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Inspired by Blooms – June PNW Cottage Garden Tour

Don’t you love this time of year in the garden? June is finally here and I can’t wait to give you a cottage garden tour to show you what’s blooming in my part of the Pacific Northwest.

June cottage garden with foxgloves and greenhouse

I have to be honest. As much as I love working in the garden, April and May took EVERYTHING OUT OF ME!

I finally put the last plant in the ground on the LAST day of May. How’s that for timing. It could be because I sowed too many seeds and didn’t have room for them all. And that’s after planting some of my seedlings in our new community garden and giving some away to friends and neighbors.

June cottage garden

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I’m a self-taught hobby gardener, not a Master Gardener. Everything I share with you on my blog is my personal opinion and things that worked for me along the way.

June cottage garden with foxgloves and birdhouse

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have the majority of work finished in the garden now that it’s June. At least the front yard is close to finished. I haven’t touched the backyard.

June is going to be about keeping up with the weeds, pinching, staking, watering, and ENJOYING!

June cottage garden with foxgloves

The Foxglove Dilemma

I’ve mentioned this once or twice already, but I went to my local grocery store, Safeway, a couple of weeks ago. They had selected perennials on sale for $5.99 each. My head almost exploded. Surely this must have been a pricing error, right?

Wrong! So what’s a girl to do? I took every last foxglove they had in the store and planted them in my cottage garden the very next day.

June cottage garden with foxgloves

You don’t need to say it…I’ve already been advised that this is a VERY poisonous plant. Now that made me sad. I usually do my homework before buying anything for the garden but I saw that price and knew I had to have them.

June is that one month of transition for me when I have much more green than color in my garden. The early spring flowers are long gone, but the summer flowers haven’t shown up to the garden party yet. And these foxgloves provided just the pop of color I needed to get me through the month.

June cottage garden with foxgloves

I’ve enjoyed all the pictures of the foxglove that I’ve been able to take. And I may do another garden tour before I take them out of the garden. In the meantime, I’m keeping the dogs away from them.


June cottage garden with fairy sprite

Garden Fairy Sprites

I get so many comments on this sweet garden fairy. A friend in our community makes and sells them here locally. I loved this girl so much that I had to buy a copper-colored one too!

June cottage garden with foxgloves

Here’s the other pretty fairy above. Not a great picture but you get the right idea.


What’s Blooming in the Cottage Garden in June

Are you ready to see what’s blooming in my June cottage garden?

Lavender

Some varieties of lavender in my garden are blooming beautifully right now. I didn’t do this on purpose, but I’ve realized that I gravitate towards the Spanish lavender because of how bright and beautiful it is.

Of course, every cottage garden needs some English lavender which I am patiently waiting for to bloom. And I just planted some Portuguese lavender for the first time.

Clematis

I have several clematis plants that bloom both spring and summer and here’s a beautiful bloom that’s in the garden right now.

pink rhododendron and greenhouse

Rhododendrons

The Pacific Northwest is known for its colorful rhododendrons and azaleas in the spring. My bushes (more like trees) are well established and are one of the few plants that were here when we moved here almost 9 years ago. The bloom times are different and the last “batch” of blooms are almost done, but I still had to include them in the June cottage garden tour.

pink rhododendron
sweet mock orange

Sweet Mock Orange

These are one of my favorite deciduous shrubs in the spring. I can never have too many white flowers in the garden, and they smell amazing!

Jupiter's beard

Jupiter’s Beard

I love this plant because just when you think it’s done for the season and you cut it back, it ends up blooming again.

If you like volunteers in your garden then you’ll be happy to know that this plant will end up all over your beds. I actually love them so it’s a treat for me, and I end up giving them to my neighbors.

You’ll definitely need to stake these flowers.

salvia

Salvia

These will produce blooms early spring to fall.

lobed tickseed

Lobed Tickseed

I’m calling on all you Master Gardeners to tell me what this plant is. When I looked it up, this was the overwhelming answer, but I need confirmation.

