Cottage Garden Design Masterclass - Plant Selection

the number one secret to transform your yard into a proper cottage garden is knowing what plants to select and where to place them this comes with experience but i'm here to show you some shortcuts and share secrets i've learned in the study of art that can save you a pretty penny and lots of grief when designing your own botanical utopia i'm silhouette oliveira an artist and gardener in past years i transmuted a tiny patch of lawn into a hidden jewel and i'm doing it again at a much larger scale in my new home follow this series on garden design for practical tips and theoretical musings to elevate your yard into a garden worthy of dreams [Music] in this video we'll focus on plant selection their different forms and habits and how to mix and match them to get that cottage look you may think the cottage gardens are all about planting things without a pattern however i'll show you there is method to the madness in my new home i picked the side courtyard as a starting point in my garden and installed beds to house edible produce i broke up my concrete path and reconfigured it into a curved and gentle walkway leaving a larger border next to the foundation to grow flowers cottage style if like me you're starting from scratch and you feel overwhelmed with the blank canvas my advice is to pick a spot with decent sun exposure that's close to a high traffic area like a walkway or a door and get planting if you live in a drier area access to water will be another major consideration luckily i don't have to worry about that otherwise you must secure a source of water as priority number one but before we start planting we have to be mindful of one thing that makes or breaks a garden it's not something you do it's something you observe microclimate by looking at the way the sun hits the property and the pattern of how snow melts i knew i would be dealing with two different microclimates due to the position of the house and the lay of the land this front part area faces south and sits proud of the rest of the lawn making for sunny and dry conditions i can expect six to eight hours of direct sun here and some partial shade in the afternoon making this area a perfect spot for showy flowers the microclimate on the side of the house however it's vastly different facing east or actually northeast it receives a few hours of morning sun with the house shading it in the afternoon it also tends to be much wetter because of the roof downspouts and the way the terrain slopes i knew that this spot would be a challenge if you have a similar microclimate in your yard it may limit the type of plants that you can grow in such spots but you can always find something that's suitable you just have to research more and do some trial and error with these microclimates in mind i was ready to plant sun-loving summer flowering perennials to brighten the front part of the porch i got a bit enthusiastic and ended up splurging on some flowers for the garden they were relatively cheap compared to when you buy potted nursery plants especially if it has already the flowers that's a trap usually the flowers fade away in just a few weeks and you're left with a dying perennial it's best to start with tubers or bulbs but with that in mind i'm ready to go prepare the spot for these plants to go in as soon as possible a cottage garden needs a profusion of blooms throughout the growing season it must also be a bit wild and rough around the edges much of the inspiration for cottage gardens came from medieval peasants using the small patches of land available around their home to grow useful and pleasant plants crammed together packing plants in and keeping things just a bit wild is how you achieve the look overly manicured plants and excessively balanced and contained borders run the risk of losing the spirit of a cottage garden becoming more like public park planting or worse yet funeral home landscaping while there's nothing necessarily wrong with these pristine landscapes they are intentionally not very homely a cottage garden overwhelms you while embracing you in coziness it also blurs edges cascading in energetic swoops while we may dream up the design we must remember to stay grounded on what we are working with this is the spot it's around the porch i'm sure it has been flower gardens before because there are some daffodils over here and even more on the other side first i do have to get rid of all the grass and vines that have grown but once that's done i'll be able to plant all these bulbs and tubers and then wait to see the results the plants you select make all the difference plant and bloom color is the most important element but it deserves an episode of its own so here i want to focus just on plant form and how through the use of line shape and texture it can set rhythm and establish theme and variation the backbone of a good composition if we look through the prism of art we can compare the forms of plants to brush strokes formal gardens such as those of 17th century france can be contained rigid and polished like a da vinci painting of immaculate albeit rigid rendering with clipped geometric boxwood and blocks of flowering plants forming uniform carpets or they can have the energy of a sergeant painting with loose masterful brush strokes that feel effortless and rhythmic like a successful cottage garden after deciding on a main approach for the space we can start planning the execution but we must consider our soil before planting anything down one of the best things about growing in an old house is that usually there has been gardens in the past which means that the soil is probably amended different from new subdivisions where they clear cut everything and shape the land with tractors and basically bring up subsoil to the surface you end up with clay soil that's never a good thing i'm working with excellent soil here if this were not the case i would add plenty of compost and even some organic fertilizer with the area ready i could start designing by choosing which plant forms would make the space sink to create a cottage garden composition we can pick plants from six main groups based on form first crew bushy plants like hydrangeas asters black-eyed susans dahlias roses and many others provide bulk and mass to a border you can use them to separate spaces fill up voids form main masses in the middle of beds or obstruct unsightly things they help flesh out the garden but the quintessential cottage look will not materialize if you only use these plants number two columnar plants like hollyhocks fox gloves red hot poker gladioli and others provide height and structure to the composition by drawing the eye upwards punctuating the space by breaking through the bushy plants they're perfect for setting rhythm through repetition especially along a pathway much in the same way the columns do in classical column nades number three sculptural plants like iris lilies even some large zinnias or dinner