Cottage Garden Design Masterclass - Structure

for the past few years i've been slowly transforming my yard into a proper cottage garden however this is not the first cottage garden i've grown if you have seen my old videos you have witnessed how i transformed my last place from nondescript lawn into a lush and wild cottage garden it took years to get to this stage of maturity that's because i like to expand the garden slowly working with what's available around me propagating the plants from seed and cuttings whenever possible and letting the plants find their own voice in the space this means i've spent very little money to make this happen buying plants from nurseries can be convenient but tends to be expensive as well even if budget is not an issue for you the process of watching plants grow from seed to slowly flesh out the garden is in itself rewarding and frankly priceless it helps us grow as gardeners as well in this short series on garden design i'll show how you can see your space through a new lens sharing tips i've picked up over the years on how to shape your dream garden into reality [Music] in this video we'll focus on structure in other words how to organize the backbone of your garden into a beautiful and practical space i started with a side garden that links the front of the house to the back where the kitchen is i envisioned an edible cottage garden therefore i wanted to build several garden beds where i could raise salad greens and other vegetables so i laid out the square beds on a grid aligning them to the house they would need to be protected from groundhogs and deer that roamed the area after much thought and some sketching in 3d i settled on this vintage gazebo-like structure with removable chicken wire panels to house the most tasty greens eventually i would subdivide the garden to separate rooms with fences but this ensured added protection i had in mind french kitchen gardens called potage in english cottage gardens as inspiration my goal was to infuse this area with sense of place it's a hard concept to define clearly but we do recognize it immediately once we experience such places think of the most beloved spaces in the world be it venice with its renaissance architecture with human size decoration narrow alleys and reflective canals that exude mystery washington dc or paris with regal tree frame broad boulevards huge janae's impressive mountains and jungle encrusted by city life salvador's colorful cascading baroque homes and churches morocco's labyrinthine marketplaces and rich courtyards or india's splendid taj mahal these places exude a sense of place not only because their rich culture and history are reflected on the built environment but because the arrangement of space itself is cohesive balanced and specific they are the opposite of what has been called liminal spaces liminal spaces or spaces of passing through have recently trended online in video and photo sharing platforms because they elicit a rather uneasy nostalgia from a generation who has grown up living outside of spaces with a sense of place [Music] they are what i call spaces of unbelonging in them it feels like you're anywhere and nowhere at the same time airport corridors office hallways blank courtyards highway embankments nondescript subdivisions recent population growth modern building techniques and standardized materials have led to a homogenized landscape lacking personality our gardens need to be the opposite of that the location of my new home in an old town near the mountains in a river valley it already exudes a sense of place so it's not hard for me to work with it to highlight what's already here but even if you live in a cut in pace suburb or even amongst a row of tracked homes your garden is your best opportunity to create a jewel encrusted box that is your own and that declares you have arrived somewhere i chose this spot as the hub for the garden because of its court-like appearance i wanted it to have an old-world feel and the presence of the stonewall was perfect walls and fences help us subdivide a garden into garden rooms a cottage garden by design needs a more enclosed feel so if your house is out in the open grass then you really want to add some fences or hedges or even a wall to partition your space into manageable chunks this will help you make the space feel full with denser planting i was lucky enough to have a ready-made semi-enclosed space ready for use sun exposure was also a crucial consideration my last place had a less than ideal sun exposure being located on the north-facing side of a river valley after years struggling to eke out some vegetables from the sunniest spots in that garden i made sure to look out for a property that sat on a southern facing slope which guarantees maximum solar exposure for us in the northern hemisphere this will be your greatest limiting factor when growing flowers and vegetables while you can create beautiful shade gardens you really want at least four to eight hours ideally of full sun for productive and colorful gardens a quick way to find out the sunniest spots in your garden is to observe how snow melts in winter the places where it melts first are the best spots to plant flowers and vegetables the last places to melt should be left alone they are not good for most gardens if it never snows where you are it probably means that the angle of the sun is high enough that finding a sunny spot will never be an issue for you this courtyard space does face south but the house shades half of it in the afternoon this means i can plant greens that love partial shade near the house and leave the space next to the stone wall to grow sun-loving things for this reason i place my protective beds in the middle they would be perfect for growing greens and some other veggies that appreciate a little bit of afternoon shade to provide easy access around the beds and to give the space a pleasant proportion i allow the paths to be at least three feet wide this would also make it easier to mow the grass with a standard mower as a rule of thumb raised beds should be four feet