COTTAGE GARDEN IDEAS

Cott a ge G ARDEN IDE A S

Charming ways to create a character-filled outdoor space you’ll instantly fall in love with

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Call about creating a beautiful space that’s packed with soft flowers and scent. From overflowing borders filled with cottage garden plants to pretty accessories and seating that adds instant charm, there are plenty of ways to create a cottage-style vibe in your own garden.

And, if you’re the owner of an urban garden, don’t be discouraged. You don’t have to live in a picture-postcard thatched cottage in the English countryside to create a cottage garden scheme! All of these ideas will work just as well on a smaller scale for a romantic, flower-filled city garden as they would in a larger rural space.

Cottage gardens typically have an informal planting scheme featuring lots of different colours for a space that’s packed with interest. Flowerbeds are bigger than you might find in a more contemporary style garden, so keep in mind that you might need to sacrifice some of your lawn to create the most successful cottage garden planting scheme.

Create a meadow-like feel by layering your plants

If there’s one thing that’s essential for a country garden, it’s flowers, and lots of them. Historically the quintessential cottage garden would have evolved slowly and planting would have had no strict plan.

Self seeders were welcomed, plants were propagated from cuttings, gifted by neighbours and perhaps collected from the native countryside. All would have been planted in whatever space was available with little thought to hierarchy or height, which resulted in a magical jumble of shape and colour.

Although colour blocking is a great way to create cohesion and impact, for a wild meadow feel, layer up a variety of colours and heights.

Create a kitchen garden area

Traditionally the purpose of the cottage garden was to grow staple produce like peas, beans, cabbages, onions, leeks and carrots, but also a wide array of herbs used in cooking and for medicinal purposes.

For a true cottage garden feel, grow produce in amongst the flowers in whatever space you have. If you have the luxury of more space, dedicated raised beds could be created in a sunny south-facing area.

Paint gates in pretty colours

Add extra charm to your cottage garden by painting gates, woodwork and even wooden furniture in soft, muted colours such as pale greens and blues.

These types of shades work well with pretty cottage garden planting and will add another layer of interest to your garden scheme.

Make roses the star of the show

If there’s one flower that should take centre stage in a cottage garden, it’s the classic rose. Romantic