First time I heard my garden referred to as a 'cottage garden' was by my neighbor, when he was here taking down a tree. He is a professional tree trimmer and it was too close to the house for me to risk it. I figured he was professionally trained in horticulture, so I must have a cottage garden. It is total mixture of shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals that I like that offset the house and are appreciated from the windows or on leaving or coming. I never laughed at his comment, but when a friend said our house was 'quaint', my wife and I laughed and still do.

I like to think I have a cottage garden but mostly because I feel like it is a good excuse to ignore some garden design basics. I cram it all in together, love annuals and perennials that get huge and love to let things flop or grow out onto the walks. I love my garden but think that I actually love my plants a little bit more. I suspect that this is true for most cottage gardens.

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This is what our yard looked like 2 yrs ago when we purchased it. Not a cottage garden.

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2 yrs later, the beginnings of a cottage garden. To me, a cottage garden is a mixture of plants, perenials and annuals, something in bloom all the time.
Barb

I agree that a cottage garden is a mix of all kinds of plants, i.e., shrubs, perennials, vines, grasses and annuals. A white pickett fence would be the coupe de grace but isn't necessary.

Barb...very nice flower bed and I love your "bring me a glass of sweet tea and a rocking chair" porch! Is that a crepe myrtle at the left corner of the porch?
Vikki

Oh Barb! That front porch looks like heaven to me! Just look at how it was hidden two years ago and now it's a major feature of the house. Nice.

OMG - I agree with bamateacha - what a gorgeous porch that was hidden by generic shrubs. That is so striking now - really makes a statement....

Lynne

I always think of masses of color when I think of a cottage garden.

Karen, I don't know that there is any one answer to your question, but it sounds like you have a cottage garden to me. A big part of cottage gardening, in my opinion, is loving a variety of flowers and not being afraid to experiment. From the plants you have described, I am sure your garden is wonderful! Vicki

I would love to have a house with a porch like that and you did a beautiful job clearing out all that old shrubs.

Vikki...I have 2 crepe myrtles on each side of the porch. Love them, especially when in bloom but they are sending out sprouts all over my flower bed and even into the yard.In some spots in the bed, the roots are so thick that I cannot dig to plant anything. Most of the plants that I have under the CM are not doing good at all, to dry and even tho I water, they still are not growing good. Question is: do I continue to battle the sprouts or just take the trees out? The trees are very old.
Barb

I'm just a Vikki-wannabe, but I know the reason for your crape myrtle dilemma. When you dig under a crape myrtle, you're doing the equivalent of root pruning. The roots you chop send up a sprout.

Planting some kind of ground cover or burying annuals in pots in the spaces between the roots are among some of the possible solutions. You might put some low shrubs around the crapes and grow your perennials father from them. Daylilies are a possibility, I have some under crapes.

Hold your hand over the c.m. in your pretty photo to see how it would look without them. It takes a while to grow a tree. Personal preference determines your decision.

You could pot up some of those sprouts and start new crapes to plant at an angle to the porch corner, father out. As soon as they gain some size, the old ones could come out.

Nell

Barb, I've found that creeping lantana works great under crepe myrtles. It spreads, blooms continuously, and doesn't require much water.

The crepe myrtles near the house are an old Southern tradition (& it seems like I remember that cherry laurels sometimes were used that way, too).

They shaded the porch area so you could sit outside during the hottest parts of the day, & when they matured, they shaded the roof, helping to keep the house a little cooler inside.

There's a ton of space there for the taking (grass! lawn! ick!) without sacrificing a lovely old crepe myrtle.

I'd keep the crepes & clear everything out from under them, cover the soil with a light layer of mulch (don't pile mulch up next to the trunk of any tree, it'll encourage insects & rot), & liberate some of that lawn area.

You could start along both sides of the sidewalk, then the strips next to the driveway, adding mulch or brick or rock paths as you go...

uh...
what was the question?

I read this wonderful book called "The Garden, An English Love Affair", that traces the development of gardening in England over 1000 years.

The book says that cottage gardens were originally filled entirely with passalong plants, since cottagers worked at the manor house or on the manor land, & they worked their own gardens in their precious spare time.

