Hi Emmie, welcome to the Cottage. You will need to change the settings on your Photobucket account to public. The link asks for a password.

MeMo

Is hubby allergic to bees? If not, you gotta tell him to get over the bee fear. I can see the fear if there are allergies, but I have had a garden here for 5 years, and bees galore (well, not many this year). They get to know the gardeners and property owners and have no fear themselves, they don't bite me, they buzz around, sometimes sit on my hat our shoulders and are generally very friendly and thankful for their flower buffet.
There are many simple ways to garden on a budget.
a) Learn to winter sow and love annuals. You have a great winter sowing climate
b) start making compost and leaf mold NOW, that will save you money ammending your sandy soil in the future.
c) see if GW has a local forum for your area and see if they swap plants. If not, suggest they do. If you don't have plants to swap, offer to have it at your place in return for a few plants. It is fun and really easy to host.
b) see if you have community gardens or community plant swaps. Does your community have a internet forum like ours has? We have a gardening discussion there and a lot of people ask for plants for their yards. Both freecycle and the craigs list will often have plants to give away in your area too.

Spend your money where it is needed the most at the beginning. That is on amendments for the garden. I would suggest that you lagasana garden. It cuts down on weeds, saves your back, and you can build garden areas slowly as you get the plants. If you have rocks or old concrete on the property (or you can get broken concrete again, craigs list or freecycle) - use that to make edgings. Then fill your beds with layers of compost, manure (are there farms outside of the city you can get free or low cost manure? Does the city or county provide free or low cost compost?), leaves, straw (only on the bottom so the seeds don't germinate!!), cardboard, shreddings from your shredder, newspapers and your own native soil. Now you have a juicy, delicious garden all ready for your plants!!
I mulch like a fiend for a few years to suppress weeds (this was rather wild woodland until this spring) - so things can not really re-seed here but I plant annuals from winter sowing to give the perennials a "cottage" look.

Here is my broken concrete edging and lagsana bed. DH or I use the sledge hammer to break it up, then I slowly carry several pieces in the wheel barrow to save my back.

{{gwi:669630}}

Here's what I will work on today. It took us less than 2 hrs. to break up and tote this amount (there is another pile at the back, behind the front pile). Not bad for free!

{{gwi:669631}}

MeMo: Thank you! I've been struggling with photobucket for a while now. The password is: threekittys The yard and garden photos are the ones I had tried to link originally. Feel free to poke around if you like :-)

Girlgroupgirl: I have actually started my first lasagna bed, and I am having a blast so far! I'm going to start another one along the post and rail fence to get it ready for next year. The concrete is a great idea, I hadn't thought of that! I've just started using Freecycle in my area, and have found a few sources for composted manure, leaves, etc. I will also look into winter sowing.

And no, DH isn't allergic to bees, he just freaks out. This is as much a process for him as it is for me!

Thanks very much! Anyone else who would like to chime in, please feel free to do so! Again, sorry for the confusion, the password for Photobucket is threekittys. I'll try to get it all set as public.

Emmie

Well darn, you'll have to reset your account to public, Emmie. I tried to log in with your password but since the site already remembers me it only lets me into my own account.

GGG has given you much great advice. She is a wonderful gardener! You can learn about Winter Sowing on the WS forum here at Garden Web.

MeMo

Aw sheesh! Photobucket is more complex than I thought ;-)

My album is now set to public.
Username: Emmie9999
password: threekittys (in case it still wants a password for some odd reason!)

The link is below. In case it still doesn't link to the subalbum (which it hasn't been doing properly), look at yard and garden. Roses and lilacs also have some pictures of sections of the yard. And of course, there are kitty pictures!

I'm off to look at winter sowing, thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Emmie's album

MeMo gave a great tutorial on this, so I took advantage. Thanks so much, MeMo!

