Friday Inspiration – Planning My Cottage Garden

Last April my husband & I bought a new house a Victorian property built in the late 1800’s in Guildford, Surrey near where I grew up. We inherited a good sized garden with the property which required a huge amount a work, as it had been neglected for years, along with piles of rubbish it had a falling down shed and loads & loads of weeds! We spent most of last summer tiding it up and discovering different areas which had been preciously hidden by the mass of out of control weeds, my husband (Fab DIY’er) fixed the shed, built a new roof and door and we stained the exterior Jet Black. There’s a decked area by the house followed by a two tier lawn with path running down the side, a middle patio, mini bluebell meadow and then the bottom garden where the shed is and where we grew some vegetables last summer. This Spring/ Summer is going to be all about growing and planting tons of flowers. To suit the period style of the house I’m planning a cottage style of planting, I want a mass of foxgloves stretching high, fragrant lavender and lots of pretty poppies planted in a very relaxed manner. This week I headed to my local Homebase which handy for me is a short walk away and I bought some Plants, Seeds & Bulbs to get things started.

Before Photo of the bottom of our Garden & the mini Bluebell Meadow the day we moved in and our shed after it’s makeover. 

Last summer I planted quite a few David Austin Roses, Peonies, hydrangeas, Foxgloves and lots of lovely verbena plants kept popping up everywhere which I love. As with most new gardens it takes time to get them established and I defiantly need tons more plants to create the rambly cottage style garden I’m craving. I want to grow some annuals to bring a pop of colour and fragrance to the garden so this week I started sowing my Homebase Sweetpea seeds which I’m now keeping on my kitchen windowseal until it’s a little warmer to put them in the shed. Aswell as growing my own sweetpeas from seeds I’ve also bought some seedlings from Homebase which will be ready to plant out soon. My aim is to be able to pick bunches and bunches of colourful sweetpeas throughout the Summer. 

I’m also having a go at growing Hollyhocks, Salvia, Delphiniums, Larkspur, Poppies and Antirrhinum (or Snap Dragons as I call them) from seed. These will be a gorgeous addition and will hopefully attract bumble bees to our garden. After my husband gave our shed a makeover we started making the area in front of it into a herb garden with Lavender, Russian sage, oregano, rosemary and thyme. I’m planning to grow some edible flowers here too and I’ve just successfully moved some wild garlic from another area of our garden. 

Aswell as seeds I also have quite a few Gladioli bulbs to start planting out soon, I want to plant some every week for the next couple of months in the hopes of having a succession of blooms throughout the summer, I love this green star variety from Homebase. This weekend I will be planting some ranunculus and hollyhock plants which I also bought from Homebase as I’m eager to get my newly dug over flower beds filled up!! (Fingers crossed for frost free days from now on!)

I will be doing an ‘After’ post in the Summer when hopefully I’ll be sharing images of my cottage garden in full bloom – wish me luck! I’d love to hear what your planning to sow/plant in your gardens and any cottage garden gardening tips would be much appreciated! Right Gardening Gloves at the ready…