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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Creating a Cottage Garden
  • Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 07:25:47 -0700


Creating a Cottage Garden
http://organictobe.org/index.php/2009/02/22/creating-a-cottage-garden/
>From Rosalind Creasy (1985)
Edible Landscaping

The early Puritans left their mark on us in a number of ways, some of which
make life a series of joyless tasks. Sometimes I think their devotees must
write garden books. The tone of many of the how-to books reeks of rules,
admonitions, and dicta. How about a garden that is programmed to give you
joy, to take care of you? The cottage garden is an outright celebration of
what a garden can do for every part of you: colors to see, textures to touch,
fragrances to smell, bird calls to hear, and myriad tastes for the palate.
And, of course, we can’t forget the most important part, your soul. You will
experience the renewal of life, that primordial urge to believe in the
future. You will put your fingers on the emerging carrot seedlings,
anticipate the taste of the first tomato, and feel delight when the
hummingbird visits the sage and the monarch butterfly sips from the dew
collected by the nasturtium leaf.

I am suggesting that you plant a rather hedonistic variation of the
traditional mixed border. Put it where you usually see a conventional shrub
or flower border—along a fence line for instance, or along a walk or
driveway, next to the patio, or along shallow hillsides. Fill it with joy,
with colors, tastes, fragrances and even tactile pleasures—a swath of flowers
and foliage.

The mixed border, sometimes called the perennial border since it usually
includes a large number of perennially blooming plants, has been in fashion
since the late nineteenth century. It has its roots in the English cottage
garden, and, at its best, the border is a subtle work of form, texture, and
color—all used to together to delight the soul. Properly planned, the border
changes with the seasons.

Traditionally the staples in the mixed border were non-edible flowers, mostly
perennials, with a sprinkling of annuals for quick color. Popular perennial
flower choices for this type of ornamental border were iris, peony, phlox,
dalia, dais, chrysanthemum, poppy, and the like. A new variation in today’s
perennial border is the addition of beautiful edibles such as ruby chard and
flowering kale; plus a number of savory and attractive herbs such as
variegated sage and dill; edible flowers such as nasturtium and carnation for
your salads and desserts; and, to add still another dimension, fragrance,
choose sweet-smelling lavender and stock. For many more choices, see the
lists of flowers and beautiful edibles below.

Think of the pleasure these gardens can give. Imagine having your barbecue on
the back patio surrounded by bright borders of nasturtiums, violas,
geraniums, and many herbs and edibles. You could reach over and pick a few
leaves of spicy basil to put on your guest’s still-warm tomato slices. Then
you could harvest some of the nasturtium and viola flowers to add zip to your
salad. Throughout the meal the fragrance of alpine strawberries would hint of
the dessert to come, and the light fragrance of peppermint geraniums and
lavender would perfume the air.

Your cottage garden could be near the front walk to welcome guests with
fragrance and color. Or if your space is limited, you could even plant your
pleasure border in the strip between the street and the sidewalk.

In planning your pleasure border, keep in mind these simple guidelines:

1. Make the border less than three feet wide or provide a path or access on
both sides of the beds so you’ll be able to pick flowers and edibles and
perform maintenance tasks.

2. Choose plants that require the same soil, water, and exposure.

3. If you are covering a large area, your design could depend on large
quantities of one or two types of plants to unify the border, to create a
theme to pull the border together for the eye.

4. There are two ways to work with color in these flower borders: (1) you can
limit yourself to three or four basic colors, with one of them serving as an
accent (for example, use red, orange, and yellow with an accent, a dash of
blue); or (2) work with variations on one color theme (combining blues,
lavenders, and pinks, for instance). Or throw caution to the wind, put in
your favorite plants, and see what happens. Some people think that all
flowers go well together, others don’t; it seems to be a matter of personal
taste.

5. Think about the height your plants will be when they are full-grown.
Consider height as a distinct design element; thus, tall plants will be at
the back of the border while shorter ones will be toward the front.

6. Try to choose as many “double-duty” plants as you can; that is, choose
those that have both colorful flowers as well as edible or fragrant flowers.

7. Choose attractive varieties of edibles for your border. Some vegetables
and some varieties of vegetables are not particularly suited to a mixed
border. For example, large vining squashes and pumpkins usually climb all
over their neighbors; brussels sprouts usually get top-heavy and rangy with
age; potatoes need to die back and turn yellow before they can be harvested.
(See the list of suitable edibles below.)

Caution: Because, for the most part, you are using edible plants and flowers
to fill these borders, exclude ornamental plants that are poisonous.
Poisonous flowers you might be tempted to use but should avoid are sweet
peas, autumn crocus, bleeding-heart, foxglove, lantana, and larkspur.

Planning and Preparation

“Choose a sunny area where you would like to see your pleasure garden. Then
envision the area as a three-dimensional painting or a colored sculpture—with
lots of textures, colors, and shapes. Only what you are creating grows! The
fact that you are creating a work of living art adds a whole dimension of
chance and excitement to the creation.” So says Kate Gessert, an experienced
pleasure gardener and author of the book The Beautiful Food Garden. Unlike
many food gardeners, she has been interested not only in how vegetables and
fruits grow and taste, but also in how those edibles look in the garden. In
fact, she was so interested that she managed a test plot of over one thousand
varieties of annual vegetables at Oregon State University. As overseer, she
evaluated the ornamental aspects and tastiness of the plants and included
much of the information in her book. In an effort to share her experience and
her vision of a pleasure garden, she has put together the following comments
and recommendations:

“When you put in your pleasure garden, first, make sure that you have chosen
a sunny, well-drained site. Next, incorporate plenty of organic matter;
healthy plants are beautiful and productive plants.