I love this flower because it’s one of the very few yellow blooms in my cottage garden in late spring other than marigolds.

peonies

Peonies

Some really interesting things are happening with my peonies this year. They are not all coming up at the same time. I have this plant that is ready to bloom and it has basically tripled the blooms from last year. But the other plants are not even close to blooming yet.

Did you know that peonies can last over 100 years in your garden if taken care of properly? Did you also know you shouldn’t harvest any of the blooms for the first few years? You want the energy to go into the roots at least for the first 2 or 3 years. Harvesting immature plants will stunt the size of the flowers and the number of stems per plant for many years. 

delphinium

Delphiniums

I planted this along with another delphinium last year. The slugs wiped them out shortly after I planted them. Obviously, I didn’t know that the slugs liked them so much. For some reason, this is the only one that grew back. They are such stunning flowers.

pink lupine

Lupine

Here’s another stunning flower. I planted a few last year but I think I put them in the ground too late and they never recovered from the heat. And they never came back up this year. Lupine’s seeds and seed pods are toxic, but from everything I have read, they have to be eaten in very large quantities for symptoms to occur.

red campion

Red Campion

Here’s another one that I’m not 100% sure about. Does this look like red campion to you? This was one of the first perennials to bloom this spring other than the bulbs that were planted. I divide them each year because they can grow quite big.

campanula

Campanula

I really like how delicate this gorgeous flower is. And the color is amazing. I believe this is a peach-leaved bellflower variety. They self-seed and are loved by the slugs and snails.

flowering dogwood

Flowering Dogwood Tree

This is the most stunning tree right now. The flowers are a perfect shade of pink and these are so fun to force bloom indoors in the winter.

calla lilies

Calla Lily

This is another plant that has been in the garden even before we moved in. It grows VERY BIG and I do struggle to keep on top of it and divide every year. Aren’t they gorgeous?

greenhouse and container garden

My Container Garden

I love this space in the garden. It’s a hodgepodge of every container you can imagine. There’s a mixture of annuals, perennials, and herbs.

galvanized tub with flowers
birdhouse and container garden

My husband made this planter for me this last winter. I have planted marigolds, petunias and geraniums. The primroses come back every year and are in the back of the planter.


It’s All About the Birds

No cottage garden is complete without a birdhouse. And I’m in love with this one pictured above from Good Directions.

flowering chives and birdbath

Birdbaths are always a perfect touch as well.

vintage bike with flower baskets

Vintage Bike Baskets of Flowers

Vintage bikes make the perfect spot for a grouping of annual flowers. I just planted these so they aren’t as filled out, but just wait!

vintage bike flower baskets
greenhouse with sunset view

I hope you enjoyed my June cottage garden tour. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is such an amazing place to grow flowers this time of year. I can’t wait to update you throughout the summer and share the progress.

Happy Gardening!

More Garden Inspiration

Make sure to visit my friends to see what they’re up to in their gardens. It’s always fun to see what’s happening in the other parts of the country.

Chas’ Crazy Creations |Vegetable Garden Ideas


Life at Bella Terra | Protecting Plants from Heat


Bricks ‘n Blooms | Spring Happy Gardening Tour


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20 Comments

  1. Oh my goodness gracious. What an exquisite garden. And your shed is adorable. What a beautiful view you have as well. I really really want to buy one of those garden fairies. Does the lady in your neighborhood who makes them sell online? They are soooooooooooooo unique. Thank you for sharing your beautiful garden with us. I am really looking forward to Spring this year. We just had some stone work done in our yard last year and even though I did plant some bushes and flowers (for the birds and the bees), there is no method to my madness. We transplanted some hydrangea bushes from our front yard into our back yard because the deer were eating them down to stubs in the front, so I hope they come back. Thank you again. Such a delight on a cold day here in Eastern Tennessee.