wide by eight to ten feet long this allows for easy access into the center of the bed without actually having to step on it because we can comfortably reach in with our arms about two feet in beds that are against walls or fences can be three feet wide as a compromise you can make them narrower but they will dry up faster and eat up into usable space while i could have fit in this area two to three rows of rectangular beds i wanted tall protected beds with removable panels to protect against potential deer to make construction and use simpler i settled on the square design i did break the 4 foot wide rule making them a bit under 5 feet by 5 feet since they are square and accessible from all sides i knew i wouldn't have a problem reaching the center i also planned on using the cheap six foot fence boards while using pressure treated wood is not ideal it was the only material that fit into my budget cedar just wasn't feasible for me and the new generation of pressure treated wood just doesn't contain the toxic arsenic of old boards i did not want my enclosures to look like ugly cages like last time so i devised roof lines with baroque curves to look more like fancy antique bird cages i'm very pleased with the way the design turned out it actually exceeded my expectations the bottom part made the proportions right by balancing the visual weight with the garden beds laid out i turned my attention to the main path linking the back of the house to the front of the house one of the areas i look most forward to having complete is this corner i want to round it out with the path i do like the formal geometric shapes of the beds and they create pattern and rhythm but it's also good to have a sweep a arabesque the way the path is right now it just makes no sense it's like a weird angle to the house it's kind of close to the house it's all irregular and bad so if i'm gonna have a regular and bad path it might as well look beautiful and be much more of a garden path than a landscape i like to reuse and recycle materials as much as possible this is not only economical it also reduces our impact on landfills and the environment when creating a cottage garden it is best to use homely materials like gravel stone or brick to build out hardscape structures like paths the trick to break these bigger blocks is to leverage them a bit with the shovel or iron rod leaving an air gap beneath them that way when you hit them with the sledgehammer it shatters after a few blows into irregular and more manageable shapes concrete is generally the last thing you want in a cottage garden however you'd be surprised how broken up old concrete paths and patios can suddenly take on a stone-like character non-reinforced concrete paths break into irregular shapes that somewhat mimic stone this material even has a name in the industry it's called urbanite since you find it everywhere in urban construction zones it's usually just trash or fill-in material whoever installed this path here did not do a great job laying it out it was all broken and outed level anyway so i felt free to experiment i could always remove it in the future and relay a path with more appropriate materials i was only spending my time and some elbow grease to reshape the space into a more pleasing configuration i redrew the path as a curve this would enlarge the planting space next to the foundation of the house and would create a more harmonious and inviting curve to travel on by installing the new path a bit below grade i would also create a channel to steer water away from the house i relayed them directly onto soil transferring some of the good topsoil to my raised beds the correct way of doing this would be to lay a bed of sand underneath them so they don't settle too much in the future but i plan on making a more regular path with creeping plants planted in the crevices more of a mix between a rock garden and a path since most of the day-to-day traffic on the property happens from the back door to the parking lot this path would only be used for leisurely strolls to the garden so i didn't feel it needed to be the most practical surface and i would certainly be readjusting it for years to come anyways i really like how this path is turning out it has the old world feel that i am looking for and once it's planted out it's going to look great i still have a section to do and i'm not doing everything in one day obviously i'm staggering the workload so that it's more manageable to do and once it's done it's going to really transform this area and make this vegetable garden feel more like a french old world prodiger i was really pleased with the results so i decided to start planting succulents in the cracks to prevent other weeds from taking over [Music] i saw this tray of sedums in the store and they're really like succulents for your garden succulents are all the rage now with millennials so why not just have them in your ground so you can step on them it makes sense to use them amongst the stepping stones here of this path because well they should grow really well in such tight spots and it's a way also of having something else because if i don't plan anything then the weeds are going to take over anyways and grass is going to grow i'll try this and maybe some herbs that also like to be near or around rocks in time i would like to add other hardscape features to this side of the garden to complete the space right now i had the bare bones in place but some other elements would complete the picture in the future i still want to put up a fence in the front of the garden to better secure the unprotected beds from the marauding groundhog perhaps a short picket fence for a decorative wire one could help enclose the space and still stay true to this style if you have any suggestions of what else i could put write a comment down below i would also want to replace the rotting shed in the back with a more interesting potting shed with some architectural features perhaps the area right in front of it could be even a garden patio and if i ever had the budget a new french door coming out of the kitchen