Welcome to
Quince Cottage!
If you've been following us for a while, you know that our house is a new build in a subdivision. There are many things to like about new construction and subdivisions, but character, distinctive charm, and quaintness are not among them. Yet those are exactly the qualities we love in a home. What to do?
Add them!
Not only have we been busy doing exactly that on the inside, through
shiplap walls, a
sliding barn door,
buffalo check wall treatment, doing an
antique look finish on our mantel, and a brick kitchen backsplash (no post on that one yet, I'm sorry to say...but it's in the works), but we've also been doing it with landscaping.
This post will show you where we started and where we are a year and a few months later.
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| Where we started April 2015 © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Yep, bland foundation plantings and two scrawny trees basic builder package...
One of our first projects was installing a little black metal fence to create a courtyard garden in front of the porch. This provides a focal point at the entry and an enhanced sense of welcome. We decided that within the courtyard all the flowering plants would be white or very pale pink, blue, lavender because Rhiann was enchanted with the idea of a moonlight garden. We chose black metal fencing to coordinate with our black lanterns, black fountain, and dark bronze door hardware. The black fountain was something we brought from our previous house.
The fence panels were purchased at Lowe's and aside from the fact that each place we went to sink a post spike we hit rocks and construction debris, installation was relatively easy. Be sure to measure carefully to see how many panels you'll need. A metal tape measure, rubber mallet, and a level are essentials for this task.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
A closer view of the garden itself. We planted a climbing hydrangea where that black metal trellis is. It does well in shade and that's a pretty shady corner. It also tends to stay moist there, so we planted some ferns along the front of the porch, you can see those in a later photo. Toward the front of the courtyard we planted a white camellia (left) and a New Dawn rambling rose (rose).
Tip 1: Put an overly ripe banana in the hole before you put the rose bush in. We swear we didn't make that up, it came straight from the rose grower.
We also added a black planter box for annuals like Dusty Miller and white Impatience. The original Japanese holly shrubs stayed, but were slightly relocated. To play up the moonlight angle we created a dry riverbed of sorts with white pebbles and stepping stones. Under the mulch we laid some of that black cloth to try to prevent as many weeds from poking through as we could.
Tip 2: buy lots of mulch when it's on sale, it never goes nearly as far as you think it will...
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Here's a closeup of the New Dawn. Isn't she a beauty?
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| New Dawn Rose ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
The camellia blooms in late winter and she didn't disappoint either. A little brown around the edges, as this one is a bit past her peak, but still gorgeous.
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| White Camellia © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Here's the front of the house in early fall of 2015. Ron painted the stair risers and front trim board white, which looks ever so much better than the unstained lumber. He also installed a number plaque we found on Etsy. To keep the mulch where it belongs and to make things a little neater, we used some of that plastic edging that comes in a roll. We got ours from Walmart (online). It's dark brown to match the mulch.
We replaced some of the original shrubs on the right side of the house with two gardenia bushes and two pink and yellow knockout rose bushes.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Both of them have beautiful blooms, and the gardenias give off an amazing fragrance.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Rhiann brought some inside to enjoy that heavenly scent. That middle bloom is from the shrub rose we planted to the right of the courtyard garden.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Early this spring Ron stained the floor of the porch. It looks fantastic.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Maybe you noticed the fountain isn't a fountain anymore. Yep, the fountain pump broke and then the fountain blew over in a storm, so we upcycled it into a planter instead. You can read more about that
here.
Rhiann loathes arbor vitae so we paid professionals to relocate the two we had to the backyard. (We had already moved some of the smaller unwanted shrubs back there). In one arbor vitae's place on the right of the house we planted a climbing pink rose. The trellis matches the one in the courtyard garden to maintain a sense of continuity.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
She's so pretty...
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
On the left side we replaced the arbor vitae with a light pink crepe myrtle. You can see it below.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
We'd already replaced some ho hum shrubbery with a quince bush and a blue hydrangea.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
All in all, it's looking pretty good considering how young most of the plants are (you know that old saying "First year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps). Maybe we'll do an update to his post next year, during the "leap" stage. Now if this darned North Carolina heat would just ease up, we could sit on the porch and enjoy the fruits of all our hard work!
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
We are by no means expert gardeners. We learn by researching, talking to local plant people, observing our neighbors' gardening successes, and yes, trial and error. If a plant doesn't do well in its original spot, we relocate when possible, and discard if not. For instance, the lavender we planted last year didn't do very well where it was because it was too damp and shady. Relocated to almost full sun, it's gowing like gangbusters.
We like an informal cottage-style garden with pretty flowers and plants that don't need a whole lot of pampering. There was a fairly epic battle with Japanese beetles this year, and some fungus and black spot, but all in all the plants have done well with the heat and sporadic rain.
Buster is saying, "Mom. Mom. Stop making it be so hot outside!" It's literally been over 100 (heat index) practically every day for the past two weeks.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Daisy is just SO over it.
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| ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Tell us in comments what kinds of flowers and plants you like to grow, we'd love to hear about them!
While you're here take a look at our Etsy shop, we've got some great new vintage items, and we are adding more all the time.
Click the meme below.
Thank you so much for stopping by, we hope you'll come back soon!
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| Summer of 2015 ©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet |
Quince Cottage Style is a mix of vintage and new, rustic and opulent.
Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,
and as though it wasn't born yesterday!
