and other houses around us. Our property fit in with everyone else here back then...chem lawn, few flowers, and every blade of grass facing north, so to speak. Well, give it about 8 years and jungle we now have, lol. I like the idea of not having too much grass to mow, but, more importantly, that my garden is a natural home to many beneficial insects and critters these days. I have a walking path lined with pine needles that wraps around my house in a curvy way, along with numerous gourd birdhouses and other bird shelters. Doesn't it feel like your sanctuary? An interesting note...my next door neighbor put her house up for sale. Her property is the hallmark for perfect grass and nothing else. On a couple of the open houses, a few of the visitors commented about the property line and the "beautiful flowers next door" and "how interesting to have a peaceful country setting" right next door. Well, shouldn't the house for sale be peaceful and beautiful...? One man said that he passes my property quite a bit and every spring he marvels at the garden coming to life. Wow, just when you think you've overdone it a bit because your property is so different from everyone else does a reassurance find its way back home :) Trish
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G'Day! - Such kind words! Thank you! - Credit where credit is due; while the pictures are all of my gardens, my friend Frank took many of the shots. He's the fellow on the bench on sheet #2, row 5. After his weekly barrel racing and horse training lessons, Frank helps me around the farm with electrical work and computer stuff. And takes pictures. Putting these photos up on his server just earned him an extra loaf of home-baked bread! - Sorry these are such a jumble. They are actually the "B" class photos, those i was considering for my garden's website but had to cull. Now, don't y'all be holding your breath, but the BEST 45 pictures aren't up yet. When i get them titled and properly captioned, i'll let y'all know and refer you to my garden's very own website! i know, it's been a log time coming (we started on this project a year ago) but i keep getting distracted and doing more gardening than phtographing - or html practice. - The camera is a Fugi s-3000, so the pictures aren't commercial-grade. Anyone considering such a camera, be aware that it drains batteries FAST. And, every session, when you power it up, you have to re-set the date/day/time; it take about half an hour of prep work before you can actually go out and shoot. - These horses are my favorite from my string of barrel-racing quarter horses. They're retired, just like me. They just worked too hard when they were good to put down just because they are too old to race any more. When i see the vet bills, sometimes i think a flock of pink flamingos might be a wiser set of lawn orniments! But then, where would i get horse apples for the gardens? - i keep horses because when i retired i didn't think the National Zoo would have let me take any of the animals home with me! - Almost all the plants in those pictures are either inherited or from Garden Web trades. (OK, half of the Mixed Daffodills are actually cheapy end-of-season sale bulbs, planted just before the snow fell!) - Happy gardening, -vlad
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newyorkrita
Original Author
14 years ago
There is a story behind Kerria for me. When I was a small child of about 8 my parents bought this house and we moved in here. So I grew up here. There was Kerria, and it was the same double form, growing directly by the fenceline near the back of my garage in the neightbors yard. Eventually some of it either seeded or crept over here too.

Its very distinctive so I never forgot it and every spring it cheerfully bloomed with those lovely pompom flowers. Eventually the land next door got subdived and it got ripped out and I don't know what happened to the one on moms side but it died or was ripped out. But somehow I never forgot that shrub. I wanted one because it reminded me of spring when I was a child. So when I found one at the nursery, I was very happy.

It was small, in a very small pot and its been here must be 4 years this spring. I love it.

About the Azealeas. The ones in the sideyard in the shrub border I planted as I did that entire section of shrubs. Mostly things to attract the backyard songbirds there. Anyway the ones in the hill section that you can see in the patio shot are very old shrubs planted by my dad when I was a kid a very long time ago. They are really very beautiful in bloom.

I have now added lots of other shrubs to that hill but I still call that section of the garden Azealea Hill.
DYH
14 years ago
Beautiful colors and foliage! Very inviting. It must be such a joy to sit in your garden.

Cameron
PattiOH
14 years ago
Rita, your gardens are beautiful and I am TOTALLY in love with your pond!

Patti
newyorkrita
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks. Doing that Stocktank pond inground was one of my better ideas. It really was a very big project, more work than I had initially immagined but I am extra pleased with the results.

Yesterday I saw a frog sitting in the water hyacinths in the floating ring.
girlgroupgirl
14 years ago
Rita, I agree...the color is just fantastic. Can you please tell me what the gold leaf shrub is in photo #1?

Thanks!
GGG
jakkom
14 years ago
Incredible!
newyorkrita
Original Author
14 years ago
That is a Crape Myrtle. It is not really as gold colored as that picture shows, not sure what was going on there with the way the light hit the shrub.
irene_dsc
14 years ago
Beautiful - I always love seeing azaleas, since they don't do well around here. The kerria is beautiful, too!
newyorkrita
Original Author
14 years ago
{{gwi:622890}}

View of the sideyard Rose Bed today which has changed quite a bit from the same view above. Once its in bloom, it will really be interesting.
Deb Chickenmom
14 years ago
Wonderful! Love the background about your Kerria. Memories of special flowers grown by our parents or grandparents are an extra bonus for certain plants. I've never heard of Kerria, but it is lovely. It probably wouldn't take the heat here..??
floral_euphoria
14 years ago
I am also a fan of Kerria - so cheery! Your garden is just delightful.
newyorkrita
Original Author
14 years ago
I honestly don't know if the Kerria would grow way down south or not, sorry. It uses to be a very common shrub when I was a child. Don't think I see too many around in peoples yards any more now though.

Last Weeks Pictures from my Cottage Garden

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christinmk z5b eastern WA

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Last Weeks Pictures from my Cottage Garden

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