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Finding beauty in simplicity

Bunthivy Nou
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  • Simple Living

Cottage Garden Makeover

  • July 21, 2021
  • 5 minute read
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We’ve been busy the past few months overhauling our overrun perennial garden. When we bought our home 7 years ago, we fell in love with the cozy waterfront bungalow and the mature perennial garden seemed like a bonus. Little did we know, how little we knew about gardening!

It started off good, we made efforts to maintain the garden but by the time baby #2 came, it was really hard finding the time and energy to maintain the garden that was there. Not to mention, the weed became unbearable and it got to a point where I had no idea what was weed and what was supposed to be in there! (Yikes!)

The garden became a major stress point and I always dreaded Spring time because of all the work. The previous owner of the house was retired and probably had much more time (and skills and knowledge) than we do with gardening. In recognizing the season of our life right now, which includes both of us working full time with two young toddlers, we wanted to simplify the yard work which meant overhauling the garden.

  • The garden was a JUNGLE! (don’t judge!)
  • The weed was horrendous! (I feel you judging!)
  • This shrub/tree was growing far too big for its space.
  • Sooooo overgrown!
  • There were some beauties in the old garden, like these gorgeous blooms.
  • I loved these wild lupins that somehow found its way into the garden bed from the hill behind it. They’re not supposed to be there, but they’re beautiful!
  • The mature dappled willows are so lush. I’m so happy we kept these.

We hired a local landscaper, Adam’s Yard Maintenance, to help us with removing the existing garden and install the new garden. To save money, the landscaper encouraged us to pick out our own plants/flowers. Initially, I didn’t want to spend the time to do this, rather wanting someone to “just do it for me” (haha!).

Ultimately, this was the best thing he could’ve done for us because it forced us to be part of the process and learn what we wanted for our garden, and this my friends enabled me to take some ownership with the design of the new garden and made the whole process all the more satisfying and personalized.

Progress photos below.

Many trips to Scott’s Nursery were made by myself or Randy, and the staff there were super helpful! The ladies who work the shrubs and perennials were SO patient and gave some great advice and suggestions.

Also, thank goodness for the internet and Pinterest because that helped me with researching various perennials/shrubs and styles of gardens for inspirations.

TIP: Draw out a map of your garden, include measurements, and take some photos for reference. These are great visuals and reference points to use when discussing with others. Don’t mind the dinosaurs! The toddler got a hold of it.

I loved the look of the ‘cottage garden’ and since our backyard was full sun, we had lots of options.

My criteria for the new garden are:

  1. low-maintenance,
  2. bird, butterfly and bee friendly, and
  3. ideally something that offers interest across all four seasons.

Check out the BEFORES and AFTERS below!

Main Garden Bed

BEFORE / AFTER – Main Garden Bed
I’m so glad we kept the DAPPLED WILLOWS and just trimmed them up. They’re gorgeous when the sunlight filters through them and because they’re mature, they offer great anchor points.

We also kept this shrub, not sure what it’s called, some kind of boxwood? (Someone please help me identify it). Anyway, it was in great shape!

Along this arm of the garden bed, we staggered some TATOR TOTS. They look like little babies to the larger green shrub, soooo cute!

BEFORE / AFTER – Right arm of the main garden bed.

We lined the other arm of the garden bed with some hardy GOLDMOUND SPIREAS. We’re waiting for next spring to get a pinpoint blue cypress to anchor the other end of this arm.

BEFORE – Left arm of the main garden bed.

AFTER – Left arm with goldmound spireas. We relocated the bird bath on this end.

We focussed the perennials in the middle section of the garden bed that includes the following varieties:

  • ‘Becky’ Shasta Daisy
  • ‘Blue Eddy’ Ornamental Onion
  • Purple Coneflowers
  • Siberian Iris – ‘Ruffled Velvet’
  • ‘Marvelette Blue’ Calamints
  • ’Moonbeam’ Threadleaf coreopsis 
  • ’Grape Crush’ New England Aster
  • Stonecrop Orpin batard 
BEFORE / AFTER – Perennials in the middle of the main garden bed.

BEFORE / AFTER – Perennials in the middle of the main garden bed.

