newbie intro

15 years ago

I've been lurking around here and love this forum! Not sure if I qualify as having a cottage style garden. I always think of cottage style as a small area packed full of beautiful flowers. I have a large area to work with so I might be considered a country style garden.

I moved from the DFW area about 2 years ago to our lake property and lived out of our little lake cabin while our new home was being built. Our home was completed in winter of 07. I began the task of landscaping that first spring and have loved every minute of it! I still have that newly landscaped look but things are finally starting to mature a little and not look so new and bare. I know it will continue to improve with time. The soil here is sandy and I'm able to grow more here than I was able to in my hard black clay soil in the Dallas area. I did manage to bring some of my plants with me when we moved but have purchased so many things I finally decided to try and compile a list of what I have. I'm still working on it!

Right now I'm trying to plan a new iris bed and have about 30 varieties ordered. Ive also started working on my list of what I want to add next year and the list keeps growing...Lupines, Delphiniums, Hollyhocks....

here's a partial list of what I have purchased so far.(everytime I look at the list I realize I've left things off)

Daylilies

Final Touch

Rose Passion

Red Rum

Stella DÂOro

Unidentified Orange

Unidentified Purple

Cannas

City of Portland

Tropical White

Unknown White

Unknown Red

Unknown Yellow with Red Speckles

Tall Bearded Irises

Aegean Wind

Arms Wide Open

Arrangers Choice

Augustine Aura Lights

Autumn Circus

Blue Anew

Blue Skirt Waltz

Braggadocio

Broken Pattern

Champagne Waltz

Champagne Wishes

City Lights

Classic Look

Coming up Roses

Change of Pace

Crowned Heads

Duncan's Smiling Eyes

Dynamite

Edith Wolford

Full Tide

In the Clouds

Jesse's Song

Jurassic Park

KeizerÂs Heritage

Lady Friend

Live Music

Queens Circle

Romantic Evening

Sea Swells

Shear Ecstasy

Silverado

Sky and Sun

Son of Dreams

Stairway to Heaven

Triple Crown

Urgent

Wintry Sky

Several dozen unidentified varieties including historicals

Hydrangeas

Endless Summer (The Original)

Forever & Ever Red Hydrangea

Forever & Ever Peppermint Hydrangea

Roses

Red Knock Out

Double Red Knock Out

Lady Banks (yellow)

Salmon Sunblaze Miniature Rose Rosa 'Meishulo'

Misc. Shade

Ajuga (Chocolate Chip & Bronze Beauty)

Amaryllis (red)

Angel Wing Begonia

Astilbe (2 varieties)

Begonia

Bleeding Heart

Caladiums

Creeping Fig

Creeping Jenny

Coleus Cyclamen

Elephant Ears

Ferns ( several varieties)

Hostas (Minuteman, Golden Tiara, Frances Williams and several unidentified varieties)

Heuchera (Bressingham and Palace Purple)

JosephÂs Coat

Lamiastrum (Archangel) - Galeobdolon Variegatum

Liriope

Violets

Vines

Clematis (2 varieties)

Honeysuckle (red, yellow and white varieties)

Mandevilla (Alice Dupont)

Morning Glory

Misc. Sun Beds

Asters (several varieties)

Balloon Flower

Blanket Flower

Black-eyed Susan

Columbine

Coneflowers (purple and white)

Coreopsis (several varieties)

Dwarf Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)

Foxglove

Geranium

Golden Dewdrop Duranta (Cuban Gold)

Gomphrena

Guara

Lantana

Mexican Heather

Phlox

Penstemon (Huskers Red)

Pentas

Peony (Sorbet)

Pontentilla (Miss Wilmont)

Red Skullcap

Ruellia

Salvias (several varieties)

Shasta Daisy (Becky and Snowcap)

Sedums (several varieties)

Society garlic

Verbena

Veronica - Royal Candles Speedwell

White Bacopa

Shrubs

Azaleas (Pink Pearl, Coral Bells, Sir Roberts & Hallie)

Cape Plumbago Jazmin Azul

Green Beauty Boxwood

Wintergreen Boxwood

Euonymus (Emerald Gaiety)

Flowering Quince

Gardenias

HellerÂs Japanese Holly

Compacta Holly

Snow White Indian Hawthorn

Hawthorn Pink Lady

Nadina ( Firepower Heavenly Bambo)

Spirea (Goldmound)

Weigela (Dark Horse)

Yew

Veggie Garden

Concord Grapes

Bell Pepper

Cabbage

Cucumber

Eggplant

Green Beans

Jalapenos

Onion

Pumpkins (jack-o-lantern and minis)

Radishes

Sun

Strawberries

Tomatoes

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

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Comments (14)

Bamateacha
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh my! What a list of beautiful plants! Don't you just love the color of the Red Rum daylily? I surely do.

I suppose I don't fit the definition of a cottage garden either. We're gardening on 4 acres and we're spread out. I have a woodland/shade garden in the back and a few sunny gardens in the front and side. Within those sunny gardens, I do pack them full of all the beautiful plants I can find.

