Texas Summer Cottage Garden

A colorful burst of cottage garden whimsy on the sidewalk strip of my front yard in Dallas.

Nearly a year ago, I started to plan a cottage style garden along the sidewalk strip in front of our home.

“Cottage garden” simply referring to a closely planted sporadic mix of flowers in a small space, with more of a wild and unfussy look than more structured planting. My main goal for this was to grow some cut flowers, as well as to add some beauty to the neighborhood and give passers-by something pretty to look at.

Spring was its big debut, showing off an array of poppies, larkspur, bachelors buttons and allium (for notes on how to get started on that this fall, click here). As temps began to rise, I was unsure about what blooms would be successful through our soaring Texas summer heat, but I’m pleased to share some success with a little summer garden update.

Zinnias provide a pop of color and dried chocolate lace flower add some texture.

My spring blooms lasted through May, give or take, and so I started to seed summer flowers in April. Some dried plants from the spring I’ve chosen to keep in the garden for some texture, like the Queen Anne’s lace above. I was pleasantly surprised when several plants that I had cut down after bloom did decide to come back! The best example of this was my Mexican hats, which have continued to bloom after pruning, and are not bothered by the heat. Some of my larkspur somehow is still hanging on, which is amazing to me; growing back from seemingly dead stalks.

I love the warm color scheme of my summer garden. Queen Lime Orange zinnias and sulphur cosmos are both very heat resistant.

Summer flower highlights

Gomphrena “Strawberry Fields” - The seeds were sold out when I went to purchase, but luckily I found a small plant at my local nursery. I did start gomphrena from seed and had one germinate in an orange color. It’s just now beginning to put up some buds.

Cosmos - My cosmos were a bit touch and go this summer. I started three varieties from seed in January, and they all grew quite tall. However, they didn’t start to bloom until it was a bit too hot for them, and the blooms were pretty straggly. Mid July, we were lucky enough to have some rain and cooler temps, so these '“Cupcake White” variety began to thrive.

Scabiosa “Black Knight”- These are an annual variety, as opposed to the light purple and white varieties available in nurseries. I started these from seed in January and because they are so summer hardy will be doing more next year. This deep black-purple variety is stunning as a cut flower, but they do get a bit lost in the garden because of their dark color.

Benarys Giant Deep Red Zinnia - I’m adding the giants variety to my every year collection. These deep red blooms are huge and absolutely stunning. They almost look like a dahlia with their big ruffly blooms.

The obvious one that is missing from this list is sunflowers. I planted so many seeds and got scarcely any germination, and I’m not sure why! The only ones which did bloom are these dwarf “Teddy Bear Sunflowers”, which I refer to as Barbie sunflowers because they’re tiny. Very pretty cut flowers though!