Come with me as we tour my cottage garden! This spring and summer season has been incredible for my cottage garden, and my plants are finally maturing and looking more beautiful than ever!
Curious which plants are easy keepers and which are a little more high maintenance? Keep reading!
Cottage Garden
When we first purchased the home in 2020 there was no garden in the front of the house, there was simply a rock stone wall made with stones from all over the property, and a broken slate walkway. Our first task for creating the cottage garden was hiring someone to do the masonry, and they installed a paver walkway with builder block edging and granite steps! We also did a foundation façade which you can’t see in the summer when the hydrangeas are in full bloom!
Once the masonry was finished it was time to start prepping the garden space. Our first job was to remove the top soil and till the soil beneath. There wasn’t too much grass here, so that was a fairly simple task. I have fairly rich soil in this area, so we definitely got luck with that. Once we tilled the soil we layered landscaping paper and laid out where the plants would go.
In 2024 the space is definitely in need of another round of landscaping paper and I have found that I am weeding quite frequently this season, but the landscaping paper did buy me 4 years of minimal weeding, so I would say it was worth it!
To find out more about the history of the Acorn Hill Home check out the entire story over on the about page.
Cottage Garden Plants
I knew that these plants would grow, and the look I was going for was not entirely that of a true English Cottage garden. I wanted them to grow, but to not be squished together, I still wanted them to have their own unique spaces.
Once I selected the plants and laid them down, I dug the holes for them and allowed them plenty of room to grow. I filled each hole with plant food and did not fertilize again until 2023.
Once everything was planted the only thing left to do was mulch, and nurture! I watered the plants frequently for their first 1-2 years while they were establishing themselves, and now, in my 4th year of the garden, I haven’t watered at all!
Now onto what you really want to know…which plants did I pick for my cottage garden, and which are my favorites!
Hydrangeas
There are two types of hydrangeas in my cottage garden, endless summer and summer crush. When I first planted the summer crush back in 2020 they were bright pink, but my soil is more acidic and turns them a more purple/blue color, which I much prefer!
Hydrangeas are, for lack of a better word, dramatic. They are definitely the hardest keepers in my cottage garden, but also my favorite! They require lots and lots of water to stay happy, and only partial sun otherwise they will wilt, turn crispy, and die. Luckily they are against the house so they only get the amount of sun they require, and I have had great luck with them this year!
Foxglove
I initially planted foxglove in my garden, and while I love the look of it, for some reason it never grew back the next season. I tried two separate years to grow foxglove and each year it thrived in the garden during the heart of the season but didn’t grow back. In the end, I ended up replacing this flower with the Rose Marvel Saliva, which is much lower maintenance!
Catmint
Catmint is easily my lowest maintenance flower in the garden. It comes in full, and beautiful, and purple! It doesn’t require that much water once it is well established, and I honestly haven’t watered it at all in the last 2 years! I cut this back all the way each spring, and it comes in beautifully each season!
Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob’s ladder is an easy plant to take care of. It has purple flowers in early spring, and appears as a large green shrub the remainder of the season. This has been a great addition to my garden!
Azalea
If you are like me, you love Azaleas. My only qualm about the Azalea is it only blooms for about 2 weeks, and once it is done it leave a mess on my mulch! Since this is an early spring bloom, I have been waiting to mulch my garden until after this is done wilting its flowers so they don’t sit on top of my new black mulch.
May Night Salvia
This has got to be the easiest plant I have in my garden. It is drought resistant, deer resistant, and a beautiful deep purple! This blooms twice a year and it grows quite large, so I find that I have to prune it back all the way mid summer and it will grow in again before fall. My may night salvia grows so large it starts to fall over!
Rose Marvel Salvia
When I didn’t have luck with the foxglove growing back the following year, I decided I still wanted a pink flower, but something a little more hardy. This salvia is a beautiful deep pink color, and like the may night salvia, it blooms twice a year. It is drought resistant and deer resistant!
‘Firewitch’ Dianthus
My first year of planting this flower it was a little bit…dramatic. It didn’t flower at all and I was wondering if I had done something wrong. After that first year I have gotten beautiful bright pink flowers each year, and this has turned into one of my garden favorites!
Shop This Post:
- Endless Summer Hydrangeas
- Summer Crush Hydrangea
- ‘Firewitch’ Dianthus
- Catmint
- May Night Salvia
- Rose Marvel Salvia
- Jacob’s Ladder
- Proven Winner’s Fertilizer
