Wacky for Walnut

Did i ever think i would paint the backyard stub wall this color? No. Did i do just that yesterday? Yes. This tone was recommended (again) by two trusted landscape designers we know and who've given us great ideas to transform our yard into a Coastal Cottage Garden. Our wall was white stucco, and we had a nasty glare from the afternoon sun streak into the family room. Frequently we had to close the blinds in the room to avoid that glare...no more! So, besides that added benefit, the walnut color makes the plants in front of it really pop out. It'll take some getting used to seeing it in the yard, as we've had that white wall for about 12 years. My first impression? Very modern looking. Plus it will be a nice accent to the pastels in the garden, and complement the interior redecorating i have in mind over the next few years.

Pretty in Periwinkle

Vinca Minor, aka Periwinkle is the slope covering groundcover that i started planting yesterday. It was recommended to us by two professional landscape designers. The dark green leaves and light lavender spring flowers will be spectacular for the steep bank we have in the back yard. I bought three flats, and planted the shoots about a foot apart. So far, i am 1/3 of the way through planting them. This is badly needed for the steep slope we have struggled with for over 10 years. Over the last few months, i have transplanted a few bearded iris up on the bank, and am contemplating throwing some alstromeria up there as well. I'll be yanking out the existing old, and woody lavendar we have up there already as i move along the bank and put in the vinca. It'll probably be six months before we start to see it really begin to cover the dirt up there. Plus, i may need to add another flat or two as things grow in to fill in any missed spots. Sunset Western Gardening Book says it'll grow to about 6 inches tall, and need an occasional sheering to half it's height to encourage re growth. I remember tossing up some mexican primorose (pink) seeds last summer. Those are a perennial, so lets hope those come up as well. I think i'll wait and see how well this covers before i add any additonal pockets of plants up there. Floribunda roses will line the top of the bank, and accent the waterfall soon, but planting this is like laying the foundation of an important visual aspect of our backyard. Hooray!

A Ballerina for the Bank

This is a small, compact hedge that grows about 2' wide and 3' high which we planted in November along both iron side fences on the bank/slope in our back yard. I originally wanted something taller in a hedge, and i may still change it out-but better to let this dwarf, solid plant get going. Plus, it was a steal at the Home Depot...about a buck and change for each of the eleven purchased.

Sprucing up the Front

Here is a new area I dabbled in today with the addition of a new Cecile Brunner Rose (see post below).

Anyhow, this is a photo of the area. I've torn out the tall red plants and several sea lavendar to open the area up. I replanted many of the lavendar plants after I divided them, plus, dug in some new transplants of geranium, alternating sides of the walkway. I'd like to keep this area short in plantings. Plus, I've got many bulbs here, Spring and Summer that naturalize and summer/winter over. I'll be looking at several new cottage perennials to fill in the gaps soon.
The Robelini Palms will be taken out soon, and a row of tall hedge will be placed to divide and distinguish our front yard from our neighbor's.

• Current plantings include: Shasta Daisy, Cecile Brunner Climbing Rose, Wisteria (just out of right edge of photo), Sea Lavendar, Hydrangea, Alstromeria, Bulbs: daffodils, gladiolus, freesia) Geranium, Dusty Miller, Alyssum...

Under the Christmas Tree...

...a Cecile Brunner Climbing Rose! I am so excited! Got it on the cheap at the Home Depot for just a tad over a ten spot. It went in the ground today, in front of a brick pillar at the front of our home. It can climb up the pillar and over toward the front door. How delightful to watch it grow, curl and bloom refreshing baby pink blossoms the fragrant the front porch. I'll be sure to leave open the front window so the scent filters through! A show stopping rose to set the tone for the front yard.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

