English or Cottage style gardens

[jennymisek]

I am interested in designing an area on the side of my garage that will resemble an old style garden. Cottage and English come to mind. I am looking for the area to have blooms or leaf color all season, and I would love for the plants to just flow together. Another goal for the area is to provide a blind to a neighboring house.

I live in zone 4, east central Wisconsin. Does anyone have any ideas for plantings, websites to look at or even better some pre-made designs?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Jenny

[Grey]

I do a lot of "cottage style" gardening. It's pretty much a free-flowing kind of design, I prefer it in layers. The only structure I usually use is a piece of picket fencing, maybe a painted chair. Other than that I layer different wildflowers (sunflower in back, Queen Anne's Lace in the middle mixed with Purple Coneflower and Black eyed Susans, then more lower flowers in the front of all that.

Better Homes and Gardens magazines usually have a lot of "cottage style" gardens featured in their zine, and sometimes have planting guides.

Hope that helps

[jennymisek]

Thanks Grey for your feedback. I did some looking through Google and did find the BH&G site with a bunch of online garden plans, and one was a cottage style.

It is just like you described with plants neshing together with an arbor or some other point of interest. Nothing formal which is exactly what I want!

If you have some pictures they would be great to see!

Have a good weekend.

[Grey]

Jenny, I wish I did have some photos for you! Unforutnately we just moved and are starting over in our yard here. It may take a while for me to have things the way I want them. (sigh).

In Florida I had to be a lot more creative and the cottage garden never did quite pull off like it should, so many wildflowers don't quite make it, or things that look close to a cottage garden tend to still look too tropical in my mind. I loved Tibouchina and Mona Lavender, and could scatter the Monas with Snow on the Mountain in the shade, Tibouchina in the sun with giant marigolds and lots of blue salvia (the tall kind). Sunflowers did quite well but I had trouble finding a plant that came near that height (I'm addicted to the Mammoth Sunflowers - lol).

I have photos of all that around somewhere in storage - we're remodeling the house here and pretty much "camping out" at the moment. I don't even have a stove!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks for the tips, Grey...

Scott