Hey Okie! Where are you? I'm in Tulsa-are you close??

Anyway, first things first-you gotta get a climber for that front porch! My first thought is a rose, but with full shade, don't know if that's possible. You may have to try Akebia or Climbing Hydrangea.

Hollyhocks are very popular on this forum-and they grow great in OK! If you sow seeds now, they may bloom for you next summer! That would look great along the sides. I'd just put one or two, and not too close together. Maybe use them as anchors on the corners. You need roses, irises, lilies, and don't forget about annuals. A lot of them reseed. Zinnias get tall (2-3 ft) and can add a lot of "WOW" to a yard. They will reseed, or you can harvest the seeds. I'd also get daffodils and tulips for around the beds for Spring interest.

One thing you need to keep in mind...this is Oklahoma, there will be a drought with triple digit temps. I was lucky enough to plant my yard from scratch, so I planted a lot of drought-tolerant plants. Things like Zinnias, marigolds, asclepias (butterfly weeds), herbs (rosemary, basil, parsley, etc), lantana (and it IS hardy here!), irises, cannas, salvias, coreopsis, etc. I also planted my elephant ears, impatiens, variegated cannas, daturas, and ferns at the eaves of my house, so they get watered when/if it rains, and also near the spigots so when I water everything else, they get the runoff. Hibiscus will also do well here, but they need sun and water.

Good luck with everything! It's going to look great!

HW

I think you have a GREAT bones there...and YOU can do what you like with it and only improve. I am not much of a expert in this, others here can better answer this...but this works for me.... start small...don't try to do the entire thing at once. It is overwhelming and will likely be disappointing... It takes time to get the look you want..be patient, be flexable..and be willing to move, adjust and make changes as you go from year to year, season to season. Think outside of the box. Keep pictures and collect pictures of inspirations at hand where you can use as a road map...just remember, it is YOUR garden..not a magazine pic and be willing to put your own personal stamp on it.

This is MY version of a cottage garden......
Others may not agree...

There should be little, to NO rules...
Plant what you like, what draws you,
Don't worry intially about having hundreds of varieties...
Instead, make sure that what you do add is in large numbers..never buy one or two plants of the same kind...but three or more...impact is the name of the game in a cottage garden..not variety..that comes later.
I would suggest attacking smaller areas at a time and finish till you have the look you want before moving to the next..otherwise you can easily end up with a wild unkempt look that never quite aspires to the cottage look but like a wild attempt to garden that never quite got off the ground.
Be reasonable about your expectations....did I say BE REASONABLE ABOUT YOUR EXPECTATIONS? :) I can't express that enough...and that is ALL related to your lifestyle and pocketbook...
Appreciate your own garden and attempts to create and not compare them to others. What is right or works for one of us here, is not always right for another...respect your own value and attempts.
Add OR leave room to add as you can afford the hardscapes....paths, bench, borders or edging. Many people will tell you to do that ALL first...but don't worry if you can not afford that ALL intially or don't think you can't change it later.....you can add it pretty easy as long as you have allowed for it...Cottage gardening is NO cheap hobby believe me..it is a obbession that can be VERY costly and work heavy..be sure that your ok with that and/or make plans accordingly...
Make lots of sitting or view areas from diff angles in the yard.
Make the yard work for YOUR lifestyle..not a pic in a magazine....if you need grass for the dog or kids..leave grass for the dogs or kids...and don't feel guilty for it.
DON'T go overboard immediately and plant the WHOLE yard...a yard or a garden is a ton of work..especially in its early days....only plant what you can reasonable care for..a yard overgrown in weeds has no beauty and instead adds pressure to your life and is a eyesore in the neighborhood....I have seen many cottage gardens as you drive that look hidious..mostly because someone scooped out their whole lawn, planted flowers everywhere...then neglected to care for it for whatever reason... Go slow and find out what kind of time you have and add accordingly.
Use lots of porch decor on all your porches...that instantly reeks cottage. Especially with a natural or vintage look.
Reuse things with a new purpose in mind to do that both on the porches and in the garden
Most important of all..be a frequent visitor and poster here.....the ideas here are endless!!!!!!!!!Use what you find to put your own stamp on it..to get your own creative juices flowing. Don't be afraid to ask questions...or post concerns...don't be intimidate by the "true cottage gardeners" here, or by us peons who just TRY to garden...you will fall somewhere in there and that is perfectly ok...All kinds of gardens are important and valuable...gardening is a always involving process and a non stop learning experience...it is also a very rewarding and both disappointing experience at the same time. Just know and understand that....mother nature can wreck havoc with all your carefully laid plans in a instant..and you need to be ok with that on some level.