The people on this forum are open, accepting, infromative, helpful, and encouraging. That's why I like coming here to post! Welcome and we'd love to see a few garden pictures. :)
keesha2006
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome fellow gardener. I too don't have a "real" cottage garden. My garden while small has touches of cottage. It is mostly MY kind of garden..a little messy, a little tailored..a bit happhazzard and yet a bit orderly....it is my version on cottage style. That is what is so nice I think about cottage. It can be what YOU want it to be rather than what a book or expert tells you it must be. I think your garden is perfect for this forum also. Share pics often, nothing better than pretty garden pics! Again, warm welcomes!
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Thank you for the welcome Dawn! I'm a okie by birth but was raised in the DFW area. We've had this little cabin at Lake Texoma (Enos area) for about 20 years. My folks live here and my mom's health isn't good so we decided to sell our house in the Metroplex and move up here full time. I wanted to be able to help her some and just spend more time with them. I lived out of the cabin for about 6 months while the new house was being built. I had a beautiful yard in Irving and really hated to leave it behind. The weather is very similar (with the exception of all the rain this year) but one thing I'm getting use to is the different soil type! I had that hard black gumbo and was limited in what did well in Texas. Here, I have the sand! It too has it's challenges but is good for the most part(until it dries out to powder!). Look forward to getting advice from you seasoned okie gardeners!
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Welcome to the forum JLN123! I usually stay quiet on here, because most of the posts are regarding smaller indoor systems with which I have no experience. Outdoor, open-bottom bins and horse manure are right up my alley! Let me first say that I live in a cool damp (normally) climate. This makes it easy to grow my herd. You will face challenges I did not. Starting with a few pounds of bed-run red wigglers given to me 41/2 years ago,, my hobby took off when I began using some well aged horse manure. At first I slowly added it to my 3'x5' open bottom bin. At the same time I built 4 hot compost piles using lots of sb ucg, straw, and horse manure. As the piles cooled, the worms appeared. By the time I had been worming for one year the worm population was probably close to 40 lbs.. Soon after, my wife decided to renew her childhood hobby and bought a huge gelding, I had to ramp-up. I cleared an area and built a small paddock and shelter . I then selected a site away from the house, near the paddock under a stand of conifer for my new BIG wormery. It would get mostly winter sun and summer shade, along with the added benefit of being gopher free due to the dense root mass Next. I used some moldy free hay bales and formed a rectangle 3 bales long and 1 bale wide. I added about 1" of damp manure. I dumped in some worms and castings full of cocoons.. I covered this pile with more loose, damp hay and some old scrap carpeting. We acquired another horse and I had manure piled high near the new wormery, with lots of flies. So I just pitched the whole pile on top and let it overflow 1 side. I diverted a 12'x17' carpet from the landfill and covered the whole thing. Carpet is an excellent worm bin cover. It breathes, lets rain in, keeps the bed dark and moist, keeps the MANY worm predators out, and is heavy enough not to blow away. I began adding FRESH manure cleaned up every morning from the paddock. This had no bedding and was added directly on the pile in different spots by the wheelbarrow load. Just pull back a different corner of the carpet and dump. The manure was added before it dried out, so no water was needed. Horse manure is difficult to re-hydrate.The carpet stopped the flies from hatching!! After about 1 year, I had worms galore! I had 6 different wormeries and probably 300 lbs of worms. I was able to keep up with the horses output with no smell or flies.ItI took about 10 days to turn horse manure into black bedrun full of worms. Sad ending to the story. Last spring we sold the horses .My worms were starving so I sold a few truckloads of bed-run and the systems have declined significantly.... But I am left with many cubic yards of worm castings! That's my long story... Hope it helps. You may want to check out sierrawormsolutions They have lots of great free info on outdoor bins and systems. Good luck and happy new year! Pete
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Hi Melissa - ah...Los Gatos......probably the only other city in the area that is as contentious about building as Los Altos...in fact, LG might have overtaken LA...... (Your comment about neighbors suing neighbors reminds me of this short sidebar....this probably really belongs in the "House Disasters" forum...) The architect we hired was a referral from a neighbor, whose house we *love* - in fact, it's the only house in the neighborhood we admire (rancher neighborhood, 50+ years old, many/most have been remodeled, many very badly. A few have been rebuilt, and DON'T ASK ME WHY but people and the city are seeing fit to build mediterranean-style homes that look like they belong in Miami/South Beach...whatever.... Anyhow, this neighbor built a lovely Craftsman that's elegant and well thought out). Turns out, neighbor acted as GC (with no prior experience), loved it, and decided to do it again on a larger lot in the LG hills. Hired said architect with the intention of building and moving in to this home and selling the Los Altos home. Well, the LG neighbors put up SUCH a stink about everything - basement (?!? why do you care if I have a basement that doesn't impact your home or foundation?), sight lines (the home they tore down was a tiny, old house so the neighbors, who all live in LARGE houses, were spoiled by the sight lines the old house afforded), overall size (ironically, smaller than the neighbors who were complaining), etc. So much so, and planning commission meetings were apparently so contentious that my neighbors decided to nix the basement, build a spec house, and stay in Los Altos. So sad! (Though I quite like them as neighbors, so I personally am happy they're here. Just sad for them.) Radiant heat business?!? As in, for homes? We were just discussing radiant heating this past weekend.....quick question - do people put radiant heat under showers? We are planning (in our heads - we're a year away from building) a "wet room" - soaking tub and shower(s) in the same tiled space, and one of the negative I've read about is that it takes more effort to get the shower space warm - we thought a warm floor would help.... what has been your experience? Look forward to chatting with you more about where you're at! Jenny - I don't know the specific modern house you mentioned, but DH and I took a drive down Oakhurst after dinner last night to check it out - there are a small handful of newish-looking houses there - we were just there a couple weeks ago, actually, looking at the 18000 sq ft lot with the 900 sq ft Tahoe-cottage looking home on it (on Rosemont or something?). Looks like it sold! Raising land value.....hooray..... Have a great Wednesday, everyone! Oh - house update, to keep things sort of on topic: survey man apparently communicated with soils guy yesterday, so apparently, he's actually going to deliver his survey map - hooray! Jenny - yes, we like our soils guy quite a bit - efficient, communicative, etc. - we haven't seen the report yet (waiting for survey man), but our architect liked him and we do, too! Email me offline for his contact info, if you'd like....
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contrary_grow
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow - sounds like quite an undertaking. You've got a really nice selection of plants. I'd love to see what you've done so far. I'm a newbie, too, so it helps to see what others are doing.

