Pls help design my Cottage Garden - need feedback, help select plants
krishi_2008 jasmin
last year
last modified: last year
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Help me design a cottage garden
Comments (5)YES! We are in Folsom. Good to see another local person here. I'm going to make the entire area between the house and driveway a garden. The soil is not pure sand, just mostly sand. I transplanted all the plants in the pic last year when we moved in. They are doing great in this soil. I have irrigation tubing running through the area because the plants tend to dry out fast. I'm probably going to add topsoil to this area. We have a dump truck, I'm just waiting for DH to get a load of topsoil. I've decided to add a wide, arched gateway just past the stone walkway. The top of the arch and the top of the gate will form a large circle. I'm going to put a bench at the rear side next to the driveway. There will be a narrow walkway from the gateway, winding to the bench in the back. I really need suggestions on "fill in" plants that will add color all year long. Thanks, we love the house. We moved it from Covington 3 years ago. I demolished the inside and renovated it to keep with the antique style of the house. It was supposedly built pre-Civil War. I moved all my plants and trees from our Covington house....See Moreugh! first draft from designer & need help pls!
Comments (17)My Dreamhome... Thanks for the recommendation. I am flattered you liked and remembered the plan I did. Great recall as well. My memory is great..its just damn short. Laurensmom.. I am not a fan of this plan either. The screen porch is forced and squeezed between the bedroom and family room and it blocks views from the way to prominent Dining room. The master bedroom or bath /closet should stre\ch out to the left so the house lengthens and doesnt get so confined and views blocked by the other rooms/massing. Do you really want a front loaded garage on a large lot such as yours ? Doors always open ? Not saying this will work but the pantry and espace should flip with kitchen or have them next to hall. The family room will most likely need to shift over and try to overlap the dining area to open the spaces. Right now its way to tight at the Dining and its not a large space so its even worse. Be careful of too much wrap around porch that costs money for very little benfit of actual living. I wouyld rather have a larger living area than porch that rarely gets used. I would also want access to bonus room over the garage from the house second floor. Unless that stairs from garage is needed it could be eliminated and save a nice chunk of change. The family room sticks out as you say you want but a rear wall fireplace takes up what is often times the best view. Not knowing your site and its best features and views I have no idea if this plan takes adavantage of these but somehow I am not thinking so. This plan excites me less than it does you. The master closet should be a minimum 7 ft wide as well for comfortable double loaded rods/shelves. Sorry to be such a pessimist on this plan but I would challenge your designer to do better or cut your losses now. I hope you can make it work and hope this helps a bit. The master shower is too small and their is no linen cabinet/ closet and it feels tight in there. The master bedroom wing appears to be 15' wide on the outside. You buy lumber ( usually in 2 ft lengths and you will cut it off and theow it away. plywood is 4x8 sheets. Carpets usually come in 12' and 15' widths. If walls are 2x6 you dont need seems if 16" out to out and can still be stretched in most cases even if using 2x4 walls. You have a basem]board tha takes up an inch or so as well. The second floor is ok but back wall windows are not a good fit with those roofs below on first floor. These would change as the first floor does as well....See Moreneed help with plant selection
Comments (20)Nice house! I wouldn't want to hide architectural details, so in general I would do much of the planting as low masses. If you use ground covers, shrubs, and mulch to fill in until the groundcovers spread, with some tough low care perennials you should be able to keep it attractive and low maintenance. To the right of your front steps along the porch, I would use your hostas in a bed that comes out as far as the base of the front steps. If you have some other plants that are shade-loving and can provide either evergreen or contrasting foliage interest, such as ferns, Heuchera/coral bells, Tiarella/foamy bells, Polygonatum/Solomon's seal, etc. those would be a nice additions. To tie the left front corner bed in, use some hostas there also, and if there is a plant that you use in the large corner bed that would work on the right side of the steps, that would make it all look part of a whole interrupted by the steps rather than separate beds. Looking at your second posted photo of the front of the house, I would plant something on a diagonal a few feet out from the corner where your husband is standing that is about his height. It could be a vine on a trellis or a medium tall, bushy shrub. That will help distract from or hide both the downspout and the HVAC unit form the street. I would also plant a couple of shrubs that are just taller than the HVAC unit but won't get closer than a couple of feet from it to hide it from other angles. The rest of the bed I would keep under 3'-4' maximum to show off the house. You want some evergreens in the front bed for winter interest. Even if the ground is snow-covered for much of the winter, there are often times in spring and fall where the ground is bare of snow or just has a bit, and having something attractive there will be nice. It looks like there is fair amount of shade, so you might consider some of the smaller mountain laurels/Kalmia latifolia if your soil is suitable (acid and reasonably well-drained.) Other options would include low growing conifers such as others have suggested, but I would plan to make choices that only reach 2'-3' perhaps with some judicious pruning. Microbiota decussata AKA Siberian cypress or Russian arborvitae is one of the few conifers that will grow in a good amount of shade and it stays low, so this might be a good choice here. You could also choose something like one of the really small red-twigged dogwoods such as Cornus sericea 'Kelseyi' which has nice