Welcome to my English Cottage Garden in Canada. The dahlias are just starting and the peonies are done but everything in between is on a roll right now. So come on in.
Careful. The fence is a bit rickety. I keep telling myself it adds to the authenticity of an English cottage garden. I'm not sure what I want to do with this fence so I'm not in a rush to replace it.
I'll likely keep it but I'm also toying with the idea of a hedge with a picket fence gate. Or brick pillar and picket fence combination like Julia Child had around her home.
Anyhow. Just don't lean on the fence trying to get a better glimpse of the cockscomb.
I normally shy away from bright colours in my regular life. But once I'm in my front garden I go all Katy Perry meets Fisher Price.
Twice I tried to be more subdued with my colour choices. I envisioned an all white flower garden at one point because it would be SO elegant. But also not very english cottagey.
THEN I thought I'd try just muted tones. But didn't.
Now I'm at the point where I just throw anything into the garden and figure it'll work itself out.
I have everything from dark red to purple, hot pink, peach and of course lots of green. And plastic deli containers, as everyone knows are commonly found in most historic gardens.
Most years my front wall is filled with self seeded snapdragons, but this year the winter killed a lot of them and I put down a thick layer of mulch that they couldn't get through in the spring.
So in early summer when the tulips that live in the space between the fence and the wall had died, I planted several mounds of alyssum - the third prettiest smelling flowers in my garden. (#1 is honeysuckle and #2 is coming up)
Any of the cockcombs or amaranth I have in my front yard have all self seeded. You only need to plant them once and they'll come back forever. Ditto for snapdragons - usually - and cilantro.
This post I wrote ages ago lists some of the flowers you should incorporate if you want an English style cottage garden.
Every year I say I'm going to get my watering system set up and ready as soon as I plant my dahlias. Then I eat a bag of chips, get drunk and don't think of it again until the middle of summer when I notice my front yard is giving off a very abandoned cemetery vibe.
I'm much better about keeping my vegetables alive and thriving from day 1 than I am my flowers.
Because of my watering ineptitude - especially this year when it's regularly been over 35C (95F) - my dahlias always bloom later than everyone else's.
One thing I've always wanted to do but only finally did this spring was train the ever present perennial sweet peas in my garden to climb up my apple espalier trees.
So even when the apple trees are way past blooming, they'll still be covered in flowers.
It'll take a few years for the sweet peas to get mature enough to be able to wind through the entire trees.
I did the same sort of thing along my fence where I have cherry tomatoes growing.
Now hold onto your hats and get ready to be impressed by what may be the saddest Amaranth I've ever grown.
This Coral Fountain amaranth below is very sad. Very, very sad. Again this is a watering issue. It's just out of the reach of my sprinkler system. I expect it will get bigger by the fall but for now it's anemic.
The Opopeo amaranth, a traditional variety from Mexico, that self seeded itself last year is mega.
I also promised myself that I'd pull it out in the spring. I made a very definitely promise to myself at the beginning of the season that I'd pull out any volunteer plants that were growing and only concentrate on the plants that were growing where they were supposed to be growing.
Then I couldn't pull them out because I'm weak. Not weak in muscles, weak in resolve. So the big garnet amaranth stayed where they grew on the edge of my grass and a few (many) other places.
Here's a little rundown of my side yard.
Starting from the left border plantings:
Purple phlox
Sage
Peony
Rhubarb
The right border plantings:
Hansa heirloom rose
Dahlias (not seen)
Opopeo Amaranth
Heliotrope (not seen)
Cherry tomatoes running along picket fence
Cherry tomatoes string trellis trained to run up the large fence.
There are also bits of other amaranth, poppies, cosmos and cilantro growing in between everything.
I used to hate cosmos. I thought they were scraggy and stupid. Then I got cupcake blush cosmos and LOVE them. Cosmos are great for flower arrangements because their stems squirrel around and bend and dip. This gives any boring flower arrangement movement and therefore makes it worth at least $25 more.
In my mind anyway.
A new plant!
My neighbour is a landscape architect and she brought over an heirloom plant for me to put in this spring. Acanthus. This particular variety has the common name Hungarian Bear's Breeches.
It has jagged leaves and big spike flowers. As it gets older it spreads. Once it does I'll be hacking those spikey flowers off to bring indoors because I am the flower hacker.
Yes I like to see flowers outside, but unlike a shot and mounted tiger, I also think they're great inside.