to the garden would make the space sing in functionality and beauty it would be a perfect spot for garden tables and chairs but this would have to stay on the wish list for now so far i've shown you practical ways i've created structure while designing my own garden but i would like to also share with you the actual theory behind these design choices it is in the study of art that we find the secrets to creating pleasing spaces [Music] because i'm an artist as i'm planning my garden i'm constantly thinking of the elements of design that contribute to a good composition they work the same way in a painting as they do in a garden let me quickly summarize them for you line is the fundamental element that organizes movement and mood how we travel through a space creates a line and we can use line to focus our vision onto something curved lines are natural leisurely gentle straight lines are formal and stable while the jagged lines are nervous tense or active shapes can act in the same way as lines the line and shape language we choose to organize our gardens with controls how we interact with the space rhythm is another important element that's created by repeating patterns of lines and shapes a uniform rhythm can be stable and pleasing but generally should be broken by unexpected syncopations to add interest and avoid stiff lifeless monotony on the other hand a composition without a recognizable rhythm is often chaotic and disjointed many times this happens when a garden has too many disparate elements in odd shapes without a unifying repeating element to organize them like a garden that's just full of kitschy ornaments i'm sure you've seen them around well while there's nothing wrong with having a garden like that they usually lack a focal point and that's another element of design to create a focal point we need to establish hierarchies and use the power of line and rhythm to direct the eye towards the focal point traditionally tree-lined paths called alleys have been used to frame out focal points in the distance generally focal points are created by difference in complexity it can be a statue a group of colorful plants a house an unusual tree etc balance and symmetry are the next elements they organize the other elements to create order in harmony a symmetrical composition is usually balanced and pleasing but can also be too stiff an asymmetrical but still visually balanced composition is often more dynamic naturalistic finally value color and texture are the last element that can contribute to balance symmetry rhythm and focal point a small bright active colorful cluster can balance out larger heavier duller masses repeating value color or texture likewise can create organizing rhythm and also establish focal points by studying these elements of design we can create better compositions and understand why they work with the more large scale garden structures in place i could now turn my attention to creating small scale sports or plants if you organize the big picture first small scale structures will fall in place i'm doing a few more of the rustic towers i do have a lot of twigs around and i'll use the top of the wire to hold things together that should make it much easier to assemble [Music] in my past garden i created more formal garden tutors out of decks spindles and fence boards they were really successful designs but in this garden i wanted to create less formal more natural structures to support the vining plants my protected beds already had the formal design to them so i could complement them with small scale plant towers made of twigs i have plenty of twigs for free in my property so it made sense for me to use a free resource they would also match the more informal and wild cottage garden aesthetic i wanted to evoke here while i have previously shown how to weave a plant tower with sticks and bark i felt that this more intuitive pattern was easier and faster to build i've done all the cross bracings going this way diagonally swirling up now i'm gonna do the reverse and that's gonna give it structure and hopefully i won't even need rings to reinforce it it's all gonna be this more natural rustic swirl that happens it it's a bit of a pattern that you see in nature anyways tying twigs with pieces of electrical copper wire is also a very practical way of building these makeshift dr seuss-like structures they are also reusable so that when the twigs start to rot from one season to the next as they inevitably do i would disassemble the towers and rebuild them with new twigs reusing the copper wires [Music] to dress up the towers and add whimsy i created finials on the top by bundling up weedy vines i had cleared from my peach trees these were another resource masquerading as trash all we need to transmute them into something magical is a bit of creativity and elbow grease [Music] with these structures now in place i could focus on the plants i wanted to introduce to make the space into a garden [Music] here's a sneak peek of how the garden has been transforming since i started with nothing but lawn [Music] in an upcoming episode we'll delve into the plant side of creating a cottage garden how to choose the right plants how to grow them where to place them how to pick harmonious color schemes and compositions and the problems that may arise until then i hope you have fun imagining how you can structure or restructure your own garden into your green haven of peace thank you so much for watching this video please let me know what you think about this style of video are you interested in seeing more things like this also in case you haven't seen last year's documentaries on vegetable histories i invite you to check out the history on lettuce beets cucumbers and pumpkins i hope you like them and if you want to support the channel remember you can buy art from my etsy shop or support me through patreon once again thank you very much for watching and see you next time

Channel: suburban homestead

Views: 1,638,877

Keywords:

Id: LRba6PxCaVE

Length: 18min 47sec (1127 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022