Garden Design Behind the Scenes: Sage Cottage Starter Garden

The short story is this: I was reconnected to Sam via Instagram! A friend introduced us as Sam was looking for someone to help her build an edible garden. The twist is that I had previously worked with Sam when I was running marketing for a boutique hotel brand! And now, I design kitchen gardens! Small world.

Here’s the behind-the-scenes of us working together to get her going with a starter garden in a small space. I am so proud of how it turned out, and she’s already talking about a second raised bed!

Step 1: The Intro

Sam and I did a FaceTime call to get to know her space and what she was looking for. She talked to three other people before me, but hadn’t clicked with anyone. What she really wanted were some ideas and options for growing herbs and maybe a few veggies in her small but very beautiful backyard.

She has a mediterranean meets English cottage vibe and very much wanted to keep a refined natural look at color palette.

She identified three areas of her yard that had potential space for gardening, and I used those areas to start gathering inspiration.

Step 2: The Vision

I got to work sourcing some inspiration for her. I sent over ideas for the three spaces she had: 1. a wall that gets full sun, but has plants already in the ground. 2. The back porch steps 3. A side yard space that is walled in, but gets some sun.

Step 3: Decisions

Sam decided that she liked the raised bed vibe in the side yard, but wanted a traditional raised bed look that would weather over time. We went for a classic potager style wooden bed that is 18 inches tall and 2 feet by four feet.

She sent me her list of plants, and I mapped those out, and then we finalized the purchasing list.

Step Four: Install!

Sam has such a cute space in Venice, CA but her yard lacks a little sun. Once on site the side yard looked too shady, so we opted for a space that she hadn’t considered, which was in between her house and a rental unit in the back. It gets ideal sun (6 hours) and looks quite adorable!

I brought over 5 bags of organic raised bed soil, all her plants, and the raised bed. All we needed to gather was some cardboard to line the bed since I didn’t want the soil just sitting on the cement.

Sam and I worked together to plant her herbs, so she could learn how to do it, we talked watering and harvesting, and I sent her on her way!

This is truly a perfect example of a simple first time kitchen garden. It cost less than $200 for supplies, about an hour to setup, and is now a beautiful functional garden.