The beauty of a cottage garden...

After more than a year of work, our front yard renovation is nearly complete! I have finally finished planning and planting my cottage garden, which took forever. Because I want a cottage look, with flowers climbing all over one another and the fence in a bit of messy, gorgeous color, I stuck to a few basic plants. There are climbing roses and yellow Carolina jasmine planted in front of the fence to climb all over it, along with a hydrangea and a couple of gardenias. Filling the beds are things like dahlias, peonies, salvia, lavender, more roses and hydrangeas, gladiolas, daffodils and hostas. I kept the annuals to a minimum ~ some zinnias and a couple of impatiens ~ and planted things that will bloom spring, summer and fall, along with some items that are evergreen. All in all, I am thrilled with how it turned out.
Here’s the before shot of our front yard:

And here’s the after:

We planted climbing roses along the side of the fence, by the driveway. In a few years they will be climbing all over the fence, peeking through on both sides.

My husband was able to finish his extensive walkway project. He replaced the old brick paths and sidewalk and built a new walkway that leads into the side yard. I’m now working on a little garden in that part of the yard, which I’ll show you later.

We are still working on creating a screen to line my neighbor’s chain link fence. A retaining wall and a couple of other issues make it nearly impossible for us to the continue the picket fence on that side of the yard. I have an idea to turn some old french doors into trellises ~ build them into long flower boxes and plant climbing roses in them. We’ll see how it all works out.

The hundred year old oak tree on the other side of the yard (you can see in the before photo) had to be taken down because it was dying and dropping large limbs. Once it was gone, it really opened up that side of the yard to more sun.

Love these zinnias lining the walkway. I planted a few around the tree as well. They were an experiment ~ I planted them from seed and they have done wonderfully.

All in all, I think it looks wonderful, in large part to all the work my husband did building the fence and walkways. What do you think?

I am linking to:

A Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life
Before and After Wednesday at The Dedicated House
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound