Building The Love Shack

When you look outside and start to see the Fall colors in bloom, most people think of Halloween and Fall clean up. As a Landscape Designer being my first trade, I think it’s time to start designing.

A trip to the cottage with a measuring wheel and camera in hand, it’s time to figure out where the gardens will go. But before that can be done, we need to decided what is staying on the property and what is going.

With little thought and little discussion, we decide to keep the cottage, a cottage, in it’s landscape design. There will be some placed gardens but unlike the city home we do not want a golf course lawns and high maintenance gardens. We also do not want to make to negative influence on the wild life around us.

All the old trees and new trees will stay, as they are homes to the many birds that live at the lake.  We will be keeping the wild flowers, as they also provide food for the wildlife.

But what to plant in the gardens? This is where it gets tricky. Deer resistant plants will need to be planted and also ones that tolerate low watering. Unlike the home garden, you are not there to water each day.

Flowers will attract bees and sitting water attracts mosquito’s.  Squirrels and chipmunks will dig up the bulbs. Fertilizers and pesticides are not an option. Add in the cold air that will blow off the lake over the winter and  it’s not an easy design to do.

We will need walkways and a deck to sit and enjoy the out doors life. That’s the relatively easy part. Stone for the walkways and hard wood for the decking. But back to what to plant in those gardens.

In my career as a designer, I have designed front yards, back yards and sitting areas in homes and business, including roof top gardens in sky-scarpers in Toronto, but the cottage garden  gave me the most challenge.

Keeping it looking like cottage is important… But what does a cottage look like? To some people its natural, only the plants that grow in the wild, to others it’s a pretty get away.

I have decided to do just a bit of both. I would like the front entrance to have a little touch of color and bling, while keeping the back sitting area, as natural as it can look.

 

For the Front yard, I have decided on Rhododendrons.

 

 

 

And Wild Roses in the Memory of Mom

 

 

And in the back yard.

 

 

 

And  a Peony in Memory of Grama

 

It important no matter where you are to bring those who matter to you, with you. The garden is a nice place to bring the memories of those we lost.

The cottage is a place to share with those we still have.