Cottage Garden Makeover

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.

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:

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

Check out the BEFORES and AFTERS below!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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! 🙂