    1. Thank you so much for reaching out Lisa. I really appreciate the kind words. Unfortunately, my neighbor doesn’t make many fairies very often anymore and when she does, it’s only for the locals. So many people love them so I’m sorry I don’t have better news. Crossing my fingers for the recovery of your hydrangeas. Stay warm and think happy thoughts about spring.

  2. I love your Garden! I love the Foxglove and Delphiniums but decided against both as they are highly toxic. The Foxglove is a beautiful addition to any garden.

  3. What a stunning property you have – thanks for sharing it. The first plant you asked about is Coreopsis lanceolata, lance-leaved coreopsis, also known as tickseed. The second one is Silene, or Red campion, as you suspected. It is not to be confused with Lychnis coronaria, or Rose campion.

  4. Gosh….*gorgeous*…always love when your weekly email POPS UP in my feed on Sundays….zip right over and visit with you for a spell….thanks for the Sunday treat….well done! Valerie from Vancouver Island 🙂

  5. So beautiful. Re: the foxgloves….could you put wire cages around them- out a little- so the dogs could not reach them? chicken wire maybe?
    Do you use a dark mulch or is that your soil? Sadly, our soil here in Colorado is very clay. You can dig a hole and fill it with water and it will still be there the next day. Even so we have done so much amending and managed to plant a bit. I really dislike the “gorilla” mulch. I don’t like the orange color and it is filled with big wood chips. I would love to find a dark mulch that looks like soil and is good for plants..

  6. It made me smile just scrolling through all of your beautiful photos of flowers in your garden. I loved seeing the rhododendrons as I had these in my yard growing up, and I simply adored your gorgeous lavender!

  7. Kim, your garden is so lovely, even if you think that it is still more green than colorful! I do love foxglove and delphinium. Both are flowers I grew in my perennial garden when I lived up in Ohio, along with an extensive herb, knot garden. I never grew calla lilies, and yours are amazing. Perhaps I need to see if they will grow in Florida after the construction in the backyard gets done. Thanks for the lovely tour!

  8. Your gardens are amazing!! I love the foxglove you added. The lupine and peonies are favorites of mine, too! I have a fairy garden that I put together every year, so naturally I think your fairies are great! Thanks for always sharing your gardens with us!

    1. Thank you for the sweet comments, Kim. I never created a fairy garden but it’s something I would love to do someday. And I do love my sweet little garden fairy sprites. Thank you for taking the time to visit.

  9. Oh my goodness friend, so very beautiful. I don’t have many flowers yet here in Colorado… we’ve had too much snow and cold weather. We’re finally starting to warm up, so I can live through you right now 🙂

    1. I can’t even imagine not having flowers in June Chas. I think that’s why I will never move! I can’t wait to see how your veggie garden does. I am so intrigued.

  10. Those Foxgloves are SO PRETTY! I had no idea about them! Thanks for sharing and letting me know!

    Thank you as always for the beautiful garden tour!

    Happy day!
    KariAnne

    1. Thank you Stacy. So sad to think that I may have to dig them up because of my dogs. Wish I would have known how toxic they were before I found them.

  11. Kim, I wish I could see your garden in person, but this post is the next best thing. Would you share the source of the garden fairy? My garden needs a few of those. Also, even though I cannot grow peonies in Phoenix, I may be able to grow them at our cabin. I didn’t know that you need to leave them alone for the first few years…great tip. I love foxglove but was too, worried about their toxicity and pets. But they are so beautiful. I am inspired by your container garden….maybe I will expand mine. It’s an area that I don’t focus on so they do look a bit neglected. Again, such a fabulous post and happy to be hopping with you.

    1. Thank you, Mary. I wish you could see my garden in person too. We would have so much fun! I hope you do try to bring some life into your container garden. It’s been so fun to try new things and I always love changing out the pots when I find something even better. Plus, I can have things growing in them year-round while the rest of the garden is asleep.

    2. I forgot to address the fairies, Mary. They are made by someone local and I have already approached her about shipping them. She does not want to go down that road and says they are too expensive. Sorry, I couldn’t help you out, but maybe you can find someone who can create one from a picture of this one.

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