In spring of 2023, Valerie’s cottage garden began with a journal to help her transform a storm-damaged landscape. Her efforts to grow cutting flowers and planter-box vegetables provide valuable lessons in creative and experimental gardening.
A lush cottage garden is one of the prettiest sights to behold. It also takes a lot of patience, trial and error, and a high tolerance for deviation. Valerie Allen can attest to all these, and more. Her Prince Edward Island home is the site of her grand experiment in cottage gardening and in two-plus years she is reaping the rewards.
Best-Laid Plans
For the most part, Valerie stuck to her main goals set down in her garden journal last year. She really liked the way metal planter boxes created some visual interest, punctuating her vast expanse of lawn. Working with Sproutbox Garden, Valerie installed corrugated metal containers with rounded edges, just as she planned in her garden journal and drawings.
Her plan includes eight steel raised beds, two of which will border the back end of the cutting garden. Those two will be flanked by trellises that, when planted with climbing flowers, will create a wall. Surrounding the greenhouse will be fencing and hydrangea shrubs, to help fill in the loss of all her beloved maples.
From “Creating the Cottage Garden Part 1”
As with most garden plans, reality had its own version. “We had to move farther afield to find level ground for the boxes,” Valerie explained. “The boxes are spaced farther apart than we planned so we used only six.” Still, the generous sized planters hold profusions of flowers, which thrive in the good enriched soil. Valerie notes that the ground soil is so filled with tree roots that the boxes were definitely the way to go.
This year was the first time Valerie raised flowers from seeds. She sowed some of the seeds directly into the raised beds, while also planting some of them indoors. Surprisingly the outdoor plants grew almost as quickly as the indoor ones, saving Valerie a lot of time and trouble.
Full and Fabulous Blooms
It’s summertime and the gentle sunshine on Prince Edward Island (along with Valerie’s daily tending) has brought forth hundreds of dazzling zinnias and dahlias. Despite her short span as a serious gardener, Valerie has been focused and patient … and they have delivered results. “This was my first year planting flowers from seeds and they were wildly successful!” she says. The zinnias grew in abundance, all from seeds, while the dahlias, which grow from tubers, also grew very well (tip from the American Dahlia Society: fertilize with coffee grounds).
Cosmos is another variety that is thriving in the container garden. They fill up nearly two of the long boxes, and are also a natural part of the two-part wood cattle fence that serves as a visual “border” for the back of the garden. Standing sentinel on either side are rows of fledgling hydrangea.
Beans and Vines
Delighted by all the cutting flowers available for her home, Valerie plans to continue adding to her stock. She is also trying her hand at climbing vines, namely scarlet runner beans and hyacinth bean. You can see the lush scarlet runner vines on the arched trellis near the center of the garden. Valerie had planned to create two of these arches but adjusted back to one when she saw how much it dominated the space.
This year’s attempt to germinate the hyacinth bean vine was not successful. “They struggled inside my greenhouse for some reason,” Valerie says. “But I’m going to try again because I hear it’s such a beautiful climber with large purple flowers.”
Another big grower in Valerie’s cottage garden is nasturtium. Nasturtium is the sleeper of all sleepers and should be in every garden. Not only is nasturtium easy to grow (for most people), it offers deep orange and yellow color to your beds. What’s more, nasturtium is edible and very tasty with a slight peppery bite. Garnish salads, drinks, and pasta with the blossoms; the pale-green pods can be pickled and used like capers.
Joy in the Garden
The cleverly situated hedges, fencing, and planter boxes create little pathways that Valerie delights to walk through. Her greenhouse, anchoring it all, provides valuable workspace for germinating seeds and wintering over her plants during Canada’s long cold winters. Valerie and her husband built the greenhouse several years ago, when mature trees dotted the landscape.
After a severe hurricane, the trees were gone. Valerie had to change course, and the garden followed. Losing trees and shade was traumatic, yet Valerie made it into a positive by creating a garden of sun-loving plants. She enjoys a beautiful serene space inside the greenhouse, too, and thinks up a lot of her DIY ideas in there (like the checkerboard floor, blinds, trellises, and more). You can find many of them on Instagram.
As any garden lover knows, gardens are the epitome of “change is constant”. For Valerie, the gardens teach here that every day, and more. Recently retired, Valerie has found the back yard to be her classroom as well as her playground.
And the greenhouse? “I wish everyone who wanted a space like this could have one,” she says. “It brings me peace and is a creative outlet that is extremely fulfilling.”
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