Sara Haller here, co-founder of Halden Garden. I wanted to show you how to plant your own cottage garden, like this one I did last year. You might think planting flowers from seed is just not realistic. I thought the same thing BUT this little cottage garden taught me otherwise. 

A cottage garden is more unplanned than a traditional garden. That’s why direct sowing one from seed is ideal.

After the last frost date, I just scattered seed based on height, placing taller flowers in the back and shorter varieties in the front.

The key to planting flower seed  is to water right and have patience. If seeds dry out even once they will not germinate.

Newly planted seeds need water every day for a short amount of time. As their roots become deeper they need longer watering less frequently. You kinda have to build up based on their size. That will be about twice a day at the start and then once a day, every other day, and finally once a week.

And before you know it you’ll have big beautiful flowers in your garden for very little cost.

Other tidbits to know: Snails LOVE marigolds especially so you’ve really got to watch them when they’re seedlings. Put out snail bait when you plant and then every one to two weeks as needed.

If you have a new garden plot that has a lot of sun and hasn’t ever had flowers in it you should plant petunias. Mine kind of got crowded out but the pink ones in the picture above are petunias. In new ground they THRIVE and grow big and beautiful the whole growing season. These petunias I started from seed indoors in March so they’d be ready to put out just after last frost.

Another fun thing about a cottage garden is in addition to adding beauty to your landscape these beauties all do well as cut flowers so you can bring them inside for flower arrangements. The more you cut, the more flowers will continue to bloom.

If you’re sad you missed the spring planting, it’s not too late. All of these flowers mature in 75 days or less so even in June or July you could start and have blooms in September and October depending on your zone. Check your last frost date and count back from there.

Here are the links to the “recipe”/seeds I used in my Cottage Garden if that helps: Calendula, Marigolds, German Chamomile, Sunflowers, Snapdragons

I hope this helps! Put any questions you have in the comments!