Small = tiny space cottage garden

17 years ago

Hi all

Does anyone have any ideas for designing a small 17 x 17.5 ft cottage garden? I started redoing my tiny townhouse backyard last summer - digging up part of the yard and putting a curving path to the step and an oval patio area surrounded with garden spaces. I made up a "lasagna bed" over the old grass area and planted some miniature delphiniums, trolius and cushion spurge one the edge of the path on both sides. I've also planted 4 roses 1 J.P. Connell in a small existing area on one side of the path and 3 [Lambert Closse, Prairie Joy and a mystery rose (possibly a Winnipeg Parks or Quadra) in the Lasagna bed. I would love to create a "cottagey" effect but really don't know how to deal with spacing plants with the roses = which with the current warm +2 celcius weather should emerge from the 4 feet of snow cover. I do have a full southern exposure with lots of summer heat 30-40 C - 80ish farenheit. Any suggestions or words of wisdom?

Fern

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Comments (5)

PattiOH
17 years ago
Hi Fern,
I was going to suggest the small Raymond Evison patio clematis series. They can be grown in pots or in the garden, but are only hardy to zone 4. I don't know if you'd have any way to protect them during the winter. But I'll provide a link just in case.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raymond Evison patio clematis
homenovice
17 years ago
Fern,

Do you have the option of container gardening (i.e., space to store them in winter)? My zone is so different from yours, I hesitate to offer any suggestions. Have you heard of the Renegade Gardener? Don writes about gardening in zones 2 to 4.

Anne
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Everyone, thank you for your excellent suggestions. I think I now have some good ideas on what to do with my front yard. Gonativegal - thanks so much for listing your plants. I need hardy plants in my area as well. Although I;m listed a zone 5b in Canada, I believe my area compares to a US zone 4. Eduardia - nice to hear from you. I've always admired your garden. Just love those roses particularly the one that looks like a pink/peach double cup rose. Are these David Austen types? Threedogsman - love that look. It may just work for that median I was talking about. Although it faces a south east direction, it does have parts that are shaded and so your ideas could work out for that part of it. Some of the ideas I could also use for my backyard fence which has lots of light shaded areas. herblady I still love the idea of the wildflower garden and will use this idea for the main garden. I can imagine the wildflowers peeking through the ornamental grasses I have in that area.
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Cameron and Friend - that's Johnson's blue geranium, tried and true! It's done very well for me - lots of blooms and after flowering, I shear it back and I get some sporadic reblooming through the summer. Lorna, my catmint has been in that spot since 2001. I've never moved it or divided it, I just cut it back in mid-summer. I topdress with manure and I try to do it before most of the plant emerges so it can kind of sink right into the base of the plant. The variety is "Blue Wonder" - it was literally an impulse purchase. Vikki, the grass is Elijah Blue fescue. I used to have ladies mantle in that spot but a few winters ago, it all died. I think it was a very wet winter that year. I'm happier with the grass truthfully - it adds some nice texture. Friend, I would absolutely love some Iris! Did you get my e-mail about the perennial fest this weekend? E-mail me at rbickel@pershing dot com if you're interested. My regular mail currently has almost 1300 unread e-mails, I'm ashamed to admit (too much gardening, too little time) so I'll miss it if it's sent there. kailleanm, that sounds like a great idea regarding my rhodo. Did you have a photo so I can get a better sense of what to do. I have a fairly good idea about perennials at this point, but I am a complete novice when it comes to shrubs. My original thought was just to literally whack it back after it finished blooming so that it was lower than the window, but I think your method will leave a better looking plant. And thanks everyone for your kind words!
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My daughter's fiance bought a house with white rock mulch. After several years of fall leaves and debri being deposited on it it wasn't looking so clean and pristine lol. This spring, when I visited, my daughter begged me to help them plan a nicer looking garden. I did so but could not convince them to remove the big square of landscape timbers that surrounds a tree they planted last year. At least the big square was already there and the tree was planted at the correct depth. They removed all the rocks and replaced them with mulch so it's an improvement. I made several plant suggestions but I haven't been back since to see how it all turned out. I wonder if your neighbors have considered all the gunk that will be deposited in their nice white bed since the downspout is set up to dump directly into it? Yuck. I think a tall trellis fence to divide the properties would be very fitting. If you could then continue down the property line with a white picket fence and continue across the front with it, you would have a really nice backdrop for a cottage style garden. You could then just take out grass along the fence as you needed to until ultimately the space is all filled in with flowers. Should be very pretty. rnbwgrl, I live in Keya Paha county in the north central part of the "Flat" state lol. That's funny, I've never heard it called that before. I will say that having driven I-80 across Iowa many times, that state isn't exactly full of movement. LOL. Our ranch is right on the Keya Paha river and north of the Niobrara river. It's actually big rolling hills here and the hills on each side of the rivers are pine and E. red cedar covered so very woodsey terrain over all. About 75 miles west of here...it's flat again. They call this area outlaw alley because so many of the old gunslingers and outlaws hung out in these hills back in the day. I was born here and then moved to Omaha when I was little where I grew up and spent 27 years of marriage. At the end of my marriage, I came home. Best decision I ever made. I did live in C.B. for a couple years during my marriage. Sort of a misfit of a town IMO. My ex had family in Des Moines so I have been there a few times but it's been many years now since I've visited. MeMo
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it reminds me of a climbing rose not far from my workplace. I like it because the branches are not too foliated and the colours are really appealing. It also reminds me of a david austin rose...
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Eduarda
17 years ago
Fern, can you try to get access to a book called "Truly Tiny Gardens" from Tomasina Tarling? (I think I got the spelling right). It's a neat little book geared specifically at very small gardens and has a lot of useful ideas. I can offer no words of wisdom as far as plants are concerned, since your zone is so different from mine, but I can offer the advice to keep it simple, since the space is so tiny. It also seems like a good candidate to container gardening, including lots of hanging baskets. Sierra, who posts here and also lives in zone 2, has an amazing container garden, so it can be done in your zone.

Eduarda
sierra_z2b
17 years ago
Hi Fern, Have you visited the far north forum lately? We can grow all kinds of plants here in zone 2.

Roses will need lots of air circulation around them, so you can't plant to close to them.....maybe some under plantings of something like thyme or sedums or other short plants. I usually put a few annuals around my roses.

When planting, I try to leave the spacing that each plant says they require.....most perennials will fill in the space in a couple of years and need dividing...so as not to over crowd.

If you have more questions, just ask.

Sierra :-)
fernsk
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the info - I do go to far north forum alot - that is where I got hooked on the "wretched" roses - from the gallery. I was just going to put 1 rose in a perennial bed and then I kept needed more and more with very little space. So... 4 roses later [we will see if they survived] here I am trying to figure out how I can fit in more than just the roses. Annuals may well be my best bet until I can determine what space the roses take up. I do want to include a University of Saskatchewan Lily - for the U of S 100 year anniversary so maybe that will be my only long term addition this year. I will keep reading from all of these wonderful forums and enjoy the pictures that get posted

Fern

Small = tiny space cottage garden

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Small = tiny space cottage garden

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