Finally in 2024 the kitchen courtyard looked like what I wanted -- a flowery, sunny spot along the walk.
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| summer 2024 |
With a low bowl in the middle and the cottonwood stump at the back, and with the vines and plants filling in, it looks nice.
The light foliage of a redtwig dogwood shrub at mid-level ties the clumps of plants together.
It's summery looking and nice. But I struggled with it for years.
The problem is that I did not know what I wanted this garden to be. I considered an herb garden, a rock garden, an annual garden, even making it a sand and gravel zen contemplation garden.
Or putting in only a small tree with rock mulch underneath, to shade the entrance to the kitchen.
Finally over time it evolved into a flowery cottage garden.
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| What it looked like when we first moved in - overgrown roses, a young Spanish broom, and rocks |
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| What it looked like in summer 2018 - just a big hulking bbq in the middle |
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| What it looked like in April 2019 - unlimited potential |
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| What it looked like in mid summer 2021 - filling in |
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| What it looked like in July 2022 - evolving into a cottage garden |
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| Becoming flowery and cottagey in 2022 |
I love looking out the kitchen door at midday in mid summer and seeing bright color and sunny flowers right outside the door. After all my considerations, I think I like the idea of a cottage garden the best.
>> Some of the design ideas I toyed with over and over:
An Herb Garden? Fragrance and food!
My first thought was an herb garden outside the kitchen door, with lettuces early and then basil, cilantro, sage and oregano, tomatoes, and peppers, but that didn't happen. We don't use a lot of fresh herbs, and herb plants and tomatoes can look weedy and need a lot of cutting back, watering and tending.
My first thought was an herb garden outside the kitchen door, with lettuces early and then basil, cilantro, sage and oregano, tomatoes, and peppers, but that didn't happen. We don't use a lot of fresh herbs, and herb plants and tomatoes can look weedy and need a lot of cutting back, watering and tending.
I like the idea of just a few herbs in the white bowl by the garage door. That's enough. Don't need veggies.
An Annual Garden? Bright color!
Jim is advocating for an annual garden -- orange and white zinnias, yellow marigolds, purple petunias and tall graceful cosmos. Red pentas. Lavender and white angelonias.
Jim is advocating for an annual garden -- orange and white zinnias, yellow marigolds, purple petunias and tall graceful cosmos. Red pentas. Lavender and white angelonias.
Just plant up the area each spring, which would be no different than planting an herb garden. I have resisted because I can never find what I want -- looked all over for cosmos and there were none, tried to locate Profusion zinnias or Angelonias, no one had them locally. And annuals in this mountain environment take forever to get going.
After frost and all winter there would be nothing to see, but the spring and summer garden would be nice if I can find the annuals to plant each year. The zinnias I have planted here have done well.
Instead of struggling with getting plants to provide visual bulk and form, add lots of rocks (there is already a rock swale) and let the rocks fill the spaces between what's already there.
Let the veronicas and chamomile stay. Keep the Mexican Hats, and let the low nepeta grow. But fill all the empty spaces between them with lots of large rocks. Multiples abutting each other.
Where to get the large rocks I'd need for this small space? Since the swale is white rock, use all the potato sized white rocks I have around the yard (circling the aspens and shrubs) and fill empty spaces with lots of that?
A Perennial Garden? Cottage charm!
In the end that's where I've been going -- trying to achieve a bright flowery scene from inside the kitchen door and coming and going through the gate. A cottage garden. Like this, which was my vision:
I tried and failed with so many perennials and they looked nothing like that vision. Instead, I had small isolated blobs that I managed to keep going, some shrinking groundcover forms and some plants that can't be seen after flowering. So many failed.
But in 2021 it finally did start to fill in.
Mexican hats got big, orange geums transplanted bloomed for a long time. Chamomile looks great and blooms forever. The purple veronicas, plus a white 'Icicle' one I transplanted got big. Other things started to fill in - a transplanted nepeta, Leilani coneflowers blooming sturdily in front. A red agastache in back.
There's plenty of structure with the fence and rocks and there are flowery backbone plants with the butterfly bush, the Red Cascade rose and the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle, which finally bloomed and put on some size. I just need more mid-level forms, maybe a smalll shrub to bridge the gap between low perennials and taller fence plants.
It's starting to look like a cottage garden and it pleases me when I look out the kitchen door on a sunny afternoon.