The other new thing to the garden this year is this one.
Lip pees on everything. Even the celery I have flanking the brick walk.
So that's new.
Rounding out the butterfly habitat are stalks of milkweed that I allow to grow on the outside of the fence. So it's one stop shopping for the butterflies.
If you don't know about the life cycle of Monarch butterflies it's fascinating.
They lay eggs on milkweed which is where they hatch. The caterpillar ONLY eats milkweed so it never has to leave that spot until it becomes a chrysalis. Once it's gone through it's whole chrysalis thing the monarch emerges and looks for nectar.
It'll only be about 4" away.
English style cottage, english style garden. Honestly it couldn't get more English unless a Sex Pistol jumped out from behind a mound of Phlox.
SEE?! This is why I couldn't hav an all white garden. Look at how the hot pink amaranth looks with the facing purple phlox.
Everyone's favourite, the white sweet peas at the front of my fence have flowered once this year.
Once they're done flowering I hack the sweet peas back (and I do mean hack) and they'll bloom again until October.
This is the same view but from the other direction. You can see the mound of sweet peas on the fence from the back of the side garden.
My rhubarb in the foreground is large enough to provide shelter for an entire extended family of anything. Even catholics. It is a BIG rhubarb plant because it's in a sheltered spot near the warmth of the brick wall of my house.
Also I split the rhubarb once I see it starting to either thin out or grow enormous amounts of flowers (which it did this year.) Splitting your rhubarb plants is the best way to keep them big and healthy.
It's also something people don't really seem to know to do.
So I'm telling you to do it.
This isn't the last you'll see of my front yard garden this year, this is just the preshow. Come the end of September I expect the dahlias will finally catch up with everything else.
Except the rhubarb.
Hi Karen- Nice to find your column again!
Now we know that celery is a diuretic!
Hi Karen. Your garden looks beautiful. However, I'm wondering if you have ever considered a garden of native plants. There are many advantages to this. They are necessary for your native insects to forage and reproduce on. They often will perform better in our climate and have more durability. They can be just as showy as some of the cultivars and provide a valuable service due to our drastically reduced insect populations. I do love the English gardens but since I've been growing native plants, I realize how much better they are at attracting bees, moths and butterflies and giving them a place to live. Spotted bergamont, wild monarda and the stunning cardinal flower just to name a few. Just a thought for you.
Lip peeing on everything bothers me but dogs do what they. Don't they say dogs match their masters? Well, I am puzzled by Lip. He does not look like he belongs to you. I would have pictured you with a more sturdy, rough and adventurous type of dog. The ones with hair and mud dropping everywhere in your house. Just thinking out loud here!
Poodles are incredibly smart and standard poodles in particular. I didn't want a big dopey dog that was difficult to train, lol. As far as sturdy rough and adventurous - Google standard poodles. They're hunting dogs. They are all those things despite the haircut. ;) ~ karen!
Standards are the absolute best dogs ever! And Philip is such a handsome guy! As for ruggedness, there was an episode of Duck Dynasty where the guys got a standard for hunting and they weren't sure of it until they saw him in action. My girl, Zoe, is quite the opposite though -- very prissy, can't stand getting her feet wet, prefers sleeping by the fire. But she's our third standard, and although I've had all sizes of poodles, they're my favorite!
Like Lip's cut - shows superior side view off very well! What was your 2nd favorite smelly plant? You said it was coming up but I missed it. Have you every heard of Sweet Annie? Annual, old fashioned, self sowing, smells great, grows large quickly but still annual, keeps gnats and bugs at bay, rare but ever so easy to grow. Flowers and stems make wonderful dried arrangements and stay beautiful and very long lasting good smell. I love the flowers amongst the apples! great idea along with keeping your fence which I adore. I also adore the way your have beautiful bushes of green, lemon, blue green just so beautiful to look at the levels, colors, texture - gorgeous! Maybe dog pee flavored celery will become popular. Bet bugs don't bother it.
Love the new font! LOVE LOVE LOVE
whut new font??
Thanks, lol. It's much easier to read. :) ~ karen!
Karen - what I am most impressed with is the perfectly weedless mulch around your flowers and plants. Do you spend hours a day just weeding?
Oh lord, not at all! The mulch keeps almost all the weeds away. I only have to pull one every once in a while, and even then because it's only rooted in loose mulch it pulls out easily. ~ karen!