  • This angel statue was featured in my very first short film “A Lion’s Tale” that I wrote/directed. Now, it sits overlooking the flowers.
  • Solar hanging pendant light in the middle. I was hoping it would cast a patterned light at night but it’s not as bright. It’s still a nice accent in the garden.
  • View from the back of the garden towards the house.
  • View from the back side of the garden.
  • ‘Marvelette Blue’ Calamints
  • ‘Moonbeam’ Threadleaf coreopsis
  • Stonecrop Orpin batard

Circle Garden Bed

We weren’t able to remove the roots from the large tree/shrub because we couldn’t get an excavator to the backyard. Initially we wanted to replace it with a dwarf burning bush (that scarlet colour would’ve been gorgeous in the Fall!). However, with the tree stump there, it wasn’t possible.

We opted to surround the stump with perennials and small shrubs, and put a lovely copper bird bath with solar fountain in the middle as a focal point.

View from the deck.

We chose taller perennials near the stump so eventually, it’ll hide it when they grow. That said, we were able to bury much of the stump with mulch so you can’t even tell. It turned out beautifully!

  • Rozanne Hardy Geranium
  • Trollius ‘Lemon Queen’ – globeflower
  • Blue star juniper (this is so tiny right now, so we planted a few annuals around it to fill up the space for now)
  • Coleus
  • Wave petunias
  • Ageratum Aloha dwarf blue
  • Lilium ‘Star Gazer’ oriental lily
  • Lyrical white meadow sage
  • Phlox paniculata ‘David’
  • Anemone Honorine Joberts
  • Pink perennial (unsure of its name, it was transplanted from the old garden bed)
  • Weigela Spilled Wine shrub

  • Removing the tree just opened up the space in the backyard.
  • We got the rocks from the beach down the hill to use as stepping stones.
  • We lined the stepping stones path with four Rozanne Hardy Geranium.
  • Lyrical white meadow sage
  • The tiniest blue star juniper!
  • View from the back side.
  • The star gazer lily is in bloom! Bloom baby bloom!
  • Copper bird bath. We’ve added some rocks and a fountain pump since this photo was taken. The colour is striking against the purples in the garden!

One of my favourite part of the garden is having a place for this memorial stone for our beloved Habibi. We’ve also involved the kids with painting the turtle stepping stone.

The stone reads “If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.” RIP Habibi ❤️

We’ve since added some solar lighting and the garden has never looked so lovely in the evenings now.

It’s been a labour of love so far and I can’t wait to see how these babies flourish over the next few years! What once was a source of stress is now a relaxing place we can retreat to and fully enjoy. Thank you for checking out my garden! 🙂

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Below are links to things I mentioned in this blog post:

Landscape service: Adam’s Yard Maintenance (They offered great pricing, and flexible and friendly service)

Perennials and shrubs purchased from Scott’s Nursery (Wide variety of selections and knowledgeable and patient staff)

Garden products:

Copper bird bath

Solar water fountain pump

Pet memorial stone

Garden Lighting:

Solar ground disk lights

Solar landscape spotlights

Solar hanging lanterns

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Related Topics
  •  Grape Crush New England Aster
  • Adam’s Yard Maintenance
  • Ageratum Aloha dwarf blue
  • Anemone Honorine Joberts
  • Becky Shasta Daisy
  • Blue Eddy Ornamental Onion
  • Blue star juniper
  • Coleus
  • copper bird bath
  • cottage garden
  • country living
  • dappled willows
  • garden
  • garden inspiration
  • garden makeover
  • goldmound spireas
  • Lilium Star Gazer oriental lily
  • Lyrical white meadow sage
  • Marvelette Blue Calamints
  • Moonbeam Threadleaf coreopsis
  • pet memorial stone
  • Phlox paniculata David
  • Purple Coneflowers
  • Rozanne hardy geranium
  • Scott’s Nursery
  • Siberian Iris Ruffled Velvet
  • solar water fountain pump
  • Stonecrop Orpin batard
  • tator tot shrubs
  • Trollius Lemon Queen globeflower
  • Wave petunias
  • Weigela Spilled Wine shrub
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