Cottage Casual

Floppy, fragrant and full of food, an urban corner turns sanctuary

WHEN I VISITED Doug Bayley's new in-city garden, his gray kitten was playing wildly in the plumbago and rudbeckia that tumbled over the fence onto the sidewalk. Flocks of small birds rustled the foliage, snacking on rose hips. The birds drove the kitten into a frenzy, but neither birds nor kitten needed shooing away, for this 3-year-old cottage garden is organic — safe for animals and children to enjoy. You can pick a pansy to garnish a salad, plunge your nose into a fragrant lily or eat an apple right off a tree without worry.

We often think of city gardens as highly designed and more formal than suburban or country gardens, hinting at rigorous spraying, clipping and weed control. The Bayley garden may be in the heart of the city but its soul is pure cottage-garden casual. The mix of flowers and edibles, including 10 types of apples, exudes all the charm of a garden left to scramble about in pleasing, natural patterns. Bayley, a garden designer, disguised his artful hand in his transformation of the garden. The sage-green fence, the intimate scale and the profusion of plantings all commune harmoniously with the 1905 bungalow they surround.

"I have nightmares about my last garden," says Bayley. "I dream that I'm still trapped in it." A few years ago, the family moved into town from a far larger garden that Bayley describes as his education. He prudently planned his new corner garden, consisting of 2 ˝ lots, to be less demanding. The first of his hard-learned strategies for easy maintenance: Amend the soil with plenty of compost. He also mulches thickly so plants need less water and care. Hardy geraniums have been generously planted throughout because, as this practical designer points out, "they cover up lots of problems."

As with many older gardens, this one was sorely in need of updating. Bayley began by removing an old garage and aged cherry tree, replacing them with a sunken patio. This sunny, paved pocket forms a warm outdoor room, holding pots, a reflecting pond, a little vegetable plot in a corner, and table and chairs for basking or dining.

In search of privacy and space for borders, Bayley pushed the garden out to the margins of the property. Now the garden edges are softly hedged, which screens without forming a solid wall. "I wanted some openings because it's such a friendly neighborhood," says Bayley. Asters, small willows, Cornus kousa, grasses, vine maples, rosemary, Japanese maples and daylilies grow in a textural tapestry of deciduous and evergreen that beautifies the sidewalk while sheltering the garden from passersby.

"I have old-fashioned, fixed ideas about gardens," says Bayley. "There should always be floppy hydrangeas and maybe a fuchsia at the end of the lawn." He squeezed in fragrant flowers everywhere, topped off with statuesque Oriental lilies. He planted loads of delphinium, peonies, phlox, roses and hollyhocks to emphasize seasonal change. Without thinking about it too much, Bayley freely mixes colors he loves, planting bright tones for early and late in the season, plus plenty of blue to make everything else look good. "How wrong can you go?" asks Bayley of his comfortable garden, which gives him nary a nightmare.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Jacqueline Koch is a writer and photographer living on Whidbey Island.