The Happy Cottage

Small Garden Journal

This blog began in Jan. 2017 on a cold bright winter day in our 1945 cottage home in Durham, NC. Photos of the Spring 2016 garden inspired me. Winter is after all, the perfect time for gardeners to daydream of Spring. Monthly posts highlight what's happening in our Zone 7 Piedmont garden which includes small wildlife and occasional updates of what's happening inside the cottage. In 2015 we renovated the house next door and are enjoying starting garden beds there as well.

Visit the Butterfly Compendium to see a catalog of pollinators in the garden and host plant information. View this and other favorites in the Featured Posts section of the blog (to the right of the most recent post).

Gardening/lifestyle ethos at The Happy Cottage: support Mother Earth and yourself by being as natural as possible. Avoid the use of synthetic chemicals and weed instead of spray. Include host and nectar plants for pollinators. Favorite garden medium: organic mushroom compost. It's the soil that mushrooms were grown in. Full disclosure: We do use biological mosquito dunks.

My gardening style has evolved over twenty years to include scent, food for pollinators, butterflies, birds and shelter for small creatures. A multi-dimensional garden will bring you years of enjoyment!

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Capricious March

This blog post is lengthy, but I have much to share with you. The weather has been erratic as befits the transition into the warmer part of Spring. I'll start with some photos from the day of our tornado warning March 18th. Fortunately, we had no damage or tornados in our neighborhood. The hawks portended a coming weather system. About fifteen hawks were flying in small groups ahead of the storm. It's unusual to see so many, in fact it was a first for me. I was able to ph

What's Blooming Now after a Wet Winter

The wet winter has been beneficial for the Ralph Shugert vinca minor and Jack Frost Brunerra plants. Two favorite early bloomers of mine have not bloomed. Both of these plants are in challenging areas. The magnolia is in part sun and the camellia is in deep shade. I think they were affected by so much rain and fewer days with sunlight. The white Royal magnolia stellata looks healthy, but hasn't produced blossoms. A cherry red camellia japonica had numerous buds, but is d