Good Luck, you have a great start, both inside and out. And the perfect house for what your trying to accomplish..share often, take LOTS of pictures as you change..someday when you have this lovely quaint garden you will want to see its progression and recall what it looked like in all its many stages...don't forget to inculde pets or family or YOURSELF in those pics..even cars...house..ect..because those things all put time/date stamps on pics that are valuable down the road....they let us insert time frames into memories...good luck! Sorry about the ramble.. I ramble way to much on a reg basis.

You've got some wonderful advice so far. All I can add is to try winter sowing. Visit the Winter Sowing forum here and read up. You'll want to save clear plastic containers. Then when winter comes, you can sow your seeds outside and in the spring, you will have tons of free plants. It doesn't get much better than that!

I sowed a lot of drought-tolerant plants this past winter and they're really taking off for me. It's also a wonderful way to increase the variety of what's planted in your garden over what your local garden center offers.

Good luck!

Tracy

Wow! Thanks for all the input! I'm going to print this out and read everything you've said. I've tried starting plants from seed and never have any luck. I just don't know what I'm doing. I'll check out the winter sowing board. I think I'm also going to head to the library and pick up some books for beginner gardeners. Any suggestions on what to look for?

hedgwytch: I'm just south of Stillwater. And boy is it hot here!!!

okie, when you make your beds, make them deep, if you are doing beds at the front go at least as deep as the porch. Since it opens to the side, I would even go deeper and flow across the front of the bed. If you need to, you can put a row of stepping stones through the middle of the bed to get in to tend the plants. Nandina is a good shade evergreen that comes in several sizes. It is good to have some evergreen plantings, in my opinion, to keep things going when you get the freezy winter weather and the HOT summer weather. Other drought and shade tolerant plants include arbutus unedo, another evergreen, carpenteria californica, daphne odora, myrtus communis which looks like boxwood, osmanthus, which smells heavenly according to many people here, juniper, mahonia,and viburnum tinus. Many of these are evergreen. For perennials try ceratogstigma, bergenia, huechera, nepeta, penstemon, blue eyed grass, epimedium, and others. Hardenbergia is a vine that would work. Annuals that prefer shade are impatiens and begonias, for summer but they also prefer water. Thoughts...is your shade from trees? If so, you will have sun at the shoulders of the season which is enough for some annuals, such as dianthus and pansies. Also, if it is from trees you can maybe limb up the tree a couple feet which will allow in some more light, but I wouldn't disfigure a tree to get more light in the beds. How much snow/cold do you get? Many annuals enjoy cold weather and will grow happily in milder winters.
Others to try include foxglove, columbine, hellebore, echinacea and phlox which all take shade and heat in my garden without blinking, although I do water. Not sure how much they can get by without.

Okie,

Something else you may want to Google is "Lasagne Gardening". Now is a good time for us (Okies) to do it, because we'll still have quite a bit of warm weather to help it "perk". It's a No-Till way to make some wonderful beds. It's basically layering cardboard, grass or leaf clippings, newspapers, manure (or compost) then topping it off with another layer of cardboard. There are many different variations, but this is the version I am going with. This will all be broken down by next Spring. Well, maybe not the top cardboard, but the rest will. I've got a side yard that I'm doing it to. You don't have to remove the grass or even cut it before doing this! WOOHOO! ;o) Just thought I would pass this on.

HW

I would like to add an aditional opinion. A great way to start would be to pick tough plants, usually native plants. If you look around you should be able to find a list for your area. Some people would call them drought-resistant or zeroscape.

I just got the new updated version of " The well Tended Perennial Garden" I've heard so many people here talk about it, and for a newbie like me........ it's wonderful!
The author is.......Tracy DiSabato-Aust

Haziemoon

Might I suggest you rethink the vinyl fence? In my opinion wood fences are much better looking. I know the advantages of plastic but the same is true of polyester and the Amish are the only ones I know who wear that.

Okie - There is a "Gardening in Shade" forum here on the GW that may be of great help also. Good luck with your new endeavor.

Carol

Thanks for all the input! Looks like I have more posts to print out and read through!

mao_tse_mom: While I understand your point, the vinyl is DH's choice. We need a privacy fence for the back yard and that is what he chose.