plate dahlias they have large blooms that instantly command the spotlight they serve as focal points and the repetition can also create rhythm or symmetry number four wispy plants like cosmos poppy ships of philla queen anne's lace cleome they activate the space by growing amongst the other more formal plants creating lacy separation and transparency that establish a sense of death by augmenting parallax they're essential to a cottage garden number five vining plants like morning glory clematis iv black-eyed susan vine wisteria or even runner beans they stitch together structures and give wildness to a garden conveying a sense of age number six sprawler plants like sweet alyssum snow and summer forget me not flocks time and even nasturtium they hug the ground helping to shield the soil but most importantly they blur harsh lines and paths these are paramount to achieve a cutter's look without them there will not be a smooth transition from the more upright and mushy plants to the flat ground unlike in formal french parterres where compositional design depends on the harsh lines created in the square junctions of clip bushes and flat ground the composition lines in cottage gardens are ever curvy and wispy much like a fragonard painting for a master touch we can add a seventh form the weeping panicle this form is seen mostly in trees larger bushes and climbing roses and things of the sort they bring romanticism by activating the so-called roof of a garden room in my old cottage garden a pink crepey myrtle tree with pendulous blooms serve this purpose and indeed tie together the cottage garden look now you may have noticed that i'm not giving you a comprehensive list of plants to use that's because the availability of plants they change a lot according to climate and the concept behind sculpting a space with plants is more important than any specific combination for instance if you live in a tropical climate finding suitable plants with a cottage look may be more challenging since most tropical plants are large-leaved and sculptural but you can still be creative substituting climbing roses or mysterious with bougainvilleas picking kanas instead of iris and banking on verbena etc as a rule of thumb the more agreeable platforms for a cottage garden are wispy small flowered and lousy different from the highly architectural tropical foliage right my plan is to put the peonies on each side i'll put the darker rose colored in the back and then the lighter one in the front that will make the white pop out i'll scatter gladio line to a cluster and then the lilies towards the back by recognizing how different platforms can interact with the space we are ready to start sculpting the space in practice we can either use perennial plants that always come back year after year or annual plants that you plant once and then they die to achieve a similar shape result of course perennials are more reliable but they take a while to get established my strategy is to start by planting small perennials in the first year filling up most of the space around them with annuals this way i don't spend too much with nurseries growing many of the plants from cuttings as we design our plantings we modulate the space by picking and choosing different platforms we can plant in natural clumps making sure to vary the forms as a painter varies the brush strokes it keeps a harmonious shape language as a general guideline we can start planning the bushy masses starting with larger bushes and small trees and working from the center out i decided to plant peonies flanking the steps to the porch i knew these would take a long time to get established in bloom so i was not expecting immediate performance from them with the wetter and shadier side garden i knew hydrangea bushes would feel right at home they love wetter feet and shade in the afternoon here's a tip on how to find real bargains for your garden i always like to prowl around in the discount aisle because you can find treasures like this i bought these for five dollars i don't know if they were meant for mother's day they didn't sell in any case i'm gonna plant them and i know just exactly the spot that they need to be in it gets three to four hours of morning sun and there's afternoon shade and it's quite wet because of the downspouts but the soil is still soft and well drainy it would take a few years for them to grow big enough to make a difference so for those first years i was banking on dahlias to provide the bushy form when you're establishing your cottage garden you need an abundance of flowers because of this i went out and had a second spree of buying bulbs to flower in summer i should have a lot of flowers blooming in my border dahlias are incredible at filling up garden space within one season i highly recommend them now remember that dahlias are actually tender perennials that means that they will grow year after year and come back if you live in a tropical place or maybe even subtropical but if you're in a temperate zone like i am you can either plant them every year from the tubers you buy treat them as annuals that's kind of wasteful but if you're careful you might be able to overwinter them if you pick them up right after the first light frost other than that they should be a reliable plant that flowers the full season long adding height and rhythm to the composition with columnar plants is the next step i had my sights set on growing hollyhocks the quintessential cottage garden flower i planted hollyhock seeds and the modules i hope i have better luck than previously when groundhogs just raided all the hollyhocks i see that the roots are already starting to grow on the bottom so they do want to expand it happens to be a groundhog's favorite food and is many times afflicted by rust and other diseases so i wasn't banking on it doing well as an insurance policy i planted a large collection of gladioli they are not as stately as hollyhocks but are much more reliable they do have the tendency to topple over from their weight so i would have to support them somehow in the future fearing the hollyhocks would be a complete wash in the second year i also planted red hot pokers which would serve well as perennial columnar plants but they would also need years to get established with the bigger masses in place we can then form clusters of sculptural plants to create focal points i planted lilies in the corner the good thing is that these plants are not bothered by groundhogs as they grow and bloom their sculptural mass would dominate the space to be appreciated in 3d as they turn the corner lilies are one of my favorite plants to grow in the cottage garden they're very reliable showy plants so they're worth the effort actually the only thing you really need to do is plant them and if you have right soil and right exposure they will grow and there is a sign right in this garden that makes me believe this is going to be a good lilly growing place it's right over there this spot has a native type