“I love the way gardens are when various kinds of plants are all mixed
together. I enjoy working in these gardens, being in the middle of them,
looking out into a forest of deeply cut zucchini leaves, big round seed heads
of leek, graceful, sweetly scented lily heads of lily flowers, and rampant
caged tomatoes.

“I also enjoy the planning process, dreaming in winter and spring about what
we’ll grow the next season. In particular, I enjoy planning the
flower-vegetable-herb bed that we plant in front of our house in the planting
strip between the sidewalk and the street.

“In spring, after working in plenty of organic matter, I sowed kale, leeks,
and parsnips. Later, I added rhubarb chard, celery, and chrysanthemums, with
short-term fillers—coriander, lettuce, and California poppies. These were
replaced in late summer by carrots and ornamental kale, which really came
into full color after the first frost. That fall the rhubarb-chard leaves
turned a deep mahogany, and nearby were the yellow and red chrysanthemums and
the bright green foliage of parsnips and carrots. In another part of the bed
I used cooler colors: grayish foliages and pink and purple flowers. With the
purple-leaved ‘Coral Queen’ flowering kale, I planted ‘Fragrance’ carnation,
burnet (a cucmber-flavored herb with a rosette of delicate blue green
foliage), fall ‘Violet Carpet’ aster, ‘Dwarf Blue Scotch’ curly kale, leeks,
artichokes and wine red and lavender chrysanthemums. The combination was
spectacular!

“Now it’s late fall, and we’re mulching the borders and planting spring
bulbs. Already we are planning next year’s pleasure; we will enjoy snowdrops
near the burnet, ornamental alliums near the leeks, and iris reticulata near
the ruby chard.”

Look at the accompanying plans and pictures of the bed Kate designed. In
particular, notice the arrangement of the different plants. The vegetables
such as leeks and carrots, which you usually associate with long, straight
rows, are clumped together instead. Nowhere is it written that vegetables
have to grow in straight rows. In fact, that is not usually the most
productive configuration. Straight rows have met the cultural needs of
agriculture and its equipment, but the home gardener can produce more food
per square foot by using wide rows or clumps. As Kate says, “Ornamental
plants seldom look their best in long, straight rows—picture tulips or
daffodils planted that way. Vegetables look best in clusters and arranged in
pleasing shapes.”

Choose your pleasure plants from the list that follows. On the list there are
plants that give fragrance, taste, and a bounty of color and texture. Some of
the flowers are edible and are delightful in salads or floating on a clear
soup; many of the flowers are suitable for cutting and drying. Think how nice
it will be to save money on flower buying, as well as to give bouquets that
don’t have a “canned” appearance, as so many purchased ones do. And they’re
always the same varieties of flowers. Your bouquets will have an individual
touch that reflects you, not the florist. Check to make sure that the flowers
and vegetables you choose grow well in your area.

1. Alyssum
2. Asparagus, interplanted with kochia in the summer
3. Coreopsis, ‘Brown Eyes’
4. Dahlia, ‘terpo’
5. Artichoke, ‘Green Globe’
6. Chrysanthemum, lavender and burgundy red, interplanted with ‘Barrett
Browning’ narcissus in the fall
7. Anemone, ‘Max Vogel’
8. Dahlia, pink
9. Clarkia in the spring; Zinnia linearis in the summer
10. Helenium, ‘Butterpat’; interplanted with ‘Carbineer’ narcissus in the fall
11. Swiss chard, ‘Rhubarb’
12. Chrysanthemum, ‘Freedom’
13. Parsnip, ‘Hollow Crown Improved’
14. Bunching onion, ‘Japanese’
15. Kale, ‘Dwarf Blue Curled Vates’
16. Leek, ‘Unique’
17. Celery, ‘French Dinant’
18. Chrysanthemum, ‘Fireside’
19. Lettuce, ‘Red Salad Bowl’ in the spring; ‘Portola Giant’ gaillardia in
the summer
20. Sage, ‘Joseph’
21. Sage, ‘Broadleaf’
22. Viscaria, ‘Maggie May’, in the spring; ‘Coral Queen’ flowering kale in
the late summer
23. Aster, ‘Violet Carpet’; interplanted with snowdrops in the fall
24. Petunia throughout the summer; interplanted with ‘Minnow’ narcissus in
the fall
25. Coriander in the spring and summer; ‘Early Red Ball’ beets in the late
summer
26. California poppy, ‘Sundew’; ‘Royal Chantenay’ carrots in the late summer
27. Thyme, ‘Dwarf Compact’
28. Carnation. ‘Fragrance’, interplanted with Iris reticulate in the fall
29. Burnet
30. Thyme, creeping

(more at the website)

See also Rosalind’s More Food, Less Lawn - Saving Money With An Edible
Landscaping Plan
and Seed Saving and the Heirloom Vegetable Garden





  • [Livingontheland] Creating a Cottage Garden, Tradingpost, 12/05/2009

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