One must have patience when planting fall bulbs for a spring bloom. You don't reap instant rewards as when you dig in a new annual. I stopped in my local Armstrong Nursery to pick out my free birthday gift from them-a six pack of annuals!( stock, in a lovely pastel mix) I happened upon their bulb display and what to my wandering eyes did i see? but 50% off for you and me! Since this is the first bulbs that i'll be planting in the new backyard area, i chose the granddaddy of them all...Tulips.2 pinks and a purple.
I was quite lucky they had some double flowering light pinks (angelique) and i grabbed what i could in my color scheme-looking out to pick the best in the box. No early shoots or signs of decay on mine! I was able to pick out 25 bulbs for 10 bucks! They'll be mid to late bloomers, but well worth the wait. They're chilling right now in the outside frig for 6 weeks. So, they'll go in around Jan 20th and should wake up in May if i'm lucky. I've grown tulips out in the front garden before, so nothing new there, but these colors are in our new palette and a new place to view them from the kitchen and family room. I plan to throw them in the planters and dig them in when they scatter-suggested serendipity. It's turned a bit cold outside, not much work going on out there for now.

To Do List

These things have been on my mind to get going on in the coming weeks and months:

• Place an order for rose hedges for our backyard slope and a spectacular David Austin Climber for the front yard.
• Stop by a good garden shop and pick out some quality spring bulbs...tulips and dutch iris are at the top of my list. Mail order is a possiblity!
• Choose and paint the backyard retaining wall...chocolate brown. (trailing vines will look great over this, as well as a great backdrop for the beds in front...and reduce the glare from the current white color that intrudes into our family room daily! (ugh!)
• Pick up some needed hedges for around the yard, including privets for the front...and some perimeter hedges yet to be chosen.
• Get going on the groundcover options for the slope...and decide what to do with our existing lavendar.
• Rip out plants throughout the yard that are not in the grand scheme of things (husband and son and daughter needed for this chore!) this includes bouganvilla, assorted palms...etc. More on that later.
• Relish the upcoming bloom of the light pink Debutante Camelias. Oh, and the impatiens are finally growing again thanks to the recluse racoon bandit that has left us alone for a few weeks.
• Tenderly care for the Shasta daisy and Coneflower seeds i've got growing for the backyard plots.
• Get those Delphiniums growing...i've planted plenty of seeds...but nothing yet.
• Toss up some Nasistursims (no i can't spell or say that word very well)
• Move a half dozen roses i have in the front yard to a new spot to make way for a perimeter hedge!
• Wow...so much to do...big undertaking...this is going to take a while. Enjoy the process!

Look what we grew!

This morning i awoke to find that our Moonflower seeds that were planted late summer have bloomed. I've never seen this annual before, and planted it a bit late...but as the vine grew and trailed over our backyard wall, I waited in anticipation. The last few weeks, I had seen the flower buds growing. I had read these have a wonderful scent, but I did not notice it this morning. These are supposed to bloom at night, so i feel very lucky that it was still in bloom at 8:30 am. There must be a dozen more buds that will bloom in the coming days. I'm going to wander the garden at night to see if I can catch their scent, plant a few more this coming Spring in more areas of the yard...and enjoy our success.

Micro Macro

We are currently on a 3 day watering schedule...Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I figure with fall and winter coming, they will relax the drought schedule. Apparently, fellow citizens have cut back watering so much, that the water agencies have lost revenue, and have been asking  people to 'not cut back so much!'
What is the saying...you reap what you sew...

Overall, we have a large system of microsprinklers throughout our yard. We have a front yard grass area that works with standard pop up sprinklers and the newly refurbished backyard area is watered in that manner as well. We may switch out the latter area's system in time...but for now, it's real nice to have it on automatic.

We did have a mess to untangle there a couple of weeks ago, too. I guess one too many swings with the axe in taking up the grass, cracked open an irrigation line and we got the area dug up and repaired. Nothing like being ankle deep in water and wood chips-thanks, love! Nothing like having a strong son able to help out in a jiffy, too!-love him!!

Copper Plant Markers

I found a nice pack of these at a local garden/nursery a few weeks ago. I haven't bought them yet. I'm drooling over them as they are probably some kind of requisite to a cottage garden. Gosh, they are just lovely, only 2 bucks for a pack...and are going to look real nice turning shades of verdigris in our Coastal Cottage Garden.

