I shared this project over on Instagram for a DIY Couples Story Tour and shared the entire thing over on a reel.  If you have Instagram, you can go watch it if you wish.  But, I wanted to document it here for those who don’t have social media.  

One of our very favorite things to do is cozy up our outdoor spaces.  We spend every waking hour outside when we can.  Here in Ohio, we have a short time to be outside…   The ONLY time we spend time indoors is if it is raining sideways…  and onto the porch.  Otherwise, we even sit on the porch when it’s raining.  We love it.  If it’s hot, we tote a fan outside.  If it’s cold, we have a heater to warm the space up.  We LOVE spending time outdoors.  Therefore, we love to create lots of different seating areas around the property so we have choices.  Lots of choices.

The first space we created was our porch, of course.  I will be sharing the entire porch hopefully next week.  But I wanted to share the cottage landscaping project first.  

Landscaping Around the Cottage

We didn’t want to put a lot of money into this project because we are saving for the house.  That will be a lot more thought out as far as plants that we love, etc.  But, we stopped by Lowes last Fall and happened upon their 75% off sale in the garden department.  We spent a total of $100 on all of these shrubs.  We brought them here to the property and planted them under ground IN THEIR POTS.  And then we pushed leaves all up around them to protect them from the winter cold.  

The reason we did that was because we had no place to plant them as the cottage wasn’t build.  And we didn’t want to plant them and then disturb the roots this year.  It worked like a charm.  They went dormant and looked spectacular this year.  One of them looks like it may not have made it.  But, we planted it here in the woods anyways, to give it one more chance.

We have a few hydrangeas, some viburnum, burning bushes, dogwoods, and a few others that we don’t even know the names.  But, we have an assortment of different colored greens which I love.  Normally we like to buy 2-3 of each plant to keep things even, but we bought what we could.  They were pretty picked over at the time.

Adding the fun stuff!

We used rocks from our collected rock pile we have here in the woods to define the border of this bed.  And, we added black mulch because I think it makes the green shrubs pop. 

One of our favorite things to do is add a focal point to the gardens.  We chose to add this old pump and a large planter that we have toted from several of our properties.  We love it so much.  Remember, our mission is to make our structures look like they have been here for a long time.

Anyway… We have SO MANY PLANS to create outdoor spaces here.  Next up and coming SOON is going to be a deck off of the back of the cottage with a step down, without railings, so we can use our outdoor farmhouse table.  I can envision it with lights wrapped around everything and it just being such great cozy spot.  And, also, we will be building a pergola porch swing type of thing on the property and adding lots of different paths and seating areas all around.  Stay tuned for all of the excitement.  You won’t want to miss it.  

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What do you think about this first little flower bed around the cottage?  I love how it turned out.