Grow this, not that: the cottage garden edition
What to grow when you want a cottage garden but live in a desolate beachside wasteland
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Welcome to another hot take newsletter. The key word this week being HOT. Because if you live in Perth it is too HOT for peonies, it is too dry for hydrangeas and I don’t know if it’s just me but I’ve lost count of the number of lupins I’ve killed.
The whole reason so many of us think we can’t grow cottage gardens in WA is because we’re focusing on a handful of highly specific, namby pamby, wishy washy little wussy plants that can’t hack it in our backyards. And all we really need to do is sub these needy plants out for their similar-but-tougher, badass cousins that are just as beautiful and don’t mind the (parched, desolate) conditions we have to offer them.
If you want to grow a cottage garden in Perth you ABSOLUTELY can. Just grow this not that.
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The Wild Garden club
Looking for weekly inspiration to help you grow your own veggies and turn them into delicious fresh meals? Every week I will be sharing a new seed sowing guide and a seasonal recipe with members of my Wild Garden club. Sow the seeds, cook the dish! To learn more about the club, click here.
This week, we are sowing carrots (easier than you think!) and roasting pumpkins into the tastiest share platter for a chilly evening. Invite some friends over, crack a bottle of red and serve them this roasted pumpkin & chilli yoghurt with some grilled Turkish bread on the side! Here’s the guide and the recipe:
Grow this not that: the cottage garden edition
Alright let’s get down to business!
Want lupins? Grow hollyhocks
Look, maybe you’ve had success with lupins, but mine have always died. Hollyhocks, on the other hand, I totally neglect and they self seed everywhere and have the most beautiful tall flower spikes (taller than lupins so pop them further to the back of your beds and stake the flowers if it’s gonna be windy). They like full sun and grow remarkably well in my most neglected beds.
Want peonies? Grow ranunculus
Peonies need winter frosts and we don’t get winter frosts, these days we barely even get rain! Ranunculi are a fantastic alternative and - I think - just as beautiful! Plant the corms (the bulbs) in autumn for gorgeous spring flowers.
Want hydrangeas? Grow passionfruit marigolds
Ok this might be a slight stretch. Hydrangeas have huge, lacy blue, pink and. purple blooms and passionfruit marigolds (tagetes lemmonii) are sunshine yellow and covered in a mass of small flowers throughout the year. BUT the shrubs are similar in size and the passionfruit marigold is much, much tougher (and better for the bees in my experience too), so I think its a good swap. Hydrangeas hate my sandy, alkaline soil and always die an irritating, slow and ugly death.
Want sunflowers? Grow Jerusalem artichokes
Sunflowers also do just fine in Perth, but if rats are eating your sunflower seeds before they even sprout, or parrots are tearing them to shreds before they bloom, try swapping them out for Jerusalem artichokes. They’re in the same family as sunflowers but they grow from edible tubers, which means 1) they will pop up year after year with no effort required from you, and 2) you can eat them - duh. They produce many flowers that branch out from one tall stem and I have had much more success with them than with sunflowers over the last few years. If you live in Perth and want to give them a go you can find tubers at specialty green grocers this time of year (I’ve spotted them at the Swanbourne IGA and at The Boatshed recently). Just bury the tubers whole in the ground, about 10cm deep (full sun position) and wait for late summer flowers!
Want lilacs? Grow buddlejas
I’m too chicken (or lazy??) to attempt to grow lilacs, much as I long for their romance and sweet, heady perfume. Buddlejas are the easiest swap - they have similar cone-shaped bunches of purple, lightly fragrant flowers and are great for bees (and much, much tougher). Full sun position one again!
Want yarrow? Grow fennel
Yarrow does just fine in Perth too (although mine is currently refusing to flower). But, if you let it bloom in spring, fennel does the same job of providing gorgeous, floaty umbel (umbrella-shaped) flowers, and it grows ridiculously easily. Unlike yarrow, you can also eat every part of the fennel plant, including the liquorice-flavoured flowers.
Want dahlias? Grow zinnias
Dalias are gorgeous but often get attacked by chilli thrips in Perth summers and I have to say I always look at the dahlias they grow over east and feel inadequate. Mine are small and measly and usually tumble over before they even flower and then the flower stalks are all wonky and it’s just a whole ordeal. Zinnias are easy and look pretty damn. similar. They can be sown from seed in spring and are the happiest, silliest little flowers. The like the heat, don’t topple over themselves and don’t give a shit about chilli thrips.
Want baby’s breath? Grow alyssum
Baby’s breath probably grows fine but alyssum is sooo much easier and adds a similar lacy, floaty, white-and-bobbly effect to your garden. borders. It’s a low grower so pop it at the front of your beds and use the edible flowers as a decoration on spring cakes!
Want tulips? Grow poppies (or cosmos)
In my experience tulips look lovely the first year you grow them, then the following year they either look totally crap or just die and never reemerge. from the soil. It’s infuriating, especially given that there are two much easier alternatives: poppies and cosmos. Both can be grown cheaply from seed scattered direct on the soil (you can try sowing them now). If you’re after the closest tulip lookalike, try Californian poppies or Flanders poppies. These flowers all love the heat (sow them in full sun) and if you collect the seeds in summer you can sow them year after year after year.
Ok, that’s it for today, lest my HOT TAKE grows too long and becomes lukewarm instead. Cottage gardening really isn’t about the exact plants you grow - it’s much more about the rambling feeling, the loosely contained wilderness, the edible plants tossed in amongst the ornamentals, and the endless waves of flowers. If you want a cottage garden and you don’t live in England, you can absolutely grow on that is every bit as beautiful, and much tougher too.
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