fall color in addition to the bright winter twigs that would look stunning against the masonry. One of my favorite evergreen flowering ground covers is Veronica 'Georgia Blue' which blooms in spring and has tidy green foliage all summer. With cold weather, the foliage takes on mahogany tones, but it returns to green when temperatures warm again. It will grow around the feet of other plants but isn't thuggish, and I have it growing happily in beds that range from full sun to full shade. I like the look of Yardvaark's sketch for your back bed. Notice how the plant on the end extends past the end of the building, and I would plan on having the bed over-reach the end of the building by a bit. You could plant something taller off the corner like I suggested for the front, but it's fine with something lower here as well. If you look at this bed in the winter (for instance if you will use your porch 3 seasons) use at least some evergreens, but otherwise it won't matter much. Some other plants I've not already mentioned to check out because they are easy to grow, look nice most if not all of the year, and have a long blooming period include: - Hydrangea paniculata which likes at least a half day sun and has cultivars that range from around 3' like 'Bobo' to way larger than you want. Look at a medium sized one like 'Little Quickfire' or 'Little Lime' to distract from the HVAC unit if there is enough sun there. Bobo and LQF will start blooming around early July and continue until frost, starting white and turning shades of pink. LL will start about 3 weeks later and continue for the rest of the season, lime to white to very pale pink. - Rhododendron 'Checkmate' has stayed within 3' in my garden for over 10 years. Blooms well with little sun and has mahogany winter foliage. Needs acid soil. - Helenium/Helen's flower 'Mardi Gras'. Bright red and gold mix that blooms from July-September for me and stays a bit less than 2'. - Fothergilla 'Mount Airy' as mentioned above has early spring flowers and gorgeous fall color, especially if it gets some sun, but isn't super attractive in summer, just a green blob. My solution is to grow a hard prune clematis (cut to two bud pairs per stem after fall freeze) to ramble through it for summer bloom. Look to see what is available in your area or mail order - you want a type 3, not a type 1 or 2 prune since they bloom earlier in the season. - For a sunny groundcover, look at Sedum and Telephium (both commonly referred to as sedum). Some are taller or die back like the 'Autumn Joy' that Doug mentioned, but others such as 'Angelina' are shorter and stay evergreen. My 'Angelina' looks great whenever it isn't under snow, but they don't do well in much shade. - Daffodils, planted behind hostas or other perennials. Daffodils provide spring color, and if planted behind perennials, the emerging perennial foliage covers up the dying bulb foliage. Once planted, critters don't usually disturb daffodil bulbs since they are poisonous. I know you didn't ask about this, but IME in all probability you have soil that needs work before planting. Often top soil gets stripped away or mixed with subsoil during construction, and regardless, foot traffic and machinery will have compacted soil. Gravel or sand may have been used for backfill, and I've even seen contruction sites where the outwash from rinsing the concrete truck or mortar buckets ended up in garden or lawn spaces. You sound really anxious to start planting, but if you take care of the soil first, you will be far more likely to have healthy plants and a low maintenance garden. I suggest that you get a truckload of compost and turn it into the garden spaces, removing any construction debris that you uncover, and then grow a densely planted cover crop such as buckwheat for the season. It will be a mass of bright green, a bit over a foot high. When it flowers, cut it down before it goes to seed and turn it in to add more organic matter and nutrients to the bed. Give it 2 weeks to a month until it starts breaking down and then you can start planting. Late summer into early fall (or even midfall - I have had no issues with planting well into October here) do your planting. Being near the lake, your soil will stay warm quite a while into the fall, but days will be shorter and air temperatures cooling, so the plants will be less stressed than if you plant them in cold spring soil with days that get hot quickly. After planting, lay down a layer of corrugated carboard or several sheets of newspaper and cover with shredded bark mulch. This will prevent all the weed seeds that were turned up during construction and planting from sprouting while the soil settles and your plants fill in. For now, start taking photos of actually how much sun hits these garden spaces. We just passed the spring equinox, so if you take photos from now until June 20, the longest day, you will have a clear idea of how much sun is in each part of each bed throughout the growing season since from June 20 to the fall equinox; the light will be a reverse of the spring photos, though all summer will have leaves on the trees to account for unlike spring. The shade you have will all most likely be fairly bright, from high trees or alongside buildings, not from close overhangs from what I can see. For summer color this year, plant a few large pots of annuals....See MoreNeed help with plant selection in front yards
Comments (5)I'm late to the game, sorry. Love the idea for the stewartia. I like soft touch hollies. For your other selections and placements, I'm a bit concerned they are going to be too big and overwhelm you front area, especially the arborvitae on each side of the front door. But if the price was right and they're already in the ground -- either you like them and they'll work long term, or you end up changing them out in a couple years. Not a disaster. Incidentally I like your remaining yellow shutters. They add a sunny quality to your front facade. And they help your house contrast pleasantly with your neighbor's house, which has lighter siding/darker shutters. eta: oh, I see you posted this in "shrubs" -- a less active forum than "landscape design". That must be why there are fewer replies....See Morekrishi_2008 jasmin
last yearkrishi_2008 jasmin
last yearkrishi_2008 jasmin
last yearlast modified: last year
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