The thread is Emmie's Blank Canvas in the galleries. Here is a link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Emmie's Blank Canvas

You are very welcome, Emmie. I saw your pictures. You have a very large yard to work with. Keep hanging around here and WSing and you'll have it packed with flowers in no time ;)

Since you feel inexperienced I would start out slow. You have a great place for your roses and a nice backdrop from the neighbors properties (those forsythia are TDF). I would start adding perennials to the rose bed in colors that will look nice next to the roses. Then underplant the roses with shorter annuals and ground covers. Just keep adding until the bed looks full and lush to you. Maybe add some taller things like lupies or hollyhocks to get some vertical height in there. Then work around the back side next to the yard to extend that bed to both sides of the fence...hey more room for more roses ;)

Herbs and cutting flowers would be lovely in your new lasagna bed. Just be careful to put the invasive one's in pots along the paving there. The paving will be a nice place for some patio chairs and maybe a table at some point. If you do that...I would add flowers to the strip of grass along the fence behind the paving next. So much room...so many things you could do! Winter Sowing will pay off big time for you. Read read read! You're going to have a wonderful garden in a few years. Have fun.

MeMo
PS...thanks for having the patience with the pictures. I enjoyed seeing them.

Good Lord, what a blank slate. Nothing but real grass and no weeds or junk. You have no idea how lucky you are! You can just dig out the sod or lasagana garden. Ohh, la la! You really don't even need edging!!

Do you need some seeds to get you started now? Just let me know, I have plenty of annual seeds that germinate well in warm weather!

GGG

Hi Emmie - try not to look at it so much as work, but as opportunity. You have fantastic space. Let your imagination run wild. Perhaps drawing up a scale plan of the property would help you visualize the potential for the incredible beds you could have. There's no question but that split rail fence is crying for roses. That area might be the perfect place to start. It already has some definition by virtue of the fence. Lasagna gardening as mentioned above is supposed to be an excellent way to start. Or, you could just rent a rototiller for the day, get some good composted manure and rip into that sweet earth. You're going to have all sorts of fun with this gem of a space!

Gardening just gets my pulse racing! Glad you are sharing the process with us.

Steven

You definitely have a large yard -- and many possibilities.

I wouldn't be quick to get rid of a maple. It will provide shade, protection, interest... a place for birds, and input for your compost. :)

I was wondering if the slab was left from a previous garage or something, but you say it was a BBQ pit area? And the lasagna area was previously an unsuccessful veggie garden after 7 years of amending it? maybe something is leaching off that slab that's causing the problem with the veggies!

Would it be feasible to set up the slab as an area to contain lots of potted herbs, some chairs, etc. Make it into a little sitting area -- then you won't need to weed the potted plants. :)

Hi Emmie and welcome to the Cottage! Good to "see" you over here from Kitchens. : ) Caroline and Cameron are here too. We all need and deserve a break from the remodeling stuff, especially now that the weather has warmed up.

I took a quick peek at your pics and agree - you have lots of potential for a fabulous cottage garden. As Steven said, try not to view it as work ( I know, easier said than done ) but rather break your areas down into more manageable spaces and pick one to begin prepping and planting.

GGG already mentioned the prep work but I can't emphasis this enough. It's so tempting to start planting those lovely bloomers but you'll be much happier in the coming years if you amend your beds first. You could concentrate on that this year and maybe just plant the "bones of your garden - shrubs, roses, trees, etc. - in them, filling in with annuals for now until you determine what else you'd like to grow.

I like your BBQ pit area. Does it get any shade? You could grow your herbs in pots and use that area for their home. Maybe add a bench for relaxing or a small bistro set. If you had large containers on the four corners you could grow something taller in them, which would lend a sense of enclosure to the space. Personally, I'd probably put a pergola or gazebo there and surround the outside with mini roses and seasonal annuals. : )

I'll be back later to check on your plans. It's heating up here so I'll be out in the gardens for a bit. One more suggestion - you might want to describe your pics in your PB album ( there is an edit link for each pic ). It makes it much easier to understand what area we are viewing when looking at them. Also, you might want to change your password. You don't want to give that out as anyone can change/move your pics if they are evil enough. ; )

Have fun planning, prepping and planting!
Diana

I had a blank slate, too, last year, and it drove me crazy! This year, though, I have to say I am so pleased with the progress of all my plants.

