COTTAGE STAIRCASE

I've got a few things I consider our features at the cottage that I'd like to introduce you to. Let's start with the awesome stone staircase down from the driveway.  We can take no credit for it, it was here when we bought, but I am making sure I plant around it to really make it the focus it deserves.

When we first bought there was not as much periwinkle on the left side, so I am filling that in all the way down the stairs and the path that runs from it down to the water.

Here you can see how the stairs connect to the path to give you an idea of flow.  We planted a bushel of large trumpet daffs in the fall of 2008 throughout the property and plan to add another this fall we love them so much.  I'm working on that periwinkle gap beneath the pine...

And now you have an idea of how the whole stairs/path work. 

In the foreground you'll see about 200 red trillium that I have gathered from the woods and transplanted on either side of the path at the bottom.   There is a myth that this is illegal in Ontario, but it is not so.  Picking them, while also not illegal, is not something I do since it damages the plant, which after all takes a very, very long time to bloom.

Below is a glamour shot of our staircase.

The daffs on the right side are Kedron that I planted last fall from Vessey's.  I absolutely love them and will be doubling my order again this fall to really get an amazing show.  Each bulb has 4-6 flowers and they smell wonderful in a citrus kind of way. Quite different from our trumpets and blooming later, though with some overlap as you can see from the trumpets to the left of the stairs.

Below is a closer look at the Kedrons.  Imagine twice as many next year!