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cottage garden
green fingerd will
Posts: 34
can anybody please help me my cottage hgarden has been poor for the last two years and its driving me crazy!
im trying to achieve a garden like what I see on gardners world a garden full of sun baked rudbekia, lupins and rudbeckia rising like swords from the ground all are getting poor and some are no show in the borders and some just don't come back at all and these are all perenials! so can someone please help me it will be much apreciated
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it takes a long time to learn how to garden and even longer to put that knowledge to work. thinking about the mistakes and failures teaches us more than our successes. there are so many factors that might affect your garden but the foundation of any garden is good, bioactive soil and drainage. if you have those just about anything is possible. this probably isn't very comforting but in real gardening there usually aren't any quick fixes.
Can you tell us a little about how you look after your plants? Do you have a problem with slugs, snails or rabbits?
And whereabouts in the country are you? Is your garden sunny or shady, clayey or sandy?
In my Northumberland garden I regularly lost perennials after cold winter winds. In my current garden in the Pennines some things grow brilliantly, others succumb to too much wet in the winter. But wherever you live and whatever aspect and soil your garden has, there will be some plants which succeed and others which fail.
Where do you live? Things such as soil type and local weather can all have an effect on the garden.
thanks for the replies guys i'm based in Cumbria Whitehaven to be exact.
the garden gets a regular mulch of compost, leaf mold and bark and through the growing months the garden gets a balanced feed as well as water.
last year was a very quiet year for slugs and snails as I started early with the pest control!
im just agrivated because I put a lot of time and effort into this area of the garden and my expectations keep getting dashed. I know its supposed to flow and be natural but it just isn't working at all.
I have always struggled with rudbeckia, echinaceas, galliardia and the like on my much-improved clay soil. Those are all finicky plants and simply don't like growing in some areas, especially if it's somewhere with a lot of winter wet and/or a frost-hollow. However, there are plants which will give you equally gorgeous blooms such as dahlias (as long as you lift them in winter), delphiniums (both perennial and annual types), foxgloves etc. Another 'trick' is to grow young plants on in large 2-3 litre pots for a year or two before planting them out. Large mature plants fare much better in less-than-ideal conditions than small ones.
The key to the old cottage garden was muck, more muck and muck. Even human muck though I doubt we would do it now. They were extremely fertile and organic material was constantly added. I would give up on the pest control too, you simply won't need it as it will find a balance. If you control slugs and snails you'll be doing it forever. If you just keep them away from delicate seedlings they will help attract all the creatures that will control them for you in time.
I grow a lot of native plants. Foxgloves being a favourite, they need nurturing in my garden just as much as anything else, so I think BobTheGardener has it. Improve that soil getting in loads of manure and nurture big strong plants in pots to go out. Don't rely on self seeding, but watch for it. The garden you want is just around the corner.
I'm back at after a 6 year break, more horse poop has gone in the ground since the Autumn than I could have imagined possible, and there will be more and more to come over the years.
Hi.
This is what I have tried to achieve since we moved into our house 3 years ago. It's a real learning curve as I'm 32 and this the first time I've been interested in gardening, and like you have put a lot of time and effort. My front borders are constantly changing in terms of if the plants have survived or how I feel about them. What has stayed and worked are: tulips, daffodils, Muscari, foxgloves (although I moved these to the back as the spread to widely) lupins (the aphids LOVED these last year), gladioli, phlox and a honeysuckle (around our front door pillars). Last year I planted allium so am yet to see how they work.
One thing i would say which I got from Monty, is that there is no point trying to grow plants in the wrong soil / climate. This was a good tip for me as I have bought plants i liked without reading the tag/research and they died pretty soon after planting!
This year, i have grown perennials and annuals from seed so I am excited to see how they look (if they ever make the border!) I have grown; delphinium, morning glory, Zinnia, hollyhocks, sweat peas, iberis, cosmos, nigella, poppies, nigella and nasturtium. Below are some of the seedlings:
Below is a pic of my front borders with some spring flowers....
It might be worth getting a soil tester kit - not that i have sed one before, but it might help you understand what might grow in your soil?