Pathways in a cottage garden, are like little country roads that meander gently through the idyllic and picturesque countryside. So for the last week, I have been hard at work carving out some meandering thoroughfares of my own, in our cottage garden. Well..... nothing as grandiose as this...more like very short and not so curvaceous walkways.
Pathway #1
Do you see this area? It is where we planted our Dorset apple trees.
They have been espaliered. Not very spectacular now, I must admit. You can barely see the charred remains of the yucky green fig tree is nearly hidden by a rose bush. These obstacles have long since been removed to make way for our chicken palace, that I call: Le Poulet Chalet. Anyway, this area needed something. And that something it needed is a pathway! It will connect out back patio to the walking lawn. The pathway that I have envisioned for this area is a stone pathway that will have chamomile planted in between the stones. As many of you may know, chamomile is an herb, and it has an apple-like scent. Did you know that chamomile comes in two different forms? German and Roman. German chamomile is upright and grows to about 24" tall, while Roman chamomile sprawls and crawls and gets to about 6" in height. That is why Roman chamomile is chosen as a lawn substitute. Both types of chamomile have lacy green leaves and pretty daisy like flowers. I think this area will look and smell just heavenly. Well, it will smell appleicious for sure.
Inspired to bring this pathway I've envisioned to fruition, I broke ground a few days ago. On a side note: As you can see, we've planted blueberries in the closest wine barrel, and raspberries share another wine barrel with a blackberry that has been struggling for about a year now. We also have an old wheelbarrow in the corner, we just haven't figured out what to do with it. In front of that, we planted my lilac bush. I'm hoping it will actually live and give us lilacs. It gave us about three flowers on a tiny stalk. So I put it as close to my nostril without actually putting it in my nose and took a deep sniff. Well, okay. I did practically put it up my nose, and I was rewarded with the heavenly scent I adore. Mmmmm. Lilacs!
Now I'll have to wait another year for another snort. Anyway, Robert found a cast off piece of lattice and brought it home. It looks pretty nice for a cast off huh? Well, that is because I cleaned it off and stained it. Then Robert hung it behind the raspberry barrel and we are going to use it for a trellis. Hmmm. I think I got a little too side tracked.....back to the pathway.
Inspired to bring this pathway I've envisioned to fruition, I broke ground a few days ago. On a side note: As you can see, we've planted blueberries in the closest wine barrel, and raspberries share another wine barrel with a blackberry that has been struggling for about a year now. We also have an old wheelbarrow in the corner, we just haven't figured out what to do with it. In front of that, we planted my lilac bush. I'm hoping it will actually live and give us lilacs. It gave us about three flowers on a tiny stalk. So I put it as close to my nostril without actually putting it in my nose and took a deep sniff. Well, okay. I did practically put it up my nose, and I was rewarded with the heavenly scent I adore. Mmmmm. Lilacs!
Now I'll have to wait another year for another snort. Anyway, Robert found a cast off piece of lattice and brought it home. It looks pretty nice for a cast off huh? Well, that is because I cleaned it off and stained it. Then Robert hung it behind the raspberry barrel and we are going to use it for a trellis. Hmmm. I think I got a little too side tracked.....back to the pathway.
I finally got some border bricks laid. Next comes the stepping stones, and finally the chamomile will be planted. This is going to take some time, so let's sneak a peak at a finished pathway that shows what I'm aiming for.
I hope my path will look something like this, even though the planting between the stones in this pathway isn't chamomile. But, I think you get the idea. Nice huh?
Pathway #2
Sorry dear reader. I forgot to take a "before" picture of this next pathway project. But I did get an in between picture! This short pathway leads from our garage into the cottage garden. It consisted of the stepping stones set directly on top of the clay soil. Which quickly became engulfed in weeds, and were almost completely sunk into the clay making it look rather blase. So I dug up the weeds and measured how wide I wanted the path to be, and dug down a bit and set in some cedar bender board. After back filling some dirt behind the board, I made sure it wasn't too high for me to trip on. And believe me, that is an important step! I can trip on a grain of sand. Then I tamped down the ground and set the stones to make sure they were the right height. Once again making sure I wouldn't trip on them. Then I took out the stones and put down some newspaper for a cheap weed barrier, relaid the stones, and then poured in the pea gravel. Whew!
Don't worry. Your computer isn't crooked, and your screen isn't off level. This is my trademark cockeyed style. Anyhoooo....after I got all the pea gravel leveled out; I then donned castanets, cranked up the Spanish guitar music and stomped those little pebbles down. Click click click! Stomp stomp stomp. Ole! Not really, but I did stomp on them. All packed down. Then I added some pretty glass stones for some colorful pizzazz! I'm SOooooo happy!
And now all I have to do.... is finish this....
Look. Even Kyle seems completely unenthused at this point. Hopefully I'll get back at it in a few days. You know. After I can operate my back and arms again without mooing in pain.
Happy Gardening!