A Visit To The Garden Cottage

I still have big plans for my garden cottage. 

It's sort of been on hold while I tackled other things, but I want to make some progress on it this season. 

It's come a long, long way since I bought the house just two years ago. 

Sorry for the blurry photo, this is a photo from the original listing of the house. 

See that fence to the right? There were piles of trash behind that fence. It was like a mini junkyard. 
 

They only took photos from the front, as the side had a gaping  hole that was covered with a sheet of plywood. 

The other side (behind the fence) and the rear didn't even have siding installed. 

The roof leaked like mad, and the floor inside was completely rotten. Plus the whole thing tilted to one side. 

Trust me, it was a terrible mess. 
 

This was after I had it leveled, the roof repaired, those french doors installed, and a new plywood floor put down.
 

And this is how it looks now. I took this photo this morning, as a matter of fact. 

Isn't she pretty? I love my little garden cottage. 

But she still needs some TLC.
 

For instance, my sweetie stapled chicken wire all around the base to keep the critters out. 

He's one smart cookie, my sweetie. 

Then he started piling up the pavers we found in a pile at the edge of the garden, trying to conceal the cinderblocks and the chicken wire. 

I added planters, to dress things up a little and detract from the pavers/chicken wire situation. 

It's been like this for long enough. It's time to move on to the next step. 

I bought some brown vinyl lattice to put around the base, so we can get rid of the pavers. They will be reused, as a path from the veggie garden to the patio. 

After the lattice is installed, I would like to create a little curved garden to the left of the ramp. I'm not sure what I'm going to use as edging, though. I'm still considering my options. 

There are some terrific edging options featured in this post from Everything Backyard. 

Everything Backyard

I think edging made of logs would suit my little country house pretty well, but I"m not sure I'm totally sold on the idea. 

Another option at my house is to use rocks, like I did around the veggie garden. 

See those big stones behind the Monkey? I am planning to use them either in a garden or as the edging for a garden bed. I'm still not quite certain, which is why the stones have sat at the edge of the lawn for the past year, since Sweetie dug them up out of the lawn when he was patching the grass. 

That was a rough day. 

The Lilac bush from my mom and dad is to the right of the red chairs. It will be flowering soon, I'm so excited! 

I'm thinking it would be nice to balance the Lilac with a tall shrub on the other side, perhaps by the corner of the shed. It would be the 'feature' of the little garden I am planning, maybe with some underplantings. 

Via

I'm thinking a Pee Gee Hydrangea might be nice, as I always wanted to add one to my landscape. They are just gorgeous in late summer!

To the left of the cedar swing is the new garden I put in last spring. I'm pretty excited to see everything fill in and bloom, although I do have to get my butt busy weeding that garden bed!

One of the Bleeding Hearts is blooming already, I just adore that plant! I planted three, but only two came back - so sad, but I'll replace the third. 

I planted colorful pansies in the pots outside the garden cottage, but some critter has been busy eating all the flowers off!

Although I really want to 'dress up' the outside of my little garden cottage, it will never, ever be a true 'she shed' as it's a hard working garden shed on the inside. 

Plenty of room in here for a ride on mower, don't you think? Wink, wink!

There's a potting bench on one side. It's clean right now, but won't be for long once planting season is in full swing. 

I have a few wire shelving units in the garden cottage for storage. This one holds pots of all shapes and sizes. 

There's something nice about seeing all the clay pots grouped together neatly in the corner. 

I save a bunch of plastic pots from the garden center for giving away seedlings or plant starts to friends and family. 

This deck box is not only a place to rest my battery chargers for my Worx lawn mower and other Worx tools, but I keep bags of soil and mulch in the deck box, out of the way. 

There's my little Worx lawn mower. Yup, that little baby and I work very hard together. 

Sweetie installed this hook system for all my tools - isn't he the best? I love seeing all my tools hanging neatly in a row, ready for another busy day in the garden. 

She's a hard worker, my little garden cottage, but that doesn't mean she can't look pretty doing it!

Via

Ok, maybe she won't ever look as pretty as this sweet garden cottage, but a girl can dream, can't she?