The enquiry landed in January: the clients wanted an English cottage garden. Connor met them at the property for a design consultation, and Homegrown Tāhuna took on the design, installation and ongoing maintenance.
Stage one was about the bones of the garden. The existing beds were reworked and a screened soil and compost blend was craned in over the hedge. Structural plants went in first, chosen to hold their shape all year round and especially through winter, when a cottage garden can otherwise look bare.
Stage two followed in spring. Bulbs and tubers went in first, and tulips were already coming up when the team returned to plant out the perennials. Ground covers and evergreen shrubs soften the schist rock wall, and the flowering planting brings different heights and hues of purple, pink and orange, with dahlias, zinnias and cosmos among them.
The planting was chosen to flower in sequence, from spring through summer and autumn into the start of winter, so the garden has colour for most of the year. The clients went away for two months straight after stage two was planted, and are due home in December, just as the garden comes into flower.
Ongoing maintenance is part of the project, so Homegrown can look after the planting as the cottage garden fills in through the seasons.
“By the time they come back, everything is going to be in flower or starting to flower.”