Some similarities came about just because of the nature of day-to-day needs:

hodge-podge plantings, food & flowers in the same areas, & espaliered fruit trees because there wasn't much space

central pathways to the front door bisected by horizontal paths because that's the most efficient way of getting through the garden

herb gardens by the kitchen door for convenience

fragrant flowers close to the house for enjoyment when you had to be indoors (no air circulation systems, no aerosol fresheners)

hedges &, later, gated fences or walls to keep out wild animals

I've had the thought that cottage gardening *as a style* (rather than as a necessity, as it was in the past) speaks to something in our natures that loves lushness & abundance.

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I really do want to keep the crepe myrtles but want a cottage look also. Dont know which way I will go with plantings but will keep your ideas in mind. Would love a white picket fence along the front walk but DH will not hear of it. None of my neighbors garden or even have flowers in the front yards. My yard shines as it is and when I tell someone where I live, they quickly say"oh, you live where all the flowers are".

Will let you all know what I decide to do with the front bed under the CM. Right now, it is just to hot and dry to even think of redoing the bed. Have heard that salt will kill flowers and I do sweat in this heat. Gonna stay on the porch for awhile. haha
Barb

Barb, your house would be gorgeous with a white picket fence, or even just natural pickets left to weather. Wrought iron would like nice too, LOL.

Barb, how beautiful and you are just beginning! You have alot of lawn!

Here is a definition I found surfing --

[English cottage gardens, with their wild abundance of rose bushes, perennial flowers, vine-covered arbors, and plants tumbling over walkways, are widely emulated in the U.S. This is an informal style meant to evoke a mood of light-hearted gaiety. The eye feasts on a diverse jumble of flowering plants, distributed in a seemingly haphazard manner, evoking thoughts of a "natural landscape."]

They said it does take alot of behind-the-scenes care and planning and rearranging to get this random feast of flowers.

This kind of gardening is what I do! I like not having to be so formal and I love creating different picture combinations that sometimes just happen naturally. For instance when my feverfew sprouts up or my annual impatiens here and there. This kind of gardening is so fun and others seem to enjoy my efforts which makes it all worth it.

I just let my 2 youngest girls, age 6 and 8, go outside and pick any flowers they wanted. Then I helped them arrange their beauties. Wonderful! I have always let my children do this and they will have this as a childhood memory. Even some of the older ones still enjoy doing this, including some of the boys!

Karen

to me, a cottage garden is this......

It is what YOU want it to be....a bit eclectic....style, form have little meaning...to me it is all about what YOU want it to be and what makes YOU happy....no rules...no guidlines..just old fashion, simple gardening...an extension of YOU....just my thoughts...

In February 2005, someone had started a thread "Definition of a cottage garden..." and everyone put in their ideas - I still have that VERY long thread. If anyone wants me to email it to them, I will be glad to do it. I must have already sent out 30 or 40 emails for the thread.

Carrie (I know someone here made a link with the thread I saved, but I can't remember who it was and where the link is on this Cottage Forum. If I find it, I will post the link on this thread).

Barb, I don't know a crepe myrtle that doesn't send up "suckers" weather you have nicked a root or not. Whatever you do don't pile dirt near the trunk of the tree. Not only is it a no no to do that to any tree but if you do it to a crepe myrtle you will have a million suckers at the base of the tree. I speak from experience. Originally I didn't have the island bed around one of my crepe myrtle's like I have now. When I decided to make a bed just around the tree I dug out the grass and put bags of topsoil/compost all around the tree to make the bed. Big mistake, I have to cut suckers from around the tree at least every three weeks to keep them in check and its not been just one year...I have to do it EVERY year! I wouldn't take out the tree if I were you. Maybe you could widen the bed a bit around the crepe myrtle and plant your cottage garden flowers there.
Here is a picture of my oldest crepe myrtle (about 25 yrs old-it looks older than yours) that has Catmint and other goodies around it.

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I get an occasional sucker from this tree but nothing like the one I put the dirt around. I agree with everyone else that your lot is screeming for a picket fence. Maybe you could talk your DH into it. Good Luck
Vikki