Mary
moongardengirl
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love your list, you should keep is updated if you can. I am not sure I am a true cottage gardener either, because I mark stuff and it started out in a straight line. Ha ha. But I am having fun. I am a newbie too.
ncgardner
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Again WELCOME to this Forumn. I'm always amazed at what I can learn from other people on the website. When I moved here from MD, I brought 600 plants and only wish I had written all of the names down. Since, of course, I have added many, many more. I have a sickness relating to this subject. "Plantoholic". I can't pass a "plant place" be it a nursery, Lowes, HD, or especially the Farmers Market without buying a plant. (one if I'm lucky, usually 4-6)
Love your list. Are you close to Raleigh??
FlowerLady6
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome to this forum. It is a wonderful place where lots of us have been gathering for years. There are always pictures to enjoy, information and tips to be shared and learned. Lots of inspiration. I don't have a typical cottage garden either mine is tropical/cottage.

Your list is wonderful and I'm sure will give you much pleasure in your new home.

Do come back often and please post some pictures.

FlowerLady
lorna-organic
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hello, Bluestarmom, I am happy to make your acquaintance. We all share a love of plants and cultivation. According to your list I am going to dub you an IRIS person. :-) You must have a very large space to fill, if that long list of plants isn't filling it up!

Lorna
angelcub
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome to the Cottage! : ) I must say that is quite an impressive list of plants. I'll be looking forward to your pics!

And I wouldn't worry about your gardens being "officially" cottage. We love all gardens here and there's always someone to help regardless of what you're trying to grow, whether it be trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, or cactus. : )

I always like to quote dear Mr. Edison when it comes to cottage gardening: "Hell, there are no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something."

Diana
PRO
Nell Jean
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Quite a list of great plants you have. Pink Pearl is one of my fav azaleas.

Congratulations on being a military Mom, too.

We look forward to seeing photos of your gardens.

Nell
bluestarmom
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks everyone, I thought I had responded to the warm welcome but don't see my post...so if you see it in the midst of another thread... Guess that's what happens while I was playing catch up and doing searches. No telling where I posted it!
I'll try to take some current pictures and pull up some old ones soon. It's a constant work in progress and I change things around when I see they aren't doing well in one spot or would look better in another. Due to plant cost I usually start with the smaller plants so that I can buy more varieties! My landscaping is fairly new, but I can tell things are finally starting to grow!
I know the feeling about plant shopping! I know I'm a plantaholic! It usually starts out with me just "looking" and then next thing I know I'm hauling out some plants.
Thanks Nell, I've been a military mom for about 12 years. I've got 2 of my boys deployed right now.
gldno1
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome to the forum! I would guess that from your list you are an "iris" person. We have several of those so you should fit right in. And a very impressive list it is.

Would love to see some pictures of all those.
fammsimm
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome to the cottage, and to a fellow Texan!

I'm still gardening in that "lovely" clay soil you mentioned. lol Thank God for soil amendments or I wouldn't be able to dig into my beds at all. Even with amendments, I still have trouble.

I'm amazed at the wonderful variety of flowers you are growing. I hope you will be able to post photos, because your garden sounds wonderful!

Marilyn
irene_dsc
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome to the Cottage! As everyone already mentioned, we aren't very pedantic about definitions here - everyone is welcome. :)

I am definitely looking forward to pictures of all those lovely irises!
DYH
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Welcome!

Yes, that is a tremendous list of wonderful, wonderful plants! I look forward to progress reports of your gardens...and your new home (got pics?).

Cameron

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