In 1999, we found our antique Gambrel perched on the edge of a small unadorned lot hugging the curve of a busy village street. I knew it was the perfect home for the garden that would grow with our family and support my new food business.

I was told there are no rules for a cottage garden. With this in mind, I decided a design with no rules was the perfect design. The combination of formal and informal elements is a plan that allows me to add plants chosen on impulse or received as gifts. A cottage garden offers the freedom to mix fruits and vegetables with edible and non-edible ornamentals. And, a cottage garden design allows me to move plants anywhere, as many times as I want. And, I love doing it (and redoing it).

As the first step in landscaping, we enclosed our property for safety and privacy. We fenced the yard with a short, formal picket fence that curves gently around the yard. Hugging the outside of the fence is a combination of purple and white iris, lupine, and Stella Doro daylilies. Inside the fence at the side of the house, we planted white and red shrub Rosa Rugosa. This was the first plant that would begin the mix of edible plants into the landscape. Rosa Rugosa is the original apothecary rose whose hips and pedals are used for jams and medicines.

In the backyard, we planted a row of dwarf apple and pear trees to train into an espalier. The leaves from the three-year-old espalier offer privacy in the summer. Spring flowers offer a variety of heirloom and disease resistant fruit in the fall.

On the south edge of the property is a stand of mature maple trees. This is the shadiest part of the yard and the perfect location for an heirloom hosta and shade garden--my Memory Garden, which is the heart of my garden. A collection of hostas and ferns were started by my mother at her Connecticut home. When she passed away 4 years ago, Club friends encouraged me to transplant many plants. Nestled amongst rhododendrons, inkberry holly, serviceberry, and red bud trees, the plot is edged with a low wall of Pennsylvania flat stone. My mother’s plants bring peace to this edge of our garden.

The front potages was originally a hard patch of grass that resisted all flowering plants. Inspired by kitchen gardens I saw at Sturbridge Village and Mont Vernon, I designed the tiny plot to reflect the order and formality of a larger vegetable garden. Because the garden is small, each plant must do double-duty--useful in the kitchen and decorative on the dinner table and at my cooking demonstrations. Each year, the beds are different as I mix herbs and edible flowers with the vegetables my family loves. Rose bushes from my mother dot the garden with color and ramble over the picket fence throughout the season.

Bordering the south side of the driveway and providing visitors with sweet scents is the peony and daylily collection (a gift from my mother’s sun garden). This is the first year in this location and I am hopeful they will flower this spring.

On the opposite side of the driveway is the rose and perennial garden. There are three quadrants, each with an old-fashioned shrub rose marking the center. Hollyhocks, valerian, garlic chives, and veronica are among the many perennials that color this garden from spring to fall. The newest additions are the Berkley blueberry bushes that flank the door. They offer summer fruit and wonderful fall foliage.

The most hidden of the gardens is our patio garden, built in an effort to cover the ugly mound created by a septic system. After system repairs were done, the spot was one foot higher than expected. Imagination and two pallets of Pennsylvania flat stone later, we had a raised herb garden and dining area. The beds combine cool shades of yellow and blue with columbine and a variety of iris. The raised beds at the bottom of the patio are the perfect home for kitchen gardening called, Gardening by the Foot. This design requires faith as you plant one or two seeds in each one-foot square. The result is a quilt of vegetables and herbs that grow throughout the season. And finally, with the addition of the cedar trellis last spring, we have begun the final process of enclosing the dining area and providing some privacy. Giant white and blue clematis need a few more years to crawl up and complete the effect.

So, what is next in our garden? Just outside the cedar trellis is the next area of concentration. We planted boxwood to enclose a new shade garden. With the exception of a grass path, we will cover all of the remaining grass with mulch and ground cover. A moss garden by the porch will be a nice addition and hydrangea will add fall color. Who knows? The garden will always have room for change and will always have room for more.


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Hollis, NH 03049