Before I joined my garden club ordered bulbs in bulk for sharing. I hope we can do it again and also share seeds. We visit local ecological vegetable farms, public gardens and parks with special features, our own gardens and local private gardens of some fame. We organize a country walk in spring to a beauty spot where one of us has made a fire for a barbecue in advance. Last year we had a talk by a remarkable woman farmer who grows several old varieties of grains like spelt and visited her farm in summer to buy flour and taste and buy her bread. We arrange plant fairs on a small scale twice a year and sell our surplus plants and produce. This fall we will have a pelargonium competition. Each contestant starts with a cutting of the same size and the same variety (Wilhelm Langguth) supplied by a member who is a collector. Next week we will visit a local nursery after hours where we get reduced prices when we come as group. The owner gives a short talk about novelties and any plants of distinction. This post was edited by mariannese on Fri, May 16, 14 at 6:09

Last week we had wonderful weather - 70's during the day 60 and even 50's at night. Beautiful. One more day of 90 degree temps the weatherman said and then we too are expecting some rain and returning to fall-like weather. Yesterday it was hot but I decided to prune the branches of the mulberry tree in the orchard. They naturally want to arch and these particular ones were nearly to the ground already, felt like driving through curtains when I was mowing. All this growth this year by the way. It was a volunteer and grew to be a tall tree and should have been cut down but I kept letting it go. Birds love the berries! I used my electric pruning pole saw that can reach 10', I thought my shoulders and neck were going to kill me today but I feel good. Too hot to haul the debris to the brush pile tho. I got ripe tomatoes just not a boatload like usual. I'm cooking and freezing them whenever I get a dozen or so.

Thank you, Annie, for the legend and pretty pic! I cannot grow wallflowers as perennials here altho I often used to cut them for my DM as a child. She had them in a narrow bed along one side of the house between the sidewalk and the house. Possibly they self-seeded as I remember it as a rather wild bed full of flowers different from her other flower beds.

Hello, hope you don't mind an outsider commenting. I have been around this forum for years 10 years actually, but I rarely stop by for some reason. This time of the year I come take a peak at others beautiful gardens or perhaps share some pictures of mine. The "cottage garden style" has always drawn me mainly because I love a very natural, relaxing and colorful style of garden. I love a garden that has beautiful flowers especially old classic plants (roses, foxgloves, hollyhocks, ect), mixed with lots of herbs and fruit trees and fruits and vegetables. Throw some chickens and ducks in and now you have your animal who both provide food as well as bug control and hours of enjoyment. I love winding paths with little places to sit and read a book or just sit and enjoy the birds and watch the bees visiting each flower. You can definitely have that style in a warm sunny location (though tropical would perhaps not be "typical" of that style as many of the plants grown in one are not suited for that climate. Though really it's more a style and I'm sure you could make a tropical version (although when I moved here after living in south Florida for 6 years I vowed to never have one tropical plant in my yard, tropical is just not my thing. Here in my zone 8 hot humid southern garden I grow many of the plants we would associate today with the cottage garden style. Although in bright sun like I have in my garden it is best to use brighter more vibrant colors or hot colors as they are supposed to show up better in bright sun. But I don't and I think it looks beautiful even in a mostly full sun southern garden. My go to colors are pinks dark and light, purples (dark and light), blues (mainly from plumbago), apriocot and lots of whites. The only darker or hot colors I have are tons of old fashion black eyes Susan's which really shine in the hottest part of the summer. Some of my favorites I grow include hydrangeas (I do have a small amount of shade thankfully! lol ) ; antique roses; bee balm; mints (lots of different types of herbs); catmint (nepta); irises; daffodils; purple cone flower; four o'clocks; clematis; foxgloves; plum trees, black berries, other shrubs and smaller trees; larkspur; black eyes Susan's; obedient plant; yarrow and different vines. I keep a small raised garden as well as raise chickens and soon to be pair of ducks. But planting what grows where you live and what makes you happy is key, then just repeat those same plants throughout your garden, add spots to sit and enjoy it and perhaps a small water feature a garden statue a bird house or two and there you go a cottage style garden of your very own. Meghan