You have a great start! You can cottage that place up in no time!!haha
I had an old 70's house! really bad 70's!hahaha
I saw a new (old)cottage life for it...yours could go that way too! I put in a weeping cherry out front, it just looks so old garden to me.
I just love that you want your "new" house to be cottage!
If we built a new home it would have to be cottage.....but can your new neighborhood handle it? No HOA? We had that problem years ago.. had to move out of town!
Haziemoon

hbwright, I could soooo see a climbing rose around the corner pillar, and maybe a couple spilling across your split rail fence. With your zone, your choices are certainly much wider than mine, so I wouldn't know what kinds to recommend (all I can really grow here is the Explorer "climbers" like William Baffin and John Cabot or the Ramblin' Red).

You have a great house, and once the plantings fill in and the flowers flush, it's guaranteed you'll see people stopping to admire your yard and ooh and aah over your cottage plantings :-)

It definitely looks like it will be full and lush! I think you are doing a great job!it looks pretty full already!
do me a favor and keep your jap beetles down there ok? ;)
the climbing roses sound perfect!

You're off to a great start. Things are definitely filling from the last time you posted photos. It's hard to be patient, but to start seeing results you really need to give it some time. You could try some annual vines for height. Or I like your birdhouse suggestion. I put some on poles and then stuck the poles in the ground. Instant height!

Pics of my garden with birdhouses

It's too late to winter sow now, but if you plan for this winter you can winter sow some taller plants like hollyhocks, delphinium, phlox, etc. Or maybe you could even find some now at your local nurseries or hit up some sales at the end of the season.

You're really off to a great start, just give her some time. Your garden will fill in right before your eyes. Sometimes it's hard to notice how much it's grown. I have to look back at photos from a few weeks or even a month before to satisfy the "instant gratification" bug.

Tracy

It is hard to be patient, isn't it? You are off to a great start. This time next year you will be worried about something getting crowded out. :) I have two beds I started last year. Today they are so pretty, but we are just now there.

If you want a quick punch of pizzaz, add a pretty piece of garden art. This time of year, places like Garden Ridge, Hobby Lobby and other crafty decor stores have their little garden goodies on for half price. You might be surprised at how much pleasure you get from one snazzy little catapillar gal or a tinkling set of wind chimes on a small shepherd's hook out by the driveway.

I also think a trellis 5-6 feet high with a quick growing annual vine would add interest near your porch. While I LOVE the idea of a climbing rose, you may want to take some time to research the variety you want. In the mean time, a handful of morning glory or purple hyacinth bean vine seeds would add color, fragrance and vertical interest.

Happy

Thanks. I really needed the encouragement. I laugh because I had the same ideas and have started my action. My walkway has pots started with caladium and morning glory (my daughters planter) started only a couple weeks ago. I have a vitex tree in the center of the yard in the landscaping that I can't wait to grow. I love those trees and contacted many people to find out if they were agressive and it seems that in my area it is not known to be. My mom got me a little snail for the garden and I planted some small monarda cuttings which should fill in next year. I have some cuttings in the back area by the bird feeder that is already blooming and some planted in the back behind the bushes for my enjoyment but it is larger and not blooming or budding. I know these will do some filling in in the next year to come. I also have foxglove seed in the back for some height around the birdbath and some various medium bulbs (cannas, iris, lilies, glads) toward the back. On the side I have a small trellis (need to replace with taller one) behind my hummingbird feeder with painted lady runnerbean and a potted coral honeysuckle that I'm babying. On the other side of the porch I have a trellis with coral honeysuckle. I'll show pictures, it's an overload though. Sorry. I am going to put in a bird house. I love the link above. We had a very sad unsuccessful house finch family starting on the corner of my porch and I'm heartbroken that we had no survivors. I don't use pesticides (even on my roses) so I don't know what happened.
Here is the picture overload.

Frontdoor view
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Front of porch-closer
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Corner of porch-need bigger trellis (where else could a trellis go????) The rose is in this corner (First prize I think?, there is mums also and colombine planted in this area also and other bulbs planted around the guara that I can't remember the name of (blue flowers).
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side of house by windows--hostas which may come out if they burn but they've been there for 2 seasons already, 2 mr. lincoln rose (jap beetle breeding ground right now), gardenia in front of windows and some bulbs that may not come up this year and in the center is mexican bush sage.
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back corner with gaura, liriope, salvias of different variety, a baby crepe myrtle in the very back corner, gladiolus, rose in front of fence with various other stuff, creeping raspberry underplanted in the whole corner.
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snail in front garden more towards the sidewalk with monarda cuttings and various reseeding annuals.
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mailbox with clematis, LIR salvia, white salvia, creeping phlox and setcreasia.
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This is all I can do on the side. Hubby wants to keep this area grass for golf practice. I will do something in the front corner of the yard for sitting though so I can watch the kids. I had to replace the climbing America because I accidently shovel pruned it last year. The other is Josephs coat which takes off like a weed and various minis.
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Again, I do not spray and the roses will be much better looking come a few weeks when I can go and butcher the jap beetle damage. Thank goodness these things only last a short time.

Ideas for location of bird house and other plants, trellis, where to put daisy's (I NEED some) or ANYTHING else?????

I love y'alls ideas. A huge thanks and even hugs to you all.

I also think you are off to a great start and considering the time you have had, everything looks so lush. My front garden is on it's second summer and is so puny in comparison. Looking at your pics, what I would do is instead of a trellis at the front porch left corner, put a wrought iron arch at the side as a sort of side entrance to your porch. From the front of your house you would only see the side of the arch, but it would give some added height. Maybe you could add a couple of flagstones as a step off point to the side. Just an idea.
Karen

hb,
I live in your area so we share pretty much the same growing conditions.

If you want some instant gratification and a punch of color:

4 or 5 flats of portulaca and two or three containers of the red/orange or hotpink/purple lantana that is out right now. They are annuals but will thrive in the hot weather we are headed for and they will fill things in nicely until your other plants are more mature.

The lantana may or may not come back - they are 'iffy' plants sometimes.

If you choose to go with the portulaca plant it only in areas where it will get full sun - the flowers close up when the sun is not shining on them. You want to plant them very heavily together for the best blast of color. I like to add a little Osmocote when I plant and after that they usually take off on thier own. They don't like a lot of watering and fussing over.