My cottage garden

I caught the green finger bug!

What a difference a year makes in the garden. It may be Autumn but there is still plenty of life and blossoms in the garden, I love seeing the seasons change and the changes that happen in the garden. 

This time last year I decided to clean up the garden, I am two and a half years in my house and with all the furniture painting and decorating I had neglected the garden.

So I focused on the front garden, I wanted it to look like a little cottage garden, full of trinkets, flowers and a home for bees and insects. 

You might remember last year I started it off by painting the ugly pebble dash wall white, despite everyone telling me not to paint pebble dash I couldn’t look at a grey wall any longer so out came the large pots of Sandtex brilliant white and we got to painting. 

This made a huge difference as the white wall makes all the flowers pop out, its the perfect backdrop. 

The entrance to the house was an ugly lane way that was full of rubble and patchy grass. This was dug up to make a large flower bed. I wanted people to feel happy and welcomed coming to the doorway. 

My neighbor kindly gave me some flowers from his garden for my bed. He has a stunning garden and thinned out his beds and planted the cuts into my bed. 

We planted a few Hosta, a Lily, a Foxglove and that big Sunflower plant ( I don’t know the name of it). I then added some Dahlia bulbs and a rose bush also. 

During spring I had some Daffodils and Tulips also which kicked off the start of the blossoms. 

As you know I am a lover of knick kacks and this carried through to the garden. I loved when you were a child and you’d be in a friends garden and it would be like a treasure trove of flowers, trinkets and things to catch your eye. 

The lovely guys over at Laois garden world kindly sent me over this love seat for the garden, they also send me the cute teapot planter and watering can that I turned into a planter too. 

You can have a peep on their facebook page too. 

One of my fave plants for Autumn is Cyclamen, they add a fun splash of color to the garden, I was thrilled when mine started to grow back from last year. Mine have started to flower in the last two weeks and will survive through the Winter. 

What I love the most about gardening is how forgiving it is. I am an amateur and the flowers are forgiving. 

They are quite hardy too. I get such a buzz when I plant a bulb and I start to see the first few shoots coming up from the soil.

I noticed this year that Dahlias were attracting bees into the garden, however they are not lodging in the bee hotel but they are having fun  buzzing between the flowers. 

I have anew flower bed in the front ready to go for next year. 

The flowers do their own thing in the beds and I don’t have to do much maintenance, a bit of weeding and dead heading and pruning so it doesn’t become too wild. 

It’s actually quite relaxing spending some time pottering in the garden. 

I haven’t focused much on the back garden yet as I want to get a large style shed/workshop so I didn’t want to plant lots and then have to love them. For now the fence is painted in Cuprinol ‘sweet pea’ to brighten up my small back garden. 

I treat the garden like an extra room in the home. I love keeping it tidy and somewhere to retreat to with a cup of tea after work.

I would love to see your garden snaps and makeovers. 

Let me know what your fave flower is in your garden in the comments section below. 

You might also enjoy my post of when I visited Bloom in the park for more garden inspo. 

Chat soon, 

Catherine. 

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5 Comments

  1. Jade Bennett
    September 11, 2016 / 9:21 pm

    Be careful with the lilies and foxgloves as they're poisonous to cats. Beautiful garden ❤️

  2. The dainty dress diaries
    September 11, 2016 / 9:30 pm

    Thanks so much for reading Jade X Thanks fully Blondie doesn't bother with the plants so hasn't been sick.

  3. monte
    September 12, 2016 / 1:06 am

    Your garden is gorgeous!! We love Azeleas, Crape Myrtles, and our Redbud Trees. We have a few Azaleas that are underperforming and we plan on moving them when it gets colder. I'll also be growing Redbuds from seed this year to plant. (and some to sell, I hope)

  4. The dainty dress diaries
    September 12, 2016 / 7:06 am

    Thanks for reading Monte, I am not brave enough yet to plant from seed but maybe next year I might try it.

  5. Danielle Cara
    March 27, 2017 / 12:37 am

    I'm a rose, peony and daffodil girl. I'd have to say that my favorite in my garden is the rose I bought from HeirloomRoses.com called Belle Story. She's a lovely continuously flowering thing!

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