Although ours is not technically a cottage garden, it has the feel of one, I think. We have too much shade for a true cottage garden, but I do have a number of shade loving flowers such as Aquilegia, Dicentra, Digitalis purpurea, anemones, and such among the shrubs (mostly azaleas, hydrangea, callicarpa) and hosta. I also have one peony that is doing really well considering and always has a number of blooms. This is an old picture and taken before most of those smaller flowers were planted, but I am posting it mainly for the stone path to give you an idea of how nice and welcoming your cottage garden can be with flowers and all falling over the edges-better than mine for sure! One note-I do need to replant my foxglove every year because it never seems to come back (I do know it is a biennial, but they definitely disappear totally-I don't even get the greenery the second year and definitely never any flowers after that first year-so sad).
{{gwi:660915}}From Drop Box

My driveway is perpendicular to the house + there's a crabapple tree directly in front so my hopes of curving the front walk wasn't an affordable option. It's still a work in progress planting the bed to the left and I keep changing my mind about the foundation bed but I think it came out reasonably well:

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This shot was taken the day after it was completed. I haven't taken any more recent photos. The hosta leaves on the right belong to a plant that grew to 3X the size on the plant tag so last year I dug it out, divided it and planted it where it wouldn't encroach on the walkway.

cyn & gardenweed, I love both of yall's stone paths. When my paths grow up I hope they'll be stone.

Here's a pic of the path from the front walk to the driveway. Just started gardening at this house in Mar so not much planted. The whole front was sparse grass and weeds.
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Oh, I think you have a GREAT start there! It will be beautiful when it grows up! :)

Ditto what cyn427 said. A couple years back my son was going to bring me a truckload (his full-size truck) of bark mulch for my birthday but I changed my mind and asked him to bring me 2,000 lbs of granite for the walkway instead. The walk cost me about $140 since he loaded/unloaded the granite from a nearby quarry. I drove my little truck up to the quarry summer before last and brought home a granite slab + two uprights and absolutely love my granite bench. He and my neighbor set it in the big flowerbed south of the house. The bed is still very much a work in progress but I've got lots of ideas.

Thank you cyn & gardenweed. 2,000 lbs of granite for $140? I wish I could find a price like that around here. I know I've seen a pic of your bench, but am going to have to look it up again. I know all about ideas! Wish I had money to match them.

Well, dang, gardenweed. I want to adopt your son! And live near that quarry, too! I love the idea of your bench. I would like to make one of those someday.

I took a couple of pictures today with the azaleas blooming (way past peak, but still pretty). I will try to put them in my dropbox, so I can post them. It always takes me forever. I need to figure the process out anew everytime I do it! Technology and I are not buddies. Sort of why my iPod playlist had a few Christmas songs mixed in today-can't figure out how to fix that either. Oh well. Merry, merry.

cardellwave - are you familiar with pinterest? Also a good place for inspiration. Let me know and I can send you an invite. Hope you're having a blast with house projects. Love to see some pics!

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The flagstone in the above picture leads to the front porch. The rounded river rock loops around in a horseshoe shape (left turn over a bridge) and back to the flagstone walk.

Cameron

Wonbyherwits- Wow!! I'd love to stroll thru your garden! Great job.

cyn427 - sorry, he's my one and only and not available! The granite was his own fault--I saw what he did with it at his house on Mother's Day that year and got me a idea. I asked him where he got it and when he said up at the quarry, my brain started to buzz. The rest, as they say, is history. My front walkway is quite a bit longer than his so I asked him for 2,000 lbs instead of 1,300 which was enough for his needs.

The bench was a suggestion by a friend of mine and I'm glad I took her up on it. It's definitely permanent and I don't have to worry about it rusting or rotting away.

I have a one-and-only son, too, so I understand and fully accept your reluctance to part with him! :)

beachgrub - thanks.

It has taken years to get this right with our seasons not being predictable. My cottage pinks died out and many other plants toasted. I've had to resort to using more salvia, sedum, perennial heliotrope, gaura, gallardia and lavender. The cottage garden middle section gets 12 hours of sun a day in the summertime and for the last few summers, we've had too many days over 100 degrees.

wonbyherwits - that's a very elegant path & I love the bridge! I'd like to just roll up that picture, walk behind my house and roll it out again, but in my more temperate CT climate. I don't think I could garden in those extreme conditions altho' we've certainly had our own extremes here in New Enlgand the past couple years. We're finally getting some desperately-needed rain after not seeing a drop in more than a month which followed a virtually snow-less winter.

wonbyherwits, Your path and plantings are just wonderful. What does the bridge go over? Would love to see more pics.

Thanks, y'all!

The bridge goes over a stream. I haven't taken any photos of it this year and it's raining today. I'm attaching a link to last year, right after we'd added the metal edging and new round rock.

There are actually two bridges. The wooden one for the round rock path and a flagstone (on metal/concrete) for the front walk.

Here is a link that might be useful: glimpse of wooden bridge

Ooh, so pretty! I'm just gonna have to check out your blog.