How to Create a Country Cottage Flower Garden

April 24, 2020

Find our unique garden collection of statues and architectural accent pieces on our website. Video Transcription: This is Jennifer here with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here with this week's...well it's not really a find of the week, but I wanted to share my cottage style garden with you. A lot of people are wanting to start gardens right now with all of this going on with covid-19. All of this is really bringing us back to the hobby of gardening. Gardening for years has been proven to decrease cortisol levels, center the soul, and make you feel better. That is why I have always loved it. People now more than ever are turning to these activities for comfort. You can have a garden anywhere. You can start a garden in containers, you can have one on an apartment terrace or porch. For years I had to have a garden like that because I rented a little tiny apartment. That was all I had. So you can have a garden anywhere. It just depends upon what you would like to grow. I should probably grow more vegetables, especially at this time, but I love flowers as you can see. To give you some ideas. Ooops there is a hummer fight already this morning. I'm not sure if you can see the hummingbirds. You can plan your garden for birds as an example. I plant flowers that will attract hummingbirds. I'm not sure if you can see the hummingbird. He is down there on the salvia greggii is what they call that plant. This plant has a little red tubular flower. It grows well in the desert and hummingbirds love it because of the tubular red flower that they pull the nectar out of. I have a bunch of different flowers here. Most people wonder, where do I start and what do I buy. It depends upon what part of the country you live in. I am in the southwest here in New Mexico. We get a lot of heat and the heat starts early so that is a factor for us. People in the midwest or back east where it is not as warm and there are colder winters they can get away with planting things that I can't plant here. In the back I have these antique, cottage style doors. The door on the left is from Juarez, Mexico. It is a short little door that I like. I think it's pretty cool. This door on the right is just a paneled door with old antique windows. Believe it or not, there is a shed back here. I placed this rose in the back. This is a Lady Banks rose that will not grow where it is super cold. It is absolutely beautiful. It only blooms once a year, but when it does it is spectacular with these creamy, buttery rosettes and the fragrance is incredible. My new friend at Breath Easy Farms, she told me last week about a Peggy Martin rose. She had ordered a real cute bunny teacup rabbit from me. Her and I got to talking and she sent me pictures of a Peggy Martin rose. I'm dying to try it. It has this kind of habit, but it has a hot pink rosette. It doesn't have any fragrance. I love to garden for fragrance, but it absolutely beautiful. I may have to make an exception for that rose. You might want to check it out too. They also call it the Katrina rose, because it was the only thing that survived Katrina in all that standing water so it is a tough rose. It might be something to start with and it's gorgeous growing up an arbor or trellis. She sent me her pictures. I also have these columbines. These are yellow columbines and actually happen to be the Colorado state flower. They came from my grandmother's garden and they reseed beautifully. They are perennials, meaning they only bloom once a year, but when they do look how spectacular they are. I have this mealy cup sage which is one of my favorites. This is a native plant here and doesn't need as much water. You can see the little spires that come up and they have little flowers on the tips. They call this mealy cup sage. It has a dusty gray color to the foliage. It isn't dark green. This is called salvia May Night. You can see it is a darker purple. You can see I am into the purples, the pinks, and the yellows. This is centranthus or Jupiter's Bird. It is also a perennial and comes back every year. All three of these plants do come back every year so doesn't the salvia greggii that the hummers like. It kind of has a bush like habit. I tried poppies this year for the first time and they are coming up. I love oriental poppies. I have grasses throughout to create that whispy look in the wind and create movement.. This is Karl Forester ornamental grass and I am going to plant him. In the fall he will have these beautiful wheat looking spikes. When you plant your garden you have to think about what you want. You have to think about the seasons and how you want it to look with each season. Plant for fragrance, plant things that attract birds. It gives you something fun to think instead of all this terrible covid stuff. This is something we can do while we are in our home. The fun part is once you have your garden designed, you can pick out center pieces or focal points for your garden like this St. Francis. I have all kinds of different pieces throughout my garden areas that I hand picked. Many of the pieces are listed on our website at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com. This St. Francis garden sculpture figurine is listed there too. That is the fun part...you can find old pieces to put in your garden and make accent points in different areas. I am trying for the first time this year a plant called milkweed which attracts the butterflies and is really pretty. I have things in here for hummers, butterflies, etc. I plant for smell and fragrance. Of course, these are pansies and these will die down when we get hot. This pretty light pink flower is what I call a Mexican primrose. The flea beetles will come, not fleas, but flea beetles. They will come and mow it to the ground and then my Mexican petunias will come up. These are all fun things to think about. All I am missing is my chickens. Us girls in the city we have to improvise a little bit, as best as we can. Coleus is another fun plant I want to show you right quick. Look at the foliage on this. It is just gorgeous. I am just planting a bunch of coleus. It doesn't really bloom. I guess it does send off spikes with small purple flowers toward the fall, but look at all the color. The foliage is so colorful and looks beautiful until frost. I plan to plant it with my potato vine which everyone knows about and my grasses. This is pretty pathetic, look, I only bought two tomatoes. With all this stuff going on, now is the time to have a vegetable garden. So anyway, those are some tips and ideas to think about in the midst of all these other things. Be safe, stay home, take care of your family. These are things that make me feel better like cooking and working in my garden which puts me in a better mood and gives me peace. Take care and I hope that you can find some peace in your life with all of this going on. Take care and be safe. Be sure and visit us at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques and give us a like on Facebook.