Progress in our coastal woodland cottage backyard
We are entering our fifth summer here. How can that be? I had to count it on my hand four times, and it still didn’t feel right! Somehow time passed.
I still feel like there’s a lot to do, so I’m glad we’re planning to stay in this house for a long time. We definitely need more time for plants here!
Today I’ll be sharing some of our backyard progress (and our plant struggles!) in late spring.
I decided I would call this ours Coastal Woodland Cottage GardenI will explain more about this below. 🙂
These photos were taken a few weeks ago, but I noticed today that some of the plants are starting to fill out more so I’ll have to follow up.
Small cottage, difficulties and tragedy
It all started with the addition of A small cottage For my parents.
The yard was all torn up after construction, so it would be really nice to hire landscapers to do the whole backyard! But apart from the deck (which the contractors built), we decided to just do the rest of it ourselves.
We’ve always enjoyed making little flagstone paths, choosing plants and creating cottage gardens, so it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult here.
But growing plants here has been more challenging than we expected. However, we are determined!
We planted plants that we thought would work but didn’t, and then replaced them with different plants that also struggled. And along the way we had some other challenges and mishaps like falling trees (which we didn’t even plant!).
But even though it will take more time, I think we are finally figuring some things out.
We thought this little yard would be easy to work on! But that was definitely not the case. 🙂
At times it seemed like we went further back than we went forward.
And while we still haven’t really found all the plants, I thought you might enjoy a little progress report.
This can be long, so you might want to grab your tea or coffee 🙂
Embrace the coastal woodland the garden
One of the reasons I decided this would be a coastal woodland cottage garden is because that’s what the space wanted to be.
Coastal woodland makes sense, because we are actually surrounded by forest and sea.
The scent of pine and sea in the air. Mossy stones. Ferns. Hydrangeas. Herbs. hosta. Astilbe. Climbing vines.
Rather than a fully manicured garden, I like that it feels more relaxed and natural, with winding paths, pine needles scattered around, layers of greenery, blooms and little tucked away places to sit.
Flagstone paths and bridges
My husband put in a flagstone patio area and path around the yard, which is functional for the grandkids (we didn’t even have grandkids back then!) and anyone who does gardening. The bridge comes in a kit that you build.
I guess you can’t really see much of the bridge in these photos, so I’ll have to take more photos once summer rolls around so you can see.
One woodland cottage thing I want to do soon is to make a fairy garden for the little ones!
I Made them in the past And always dreamed of the day I’d be a grandma who did things like build fairy gardens, so it’s about time.
Layering in a cottage garden touch
My parents added a lot of character around A small cottage.
their AwningCottage sign on door, flowers in Post box! This Bird housesa shower, window box …
All the little details that come together over time. I will share those few details another time.
Trees, roots, needles + rocks
We had to move the fire pit away from the house to make room for the addition.
So my dad worked on the fire pit next to the yard to set it up. He put some stack pavers and some planting areas around the fire pit so dirt wouldn’t wash onto the patio.
There are lots of rocks and tree roots – which made things more difficult.
We even lost some trees that were here before we moved in!
A really tall tree actually fell in the middle of the night last fall!
He fell across the yard onto the little cottage deck and was maybe an inch from hitting the window, but luckily no one was in his way and he didn’t hurt anything.
Critters, plant eaters + trellises
I will say that this backyard has reminded us that we are definitely not master gardeners. LOL!
In our defense, we’ve never had caterpillars (which haven’t returned this year) or deer visit to make a feast of our plants before.
I’d like to put a fence down the road, but my parents came up with a clever but makeshift netting situation to help keep the deer out (well, mostly).
The other day there was a mama and two adorable little fans here, yet they still find their way!
We are trying everything we can to outsmart them at this stage to give our plants a chance.
We’re also learning what plants like and don’t like, so we can make better choices going forward. After knowing they don’t bother the peonies, I’m now even more excited to work in our front yard!
Shade plants and mosses for the woodland garden
We’re technically in gardening zone 8b, the same as our last house, but we’ve decided that our backyard should have its own little microclimate.
A neighbor who lives on the same side of the street said she had struggled with her backyard for years, too, and decided to go for shade plants, thinking they would bloom more.
Even though we get nice sun in the middle of the yard from morning to late afternoon this time of year, we decided it was good advice.
A shady woodland garden! Last year and this year we planted hostas, hydrangeas, astilbes, sweet woodruff, camellias, ferns and a few others that seem to be filling in more this year. My husband keeps saying we don’t have room for more plants, but I think there’s always room for a few more. I love going to the local garden nursery, so I’m sure there’s more room :).
One thing that has happened is that our trees drop pine needles. At first I didn’t like that they landed all over the place, but I accept it now. I think it definitely gives it a more wild look.
I think it’s better to go with what works rather than fight it.
Moss between the flagstones
Speaking of embracing the woodland look, we got moss for our flagstone path last spring after our Corsican mint didn’t make it through the winter. Surely the algae would be happy because it grows naturally here, right? Well, it’s still alive so we hope that with more time it will all grow as we envisioned it!
Funnily enough my Corsican mint is starting to come back in small patches now, so I guess it’s a race to see which one does better. We planted a few things as “experiments”, so it’s fun to see what will start.
Cottage garden flowers
For a touch of old-fashioned cottage garden charm, we planted Eden climbing roses; I originally wanted to put them on the side of the house but I decided to plant them around our French doors – I figured they would be safer from the deer on my deck.
These roses were one of the first plants we added because I was in a rush to get them established in a few years (we have a hole in the deck for them so they’re actually planted in the ground).
They were just starting to bloom when I took these photos and so beautiful! I think they’ve filled in a lot since I took this photo, so we’ll see how this year goes. I still think I should probably plant them on the side of the house where they have more room to spread (and just put the deer at risk). We have roses in our front yard and the deer just cut off the bottom leaves, the top is full of roses!
Anyway, we’ll see how it goes but I may move them and if I do, I’ll try soft vines on the deck.
This is the side of the house where I have thought about putting climbing roses, these plants are happy as can be here!
So there you have it, our coastal woodland cottage backyard in spring.
I can show you more, so I’ll be back this summer to share more.
Do you like to garden? And are we the only ones who have struggled with plants? 🙂
