DEEP DIVE: HILLSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN
Welcome to a Deep Dive, where I’ll give you a detailed walkthrough of a design I did for a client who wanted to refresh their Pittsburgh front yard hillside with a pollinator-loving cottage garden.
THE EXISTING SPACE: I met with this client a few years ago, and we did a small refresh of their backyard, but they called me up again to create a plan for their now sunny front hillside. A huge tree had to be taken down, and that made this previously shady garden full of sun. The previous owners had planted invasive ivy and spiky barberry along the hillside, and my clients decided it was time to pull up everything and start fresh!
THE GOAL: The clients liked the existing footprint of the bed and wanted to replace their tree at the top of the slope. For the hillside, they wanted a cottage garden feel that included varying plant heights and evergreen shrubs for added interest. Also, they wanted a way to easily maintain the hillside since it was fairly steep in some places. There is some deer pressure in the area so we would have to stick to deer-resistant plants in the design.
THE DESIGN: A cottage garden is one of my favorite gardens to design, so this was a real treat for me. Starting with the hardscaping, we included a few boulders of varying sizes in the plan for added color interest (the gray/tan contrasts nicely with the green plantings) and also for maintenance purposes. The client wanted to be able to access areas of the garden for planting and weeding and the addition of the boulders means they can easily perch themselves throughout the garden.
For plants, we stuck with deer-resistant shrubs and perennials that mostly had purple, pink, and white blooms. The client requested plants of varying heights so that it wouldn’t feel too monotonous. To accomplish this, the plant list included groundcovers that were a couple of inches tall, perennials that ranged from 1-3’ tall, and a couple of shrubs that would get up to 3’ tall as well. We mixed in evergreen Boxwoods for winter interest, as they can handle the full sun and are very deer-resistant. The client wanted the garden to feel very full, so we kept the plantings fairly close together so they would eventually fill in almost all of the hillside. Finally, to replace their large tree with a smaller option, we opted for a Serviceberry, which will give the family some fruit in the summer.
Below are images of the rendering used for the design (a key part of my Full Design process so the client can easily visualize what the garden will look like) and the final Planting Plan.
THE RESULT: The clients fully executed the design and it looks amazing! It is so much more inviting and colorful than the previous ivy and barberry. There will be varying bloom colors throughout the season with pink and purple dominating in the spring followed by pops of yellow and white throughout the summer. The client used a local landscaping company to remove the previous plantings and to place the boulders. They planted and mulched the hillside themselves! Below are pictures from the summer it was planted and how it looked the following winter as well.
If you are in the Pittsburgh area and need help designing your garden, please check out our garden design consultations!