"Katy Perry meets Fischer Price"
Now my new colour mantra
Thanks for putting words to my vision ;)
I have always admired your English garden as well as you community veg garden. You have great style.
Love your post and your garden! I actually live in England, so have a real English cottage garden. Over the years I have experimented with all sorts of flowers and shrubs etc., but one thing that I majorly lived to regret was planting Acanthus (Bears Breeches)! It is a BEAST, and will take over your whole garden if you're not very careful. When I first got it, I thought what a great architectural plant, but hey, three years later I HATED it, as I simply could not get rid of it. So if I might offer some advice, while the gift was obviously well meaning, please do yourself a favour, and get rid of it before it establishes, or like me, you will come to hate it AND the friend who gave it to you! LOL.
Hi Judi! Thanks! I have looked into the plant's propensity for becoming invasive. I even talked to my neighbour about it. We both decided that in this climate, it's not likely to become so invasive. BUT I'm going to keep an eye on it over this winter and into next year and see what I think. I've dealt with invasive plants before (trumpet vine) and KNOW the hate you speak of.😆 ~ karen!
As long as you're prepared Karen, I much prefer to be forewarned about plants that are going to take over my garden, and would NEVER plant Bear's Breeches again, but obviously you have a different climate to ours, so fingers crossed it will be a useful addition to your garden.
Great idea, beautiful site.
I will read what else you have posted and follow.
Karen, in the past couple of years I’ve fallen in love with amaranth-the big stuff! It’s difficult to find seeds so I have to rely on snitching some whenever I come across them in someone’s garden. Can you point me towards vendors so I can get them legally? Also, your garden is wonderful and Lip is a grand specimen!
Hi ! I also love Karen’s amaranth, and did try growing some this year, but due to several issues, no luck. But…will try again next year. Anyway, West Coast Seeds in BC has seeds, as well as Hudson Valley Seeds( US based but available in BC as well ). Don’t know where you are, but good luck.
Richters' Herbs in Goodwood Ontario have 8 varieties of amaranth. And they do online order.
What variety of rhubarb are you growing? Mine die back and get ugly mid-summer. Also, are you going to do a post on storing dahlias? I started a ton of them this year (like $400 worth of tubers because, well, when I start something, I START it). Mine bloomed last week, so of course, I'm getting nervous about how to store them. dahlias are stressful. xx, your garden looks beautiful!
Absolutely beautiful!! And the commentary as usual, superb. 🤩
Much love from Tennessee!!
Wow, so pretty karen.
Love this article soooo much!!
Thank You!
Ps
Lip is looking amazing♥️
Absolutely beautiful! We just moved into a new home (lost our previous home to a fire last fall) with minimal horrible landscaping, and I am thinking about what I want to do with the space. Funny that you mentioned all white. That was on my list of possibilities!
What a lovely way to start my day. Your attention to beauty captures my soul and the way you go about it captures my heart and tickles my funny bone!!
Ummmm....how about some info/photos of Llp? And why did you name him Lip?
Lip is short for Phillip.
Hi Karen! I think I mentioned it on a post on him somewhere, but I named him Lip after a character on the show Shameless. Full name Philip. Until very recently getting photos of him was really hard, lol. It's still difficult. Mainly because he's black and very fast. But he's getting a teeny bit slower and calmer so photos are a little bit easier now. :) If you search Philip in my fancy new search bar all the posts with in and information about him will come up. ~ karen!
Love reading your stuff and have been wondering if you have a permaculture contact? I’ve got 14 acres of land with irrigation and a small creek. I’d like to have someone help me design the space to accommodate gardening, orcharding, bee-ing, and a few other livestock. The soil changes through the the parcel and it is long narrow. Thought maybe you’d have an idea of someone! Thanks:)
Hello! Matt Powers is excellent! You can Google him.
Hi Ottie! I could possibly muster up a couple of people in Canada, but not in the US. :/ ~ karen!
Mercy, that there dog of yours sure did get himself big. He is looking most 'stately' with his fancy grooming cut. Must have been quite the photo session getting the pose so perfectly framed. Between the large community garden and the intense flower 'farming' around your lovely home, I dunno when you have time to blog. Sincere kudos kiddo. You are an amazing person Miss Karen, if one may make so bold.
Thanks Randy! As luck would have it I was just sitting on the porch and Lip walked to that spot and stood still himself. I believe he was birdwatching. As one does after peeing on the celery. ~ karen!