Park Seed Co., shows and sells them as well.

It will be a finishing touch well worth the wait....

Odds and Ends

I've moved some plants around the garden, and planted a few pony packs to brighten up the beds until the perennial seeds get sprouting. The mixture of pink dianthus, lobelia and trailing alyssym are doing nicely along the edge of one of our new beds. Some of the seeds i've started are:

• Pink/White Coneflower
• Lagurus-Bunny Tails
• Mexican Primrose
• and Delphinum

These are all part of the master plan, but are quite slow to get going...hmm. Anyway, I'll be out there soon, tossing more into pots and crossing my fingers. It is important to keep successive plantings going, and fall is a great time to be outside working. Not too hot, not too cold-just right.
You can see in the photo above, i've interspersed the pots and growing packs right into the beds to get acclimated.

The Bandit

For the last month, i've been busy chasing a racoon out of our beds. He'd come every three or four nights, dig up all the impatiens and rummage through the vegetable garden. He has kept me endlessly busy replanting the flowers he digs up nightly. I came up with a minor deterrant (one of several attempts!)

-installing a string fence and implanting  golf tees upside down to distrub his footing. He's only been back once since these measures were introuduced. But gosh darn it-i'm way past fed up!  He will be sorry the next time one of us catch him in our yard-no more Mrs. Nice Guy! I'm thinking since the Concord Grape vine has stopped fruiting, he may be holed up somewhere in the neighborhood). I'm praying he stays away and lets me get back to the project at hand. The don't call them VARMINTS for 'nothin!

The Seeds of Summer

As a thrifty and nifty gardener, I've been starting specially selected seeds in house. Lucky me as I had a package of peat pots that I ran under warm water to expand, and then viola...I was ready to get things sprouting. A few seeds were directly sewn into the soil outside a couple of months ago, as I was dreaming and anticipating the make-over. Also, I made a few cuttings from a plant from the front of my yard, and put together a make-shift greenhouse for them, after doing a bit of research online.

It is of utmost importance to keep newly seeded soil damp, until your seeds sprout.

Foundations

The foundation for our Coastal Cottage Garden is now set in place! This is a great accomplishment and is exciting as we anticipate new plants springing up and a whole new look from many rooms in our home. Lounge chairs and umbrella are summertime optional! I moved our firebowl center, to our canteleiver bench. I'm giving us a huge pat on the back!

Laying the groundwork

Well, it took several days but I finally have the central yard bed layed out. It took two trips to the local composting facility where I purchased four bags of small shredded wood chips. They are not fancy, but at a buck a large trash can sized bag...it's a steal. This may be temporary. We might choose to replace it with stepping stones and moss/rosemary in the future but at least it's looking very nice right now.

It was grueling work to dig up the remaining grass/sod. It must have taken 5 or 6 days. I did get some help from my husband and son, and that was a huge help. Nevertheless, it was back breaking work. I did indeed need to take a few hours, days here and there to recooperate. At last, i did the final raking and poured out the chips. I raked that around, evening it out, as best as i could.

I think in time, the color and texture will relax. I still need shoes on to walk on it really, but chances are that it will decompose naturally and be a great weed and grass preventer while giving us the natural gsetting between the beds.
Next up...the foundation is complete!

Cottage Garden Design Elements

Here's a short list of ideas I've gathered from my research so far:
Style: informal or traditional materials
Dense plantings reduce areas where weeds form!
Flowers, herbs and veggies are planted together
Cutting flowers, and hedging
Rectangular plots (formal)
Practical paths featuring local brick or stone
No lawns (informal), instead use tufts of grasses and/or ground cover
Natural looking materials
Focal points, such as arbors, traditional or antique
fencing,  and gates
Even an unexpected addition such as this clay pot purposefully turned on it's side and filled with Lobelia add to the garden's serendipity.

