This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Friday 2 May 2014

New Cottage Style Plants for the Garden

The weather has been sunny, dry and warm (apart from some chilly evenings) and the garden centres have been packed out! I had some compost to get and of course I ended up buying some new plants (varieties pictured).


I've been wanting to add some new cottage-style plants to the garden so I bought a few small plants (which I think are all perennial) to add the the borders. I seem to have gone for mostly blue/ purple/ pinks and a random splash of yellow with the Achillea; they were 5 for £10 ($17 US dollars). These have all been  planted into a border and growing well. Its great to see all the growth this time of year! The slugs and snails are active too, and I've noticed lots of green aphids - so I'm patrolling my plants regularly. 


I've also manged to get some seed sown. I've sowed quite a variety of salad seed, carrot, chard and others direct into the ground and some seed sown in a greenhouse (peppers, tomato, etc). It seems the perfect weather for seed germination! Lots to do this time of year! Enjoy your weekend in the garden!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

9 comments:

  1. The bees will love the achillea. We have campanula lactifolia and if you cut off the dead flowers it will produce more, They won't be tall spikes but still pretty and it means it has a long flowering period.

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  2. The cottage garden will be beautiful. You made good choices. It has been cold and windy all week, but sunshine is promised for the week end and we have a lot to do.

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  3. I'm sure your garden become so beautiful and colorful. I can't wait to see they are blooming.

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  4. Isn't it a wonderful time of year Kelli. I've missed spring in the UK so much over the years that I've gone a little silly with buying plants this year...but who can blame me?
    There's just so many wonderful plants to choose from... so I don't... I tend get them all (hehe) well not quite all ;D
    I've been building up my cottage garden borders and I would like achillea to add to the collection. I've also planted a bee mat so it's all very exciting.
    Enjoy your planting!

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  5. I like your colour scheme and look forward to seeing your cottage garden borders. I've been buying a few new plants and want to have an area for wildflowers and build up a collection of more bee-loving flowers.

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  6. I love these cottage style plants. Have a lot of seedlings in the greenhouse, but at the moment I do not know how to plant them in the garden, I discovered rabbits......

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  7. Kelli,
    You have a great selection of cottage plants. Canterberry Bells! How I love them. I grew them from seed one year and watched people stare at them in amazement as they walked by.... The Achillea is so hardy it could survive an atomic blast! They will make you smile. Can't wait to see the pictures. Happy Gardening,

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  8. That's a really good price for your plants. I sowed some Canterberry Bells seeds last week & thankfully they have germinated. Have a good weekend.

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