of daylily that grows here in maryland if they grew here and they like the space that means this is a prime spot to grow lilies even though they're technically different species in the shadier side of the garden i was still unsure which perennial plants would do best to sculpture plants i did include a cardoon to test the spot and was later surprised how well it grew there and how beautifully it bloomed for the first years before the perennial plants got established i also grew showy annual zinnias here and there for the wispy plants i planted annuals like cosmos and poppies they are especially good at activating the space with their lacy texture they can be planted at any spot depending on the effect you want from them i wanted to grow poppies they can get lost outside so i decided to use the soil box that i've created with my own homemade soil blocker i happened upon this trick by experimenting with soil blocks i compress out of moist potting soil with the help of a cylinder and a tube in the middle of other plants they mix their forms and color to create a diffused effect like an impressionistic painting if brought to the foreground they act as lacy dividers but since they generally lack structure of their own they may need to be staked because of this they work great growing between garden to tours or fences as i grew them in the old cottage garden i also experimented with coreopsis and had some surprises i can see the first blooming coreopsis here and my hope is that this wispy plant is just going to start filling up like a lacy texture with very bright blooms they're a native so i'm more than glad if they start self-seeding and really make this more of a meadow cottage feel vining plants by their nature need something to climb onto so they are perfect for trellises fences and other structures i tried to grow sweet peas from seed although those proved a bit more tricky than i expected black eyed susan vines were the other vining plant i grew to climb on the quirky plant towers i had made out of branches to give more structure to the garden when i planted the black-eyed susan vines i was hoping to get more seedlings to sprout but only two of them did successfully since these are growing well now that we're approaching summer i'm just going to plant them where the sweet peas have basically failed and use that trellis for their advantage in the future i plan on adding trellises to the side wall with vining clematis they may like the moist soil but it could be too shady for them to complete the picture i planted sweet alyssum and snow in summer as sprawler plants to edge the path the sweet alyssum especially is a workhorse for the cottage garden since it blooms profusely well into winter my hope is that the sweet alison will grow and cascade into the path and maybe in summer it will just be sweet alyssum and not even a path some carnations raised from seed more like dianthus in my opinion also served the sprawler roll these plants are the cherry on top they elevate any walkway into a veritable garden path i still have to add a weeping pentacle like the crepey myrtle in my last garden do you have any suggestions where i should place such a plant all in all my strategy was to plant some perennials that would take some time to get established while filling the space with annuals in my experience a true cottage garden will never be ready in one season unless you can spend a fortune buying large specimen plants to fill up the space it takes time my strategy is also to at first plant a variety of plants all over the place this polka dotted approach is in contrast to the ideal naturalistic clumps of similar plants but it serves a purpose in the first years i can test out exactly where certain plants do best due to the different microclimates while we can research about the specific needs of a plant in the abstract nothing beats actually trying to grow them and observing how they perform you would be surprised how some plants are much more flexible than others and how ten feet can make the world of a difference for a plant by growing a more diffused scattering of plants the first year naturally the stronger plants that perform well in the spot will start to dominate that space creating natural clumps while unadapted plants will diminish in vigor and eventually die this way i'm not the only one designing my garden i allow the garden to design itself of course you could plan with paper and pen but i think that part of the joy of gardening is discovering slowly where things fit designing a cottage garden in my opinion is more about editing than anything else it is a back and forth relationship that requires flexibility and trust as the years pass you really develop a sense of place because you might get a planting guide that somebody else did based on their situation but it might not precisely fit your microclimate your conditions and your taste [Music] but when we learn to dialogue with nature beautiful things happen i hope you've been enjoying this garden design series if you haven't seen the previous episode in garden structure i invite you to do so in future episodes we'll delve into topics like color and i'll show you how the space has transformed more and more as well as share some of the challenges i have faced getting my dream garden started i may upload some other gardening videos before that so make sure to enable notifications so you don't miss a future episode and until then have fun figuring out how you two can grow your own piece of paradise if you enjoyed this video and would like to ensure more of them are made you can purchase art from my etsy shop or become a patron this channel just passed the 100 000 subscriber milestone with the last video and i want to thank every one of you for that those who bought art from my etsy shop or support me through patreon must also know you are the reason i can keep making videos like this one thank you

Channel: suburban homestead

Views: 369,766

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Id: g7VNwU3KuDc

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 20 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/milkofmagnesiaa]

It's an extremely high quality channel, it just doesn't seem to have a ton of viewer, so I thought I'd share here.

[u/AdamL6102]

Brilliant channel, not just high quality but kind of.. expensive editing? Very knowledgeable and has a beautiful eye for colour and form. Really excited to see what he continues to do. I love his approach to the cottage style.

[u/Myeloman]

I just saw his first video on designing this garden a few days ago, he explains things in a really easy to digest manner without being wordy or coming off as smug and all-knowing. As a cabinet maker/woodworker (professional) it was difficult to watch him building the raised beds and structures over them, but I kept telling myself that’s not his forte. Overall I love the channel and have watched a few other videos. It’s Good Stuff™️!

[u/Charming-Ad-5411]

Love this!