THE DRY COTTAGE GARDEN

a drought-tolerant cottage garden with raised beds for herbs and vegetables

Before we started, this was a tired patch of dried-out lawn, nearly devoid of life except for a beautiful old apple tree. Now there are field poppies and chamomile coming up through the vegetables, swathes of lavender smothered in bees. There are butterflies, hoverflies, finches, a Mediterranean herb bed, and along the decomposed granite path, a small meadow frothing with California native wildflowers and bunch grasses. It’s a pleasure to see, smell, and eat from this garden in all its summer glory and to see it visited by all kinds of wildlife. The seedheads of the grassflowers, echinacea, and yarrow dry upright to create structural interest in the winter months, and many of the plants go on flowering right into late autumn.