Look for books and web sites on cottage gardening for inspiration. Since it is a small area open to the street think about enclosing it with hedging, and maybe some trellises or other ornamental woodwork. Then fill the area inside with flowers, maybe including some flat stones among them for access.

I'd try to get it so sitting on the porch I would look out into my little patch and see that - without parked cars, houses across the street and passing pedestrians (and vehicles) competing for my attention.

I read "serious budget" but a picket fence, white or otherwise and rip out the grass and fill the bed with summer blooming dwarf shrubs and perennials would make you want to sit out on the porch and make the house more inviting. And get rid of the rocks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

The lawn is unnecessary and very small. Why not remove it entirely and open the whole area to planting? I'd agree that some sort of demarkation between you and the sidewalk/street will offer a psychological feel of privacy if not visual privacy. A short hedge or picket fence would work and either are suitable to a cottage style. And you do need some extended season interest, so consider some small evergreens (broadleaf or coniferous) in addition to the perennials/deciduous shrubs. Or even evergreen perennials, of which there are lots suitable for our climate.

And I'd also consider reusing the rocks and brick pavers, but in a different manner. Cluster the rocks in areas through the bed to provide additional interest - low growing, creeping plants like candytuft, sunroses, heathers or small grasses work well cuddling up next to them. And if you have sufficient quantities, use the brick-like pavers to form a casual pathway through the front garden for easy maintenance access. Or use them as a base for one stunning large container planting or other accent piiece, like a birdbath.

to me your plantings in the bed need to be redone. visually, from the pics at least, they appear to all be about the same size. you want the shorter stuff up front and the higher stuff more to teh back. or have a few taller items stick up in the middle and ends, with shorter around them.

I'd also keep the rocks and get more. I'd use them to create a sloped rock garden that coincides with the steps in your walkway. If you want a little hedge or a fence, the top of the steps would maybe be the place. Then garden it up inside to your heart's content. I'd do it with some curves and offset in the rock arrangement (current structure is pretty bad) as linear forms in this little yard aren't helping its limitations.

You could either keep lawn down by the public curb or garden that up too.

Also, you seem to have a side yard... extend your work into that area if you can to overcome the narrow mentality that seems to have governed the current design. You're only looking at the foundation/front but the design of the property should be an integrated whole.

And whenever I hear "cottage garden" I think "one-season garden" and "winter ugly." But to each their own!

KarinL

Cottage gardens are English in origin and are typically profusely planted, and random and carefree in form. Their creation or revival in the 1870s followed a fashion for wild gardens and naturalistic plantings, as a relief from mid-century bedding-out schemes using massed colours of brilliant annuals raised in hothouses...

...The cottage garden is invariably an enclosed garden, perhaps with a rose-bowered gateway...

The method of planting closely packed plants was supposed to reduce the amount of weeding and watering required, but planted stone pathways or turf paths, and clipped hedges overgrown with wayward vines, are "cottage garden" features requiring well-timed maintenance...

...In Robinson's The English Flower Garden, illustrated with cottage gardens from Somerset, Kent and Surrey, he remarked, "One lesson of these little gardens, that are so pretty, is that one can get good effects from simple materials."

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia Cottage Garden

I'd like to see you change the shape of the flower bed to mimick the shape above the top floor window of your house.. it's white and goes across then down on each side - make your bed that shape too, straight across the front of the house but out at an angle on both sides. I think it will frame the house nicely.

Your house is neat and tight and clean and pretty. A cottage garden is a bit opposite, so if done right, it will compliment nicely.

I'm thinking the rocks and bricks are nice - but all the straight bricks are in one place and all the round boulders are in another, and that looks uncomfortable. Vary them with some stright then round then stright then round - this will be less harsh. Maybe you could put the rocks and bricks inside the bed itself, instead of on the outside boarder - to create sections inside the bed.

I too think there needs to something tall in the front of the bed, like a picket fence or tall row of rose shrubs, or you are going to use those bricks and stones. An alternative would be to use a large part of your budget to buy enough boxwood to plant along the front of your bed, then all the annuals you plant inside this row - will have their heads and blooms poking out and people walking by will see the blooms and it will have that cottage garden appeal, where they will dodge about looking and not quite being able to see everything, on their tippy toes to see what's in there.

I'd like to see delphinium, roses and perennials like daisy, and I'd like to see a lot of either pale yellow used or a soft white (50% of the flowers), then every color you can find for the other 50% of the flowers. Your house is such a strong color that it might need to be balanced with a lot of one color in the garden, but you wouldn't want to have to stay away from other colors, so a 50-50 split might do nicely.

Budget - yeah, me too. I recycle in the garden, proud of it. Maybe you could buy enough boxwood to box in your garden, that way you don't have to buy a picket fence or iron fence. All the flowers behind the boxwood would raise up freely and wildy... and the boxwood would keep it from looking like it was going to take off.

so, for perennials think tall stuff - lily, maybe even some ostrich fern, foxglove, then propagate over the next few years to fill in. You'd save by buying 3 of each perennial and propagating to fill it in.

Gotta have a rose

Plenty of potential there, Tammy. I seem to agree with most of the above comments. I'm not always a fan of picket fences, but when I look at your photo and think in terms of a cottage garden, I immediately want to see a picket fence, perhaps down by the sidewalk. Alternatively, hedges or trellises would fit, but you definitely need some height. Yes, you can use those rocks another way, don't remove them.

I know you didn't ask about the porch, but in my opinion, a white wicker rocker would look great up there (more of a cottage look). Also, some planters, window boxes, or a short lattice structure, used imaginatively, might be good at the edge of your porch.

If you don't want to do a picket fence, I think railings on the porch would achieve a similar visual effect.

As to the garden, the first thing I would do is plant a several packets of cosmo seeds. Their ferny, leggy shape with big daisy like flowers scream "cottage garden" to me. Inexpensive and a big bang for the buck. I'd keep the lawn, curve the bed a bit, and get rid of the stone...I'd do a nice cut edge instead.

That would be my quick and easy fix. Over time I would move plants around and add to it from plant sales and neighbors, but each year I would scatter lots of cosmo seeds...even start some inside earlier in the season so that you can transplant them and have a head start.

Have fun.

In case you aren't familiar with cosmos, here's a link

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:30950}}

just to clarify, does "serious budget' mean money or no money? The point I would reiterate is to design the garden from the front porch perspective, as well as the sidewalk perspective.

Wow thanks for all the advice!Serious budget mean low funds...wish it was the opposite. So, today I went to the plant sale and got rosa rugosa, hydgrania aspera, st. johns wort, dogowood, & coton. I am thinking about near the porch making a tall row of rosa rugosa, conton, hydragina asperia, hydraginia, st. john wort. They are all big shrubs that will provide year round interest. We are thinking of packing in the smaller perennials in the front with some blue fescue. I know this is no longer cottage, but am I headed in a good direction? I am not sure about the shape of the bed yet...this part of gardening is giving me a headache.

Best to get the bed shape right before planting anything.
Rocks are cheap - usually free on craigslist.
Fences can be built with scrap pallet lumber.

KarinL