Forum home› Garden design
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Cottage garden help

NewnorthernIrishgardenerNewnorthernIrishgardener Posts: 52
in Garden design
Hello gardeners world

OK here goes

We moved into our self build a few years ago and recently we are able to turn our sights to the outside

Below is the full site we face south and the soil is quite clay and slightly acidic and we get full sun for almost the full day

We are fairly exposed but hoping that will change with the hedging (I will get to that) 



The green is the lawn which thankfully is now looking a lot healthier, the brown we planted in an orchard and wildflower meadow

We planted a hornbeam hedge in Feb so we will let this get to about 6 or ifeet ideally over the next number of years

Below are the 2 lawns with hedging in and rabbit spirals to protect for the first few years




We love the idea of a cottage garden but alow with grasses to see us through for some interest for the winter 

Our thoughts were to have a longish border along the new hedge (the curved side) are we mad? 

Also looking for some planting advice we love big blousy type flowers but also fairly hardy as we do get a bit of wind, and snow through the year 

Any and all advise or opinions welcome! 






«1

Posts

  • NewnorthernIrishgardenerNewnorthernIrishgardener Posts: 52
    Sorry I should mention that the fence/hedges on the lawns are both 60m long each do we come up with a design say 5m/10m long and repeat along the border??? 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Great site! My advice is set out flowering shrubs and larger grasses (e.g. blocks of Miscanthus) first ... you want to have different sized groupings (3's, 5's, 7's) spaced apart from each-other in a sort of evenly random way (if that makes sense). This will start to give you some kind of winter backbone to the scheme, and something to work off as you infill the spaces between with groups of perennials. 
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • NewnorthernIrishgardenerNewnorthernIrishgardener Posts: 52
    Thanks Loxley is there any magic formula to know how deep to plant a "long Boarder" we had thought initially starting with a boarder either 5m or 10m long and 1.5m deep then repeating the same bed when we have the funds or take cuttings etc 

    Would the final product i.e. a 60m curved bed 1.5m deep be too spindly looking?
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @NewnorthernIrishgardener That does look like a windy site as you say. You can go up to two metres to get a real depth of planting. Cottage style gardening is the most intensive form of all. You will be continuously be working on it to get it right through the seasons. In winter the grasses will be the main plants to offer structure. Some perennials look good through winter worth researching those too. Not all grasses are happy in a heavy wet winter soil but a southerly aspect will help. Miscanthus Kliene Fontaine and M Flamingo  grow well in my garden.
    You could start with a border 1.5m and then widen it, you will then have to move alot of plants not so easy in heavy clay. A border 2m deep would be even better to get areal depth of planting but this type of gardening is hard work and that extra half metre would add to it. 3/5/7 as @Loxley mentions and repeat the same plants further along the border. You can also plant just one from a group further along to make it look natural. Some taller plants can be used at the front  Molinias are good for this I grow M Poul Petersen but you could go taller still. However it is the large Molinias such as M The Rocket that are the stars.
    A long border would not be complete without some stands of Calamagrostisi Karl Foerster in 3 or 5's.
    My main concern is how this will work in such a windy site and if your drainage will be ok for a cottage 'style'.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I had assume the whole area between the drive and the road would be planted lol...

    That's what I would do, but it would look fine if the border was about a third of the overall width. For example you could do the borders as the brown areas below, with the pale green blobs representing blocks of tall ornamental grasses and the bright green blobs representing shrub groupings.



    Then fill up with blocks of perennials, admittedly this is more of a Piet Oudolf/prairie style I suppose.


    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • NewnorthernIrishgardenerNewnorthernIrishgardener Posts: 52
    @Loxley thanks for this 
    we are fairly new to this and i suppose the issue is more confidence or concern of doing a bad job!!

    the canvas is so blank also that we struggle to know where exactly to start 


  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Don't worry about doing a bad job. Nothing has to be permanent. A lot of plants can be moved around at the right time or they can be disposed of if you hate them or they die
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Low growing plants, such a hardy geraniums, dwarf asters, salvias, nepeta, alchemilla mollis are fine in a windy border, interspersed with plants that sway in the wind like gaura and grasses. You could add some tough shrubs, such as euonymus, mahonia, berberis. Roses are usually OK with wind, especially the tough rosa rugosa. In a long border it is good to repeat the planting.

    A border as long as 60m and 2m wide will mean quite a bit of work in its maintenance, weeding, cutting back, edging etc. Fine if that is something you will enjoy doing but not if it becomes a chore.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Oooh, I have serious envy of that lovely big space!
    I don't have anything to add to the planting advice already given, but it would be good to leave a gap between the hedge and the back of the border, to give you a path of sorts for access to both the back part of the border for weeding, cutting back etc and to the hedge for trimming. You could put down something like bark chippings if you like, which would help suppress weeds and keep the hedge base area clear. Don't forget to leave space for the hedge to  grow to its mature width as well.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Good point re leaving a gap to maintain the hedge. And yes, don't be afraid of not getting it quite right first time, perennials are easy to move around. And remember you don't have to do it all in one go... you could start with a section alongside the drive near the house, and then extend it next year etc. You will be able to divide this year's plants to help fill out the extended areas next year.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
Sign In or Register to comment.