Soil Matters

Our soil on our small residential lot is Clay and Rock filled. We've also got quite a bit of Queen Palm roots that have crept into this lawn area over the years, so that just add's to the difficulty of the project.

I've written  about our  new amendments, below. We've got them tilled in at least 6-8" in, probably not ideal, but I can manage to dig in the bed now. Plus the mulch will keep moisture in and slow weed growth until the beds have matured. I've been real careful not to pat down any of the bed-including not stepping all over it! This should really help the irrigation get down deep in the bed, plus add air and circulation.

Shovel Ready

7 days into the first stage in our overall Coastal Cottage Garden project, as shown from above.

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  We've got the beds laid out with local round stones, dug up from our land. 
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  I spent over an hour at the local garden waste recycling/composting plant where I was able to purchase 3 large garbage bags of soil for the project. Since we are local residents, each bag cost $1.00-this is obviously a new favorite place of mine!
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  I had to shovel the soil into my own bags, but you can't beat the price or the quality and diversity of soil amendments they offer.
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  I brought home 2 bags of Humic and 1 bag of Perennial Mulch.

Well, with the rocks in place according to the plan, and soil amendments in hand, it was time to get busy!

I had given the lawn area several days to dry out to ease the excavation. My wonderful husband showed me a fantastic tool to help dig up the lawn...it's a type of pick axe with a scoop on the end. It is best used like a swinging pendulum. Many hours and sweat from the summer heat later, the first bed had been cleared of grass and existing plant material. The bed was then tilled up (husband's strength needed!) with the pick end of the axe. I added several wheelbarrow's full of Humic and tilled that in as well. I worked to rid the bed of any remaining weeds, roots, rocks (ugh!), boulders (double ugh!) , and gigantic root filled dirt clods (triple ugh!) . I broke down by hand, or hula hoe, any small dirt clogs, working also to even out the bed. I then spread  a 2-3 inch topper of Perennial mulch over the bed as the sun went down for the day. Tough Work!

The Plan-Part One

We have several areas in need of improvement, but this grass area (pictured) is first on the long list.

We were able to meet with long time landscaper (and relative) Gary,10 days ago. I had spent about two week previous to our meeting, measuring and laying out our plans on paper before our visit. I also took a dozen or more photos of just about every nook and cranny of our yard. The plans were mostly accurate and included various plant names in the legend; plus a compass rose.

Thanks to our meeting and talking with Gary, we established an overall plan to achieve our desired Cottage Garden. For this backyard lawn area, he suggested, "just rip it up and out". He drew a new smaller sketch of the area which includes three, new garden beds trimmed in stone and a central meandering path pressed from DG (decomposed granite) or small wood chips. We have the choice to enhance this path with pieces of flagstone and add some creeping thyme in the future.

We also discussed all the other areas of improvement for the new Cottage Garden, plants that do well in our area and that are within the theme, problem areas, and a Cottage garden path in the front of our home that just needed a nudge to make it more so.

Location, Location, Location

Carlsbad, California, United States of America

Latitude: 33* 2' 49.54" N
Longitude: 117* 17' 53.61" W

Site Location is 3 miles due west from the Pacific Ocean, as the crow flies.
First area of the overall project is 12' x 18'. It consists of a small backyard lawn area.
There about 6-7 areas in the garden/yard that will be redesigned.

And yes, this first area is in desperate need of design, rejuvination and life! It is also a primary view from our kitchen window, so working on this area first will allow us to immediately enjoy our new cottage garden asap. Plus, it will continue to inspire us to keep working on the overall project.

Welcome to the Coastal Cottage Garden

These posts, photos,sketches and notes are intended to describe, in diary form, the transformation of our hodgepodge, coastal suburban landscape to the ever popular, romantic Cottage Garden style.

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  Posts will include activites done in the garden and helpful hints.


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  Photographs will show before, during and after site descriptions.


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  Sketches will be from my garden journal pages relating to this overall project.


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  Notes...well, who knows, maybe reminders or great ideas!

Enjoy