The English Cottage Garden - Year 6

This marks the 6th spring for this English cottage garden of mine. An English cottage garden takes years before it really shows you what it's capable of, not unlike the metamorphosis of a drag queen.

This is it. THIS is the year the English cottage garden all comes together. If she were a debutante there would be a ball in her future this summer.

Actually. Scratch that. She's ready for more than that.

🏳️‍🌈 She's ready for a pride parade 🏳️‍🌈

Any and all people who think pride, gay, lesbian, trans, drag or basically anything that adds colour to our life is evil can exit stage right.

Even though year one of my garden was more of a Dyke March than a Pride Parade. It was upset for being ignored and treated poorly, crying for help and change.

Year one of a cottage garden is about laying the foundation, figuring out what's wrong and addressing it while wearing sensible shoes.

For my garden there was a lot wrong. It was just a scragglefest. You can see how sad it was on my research post into English Cottage gardens. That post also has my inspiration photos of some beautiful cottage gardens and a list of plants to use if you want to create your own English Cottage garden.

Below you can see years 1, 2 and 3. Click on them to see the progression over the years.

The garden today, in late spring of 2023, is looking much more proud than it did 6 years ago. I didn't do anything to change it in that time. I just let it grow.

These peony bushes were bought in year 2 for $11 each and were the size of an ice cream cone. Now, 5 years later, they're fully exploding peony bushes covered in truly spectacular blooms.

Don't let impatience lead you to only plant impatiens.

An Easy 5 year plan

Buy your small, insignificant perennials and plant them. Yes it will take years for them to become impressive. But you can make up for that by planting self seeding annuals to fill in the gaps for the first few years. And yes, if you want some of those annuals can be impatiens.

🌸 In year 1

You'll have to plant a lot of annuals to make up for the small size of your perennials. Have fun with it and get whatever you want. Annuals aren't permanent.

🌸 In year 2

You'll have a lot of annuals popping up in the spring if you don't disturb the soil. Let them germinate before you do anything in terms of bed cleanup. Then thin the seedlings or transplant them to other areas.

🌸 In years 3-5

Continue to thin and transplant annuals. You'll be needing less and less of them as the perennials fill out.

The purple/pink rose bush is a Rugosa shrub rose called Hansa.

The purple spiky flowers similar in look to lavender are actually the flowers from a sage bush. You'll get a look at it from a different angle in the next photo.

Crawling over the white picket fence (above) are perennial sweet peas. I have 2 masses of them. One at the front picket fence as seen which are white.

And one at the side picket fence which are purple. They'll begin to flower in early July.

The above photo is the same section seen from the opposite direction. In behind you can see the Ru Paul sized patch of rhubarb.

Climbing hydrangeas are blooming as well. I've repositioned my birdbath so that it's hidden inside of the shrub but has open access from the front.

Full List of Plants

Any plants that have died or withered away in the past 5 years are crossed out.

Flowers in the garden

Agapanthus
Cockscomb
Daylily
Dahlias (click through to see the varieties I'm growing this year)
Delphinium
Dianthus
Hyacinths
Hydrangea
Hollyhock (I demolished it. SO messy and haggard looking)
Lavender (French & English)
Lupins
Milkweed
Phlox
Purrsian Blue Catmint
Roses
Snapdragons
Sweetpeas

Edibles in the garden
Apples
Tomatoes
Rhubarb
Cosmic Cherry Petunia
Cilantro
Sage
Dill

This is just the beginning. Hopefully this really IS the year that it all comes together for us.

Most gardeners start every season with that feeling of hope. Then blackspot hits. Or laziness. Or someone accidentally drives through your picket fence.

Maybe someone walking past tells you they don't like your garden. It's too colourful. Too different. Probably even evil.

Don't worry. Be proud. A garden can't be evil.

(Unless it's filled with trumpet vine.)