What I would advise is to definitely concentrate on the "bones" as angelcub suggested. Plant trees as soon as you know where you want them. The same goes for shrubs. And definitely give everything way more room than you think they need. I am having to move TONS of things that I planted last year (we were hosting an event in our yard and so packed everything in to make it look good for that moment... but we're paying for it now).

They wouldn't be zone appropriate, but Sunset Magazine gardening books are full of wonderful ideas for remaking gardens. If you can get them out of the library, great!

Good luck, and post lots of pictures.

Wow, you folks are wonderful! Thanks for all the responses and encouragement.

Diana is right, I need to label my photos. (And thanks, Diana, now that I have things in the gallery, I will go back and put a supersecret spy code on the PB albums! Nice to "see" you too!)In the L along the post and rail fence, I already have roses planted, and a few lilies which are starting to peek through the ground. I'll get more detailed pictures this weekend, but I have "hot" colors along the short end of the L (bright purple, yellow, red, orange), then white after that, and pinks in the last section. There are five roses there now, with 6 more going in this spring. I do know I need to do some underplanting with things, and add some height as suggested by MeMo. In fact, MeMo, I do have my eye on a teteur for one white rose by the fence, since it just might not ramble along the posts as I had hoped.

The slab is actually one of two in the yard. The larger, which is a real patio, is next to the garage. The one next to the lasagna bed was intended as a parking slab for the PO's DH's construction truck. (Say THAT 5 times fast!) Party Music, you are right, the soil there is probably affected by the slab. The two slabs are connected by a concrete path. The PO's DH worked in concrete. They got a lot for free.

The grass to the right of the slab in the photo was where the PO had a melon patch and BBQ pit. My DH has spent a lot of time and effort getting grass to grow there, and it is starting to pay off. I've never thought of turning that paved area right off of it into a sitting area. That could be really lovely.

GGG, thanks for the offer! Please send me an email, I would love to take you up on your offer!

Steven and Xantippe, thank you so much for the encouragement! My neighbor (who has the gorgeous forsythia) has a Mantis, and she is a wonderful gardener. I find it so difficult to get started. I see dozens of things in catalogs, but have no concept of placement and no place to put them. I am going to give some long and hard thought to the "bones" and take it one section at a time. And I'm gonna start on some lasagna beds going for next spring!

Thanks again to all of you for your encouragement and suggestions! Keep 'em coming, and I will get more pictures up.

Take care,
Emmie

Hi Emmie,

Welcome to Cottage, you've already got some good suggestions. Steven is right let your imagination run wild. Think of all your favorite plants and then try to visualize where you would like them planted. Doing it one section at a time IMO is the right way to go, making a garden is an ongoing process. Get the bones in first, it's much easier to plan your garden around them.

A......

What great space. You have so many possibilities. A few things that I have found useful:

Design new garden beds by using your garden hose to outline them. It's easy to do and allows you to change things over a few days as you think about your yard. After you get the beds in the place you want, go ahead and do the initial lasagna layering..then move the hose off to the next bed.

Add shrubs and small trees to give your garden height and structure. I learned the hard way and had to go back and add shrubs--especially ones with winter interest to my cottage garden beds. Flower beds with nothing but perennials or annuals tend to look like nothing in my long Indiana winters.

Take a walk through your neighborhood and ask people for starts of some of the plants that you admire. Tell them how much you love their garden and that you are just starting. Most gardeners love to share their knowledge and often their plants.

Use the pictures you took and draw in flower beds, bushes, trees, lawn furniture etc. I make several black & white copies and use a bright marker to just start getting ideas.

Good luck and most of all have fun!

Thanks, eks and A! I appreciate the encouragement.

I have long winters in Massachusetts also, and I do need to look at what will add some interest. The whole yard looks a little blah during the winter. Drawing with markers is a great idea!

I think I hear the call of hollyhocks and delphiniums....and I wish I could find a spot for a honeysuckle vine! Now my DH is getting into this, wondering what we can put along the foundation under the kitchen window. What fun!