COTTAGE GARDEN - 40 year plan

What is the big plan for the Ontario cottage?  Is there one?

You bet.

Just because I am now in Winnipeg does not mean I have stopped thinking about my beloved Cottage Garden. My ultimate goal for the Cottage Garden is simple: get as much blooming as possible everywhere possible for as long as possible.  That of course means keeping with my habit of plucking up local roadside "weeds" and wildflowers of course, including Oxeye daisies, Black-Eyed-Susans, Ferns, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Columbine, Trillium, Viper's Bugloss, Buttercups and more!

Lakefront Garden

 I started with the Oxeye daisies on the Lakefront Garden, Septic Garden and  North Deck Garden. I have a good amount in all of those places but can easily see myself adding more each year.

I will also add Black-Eyed-Susans to the Lakefront Garden, they are sure to do well there in the sun.  Last year I added them to the Septic Garden and the North Deck Garden where a few of them are coming back.  Two years ago I transplanted them and had to return to the city right away, so they struggled whereas last year I added a lot to North Deck Garden and was able to stay and water them for a couple of weeks and they did much better and should easily return next year.  Hurrah!

And of course the SunDrops are doing well everywhere... The Lakefront Garden is their priority since they are doing so well there, and they they are a great height to mix and mingle with the Wood Ferns in the South Deck Garden. In fact there should be enough for the North Deck Garden as well.

I am currently grouping Violets in the North Fern Garden, but with a 40 year plan I will eventually have enough there and then add them beside the gravel path with the Trillium I planted last year.

In the foreground about 200 Red Trillium line this path , along with Periwinkle and later ferns & white Impatiens.

And of course I will continue to simply bring more and more (and more!) plant material from the surrounding forest - ferns of all kinds in particular.  Not just lining the path, but throughout the property.  Why look at a brown forest floor when you can green it up?

My goal is to have the cottage feel like it is a tropical rainforest on Vancouver Island. Like it is on steroids.
Greener and more alive than it has a right to be naturally, though naturally beautiful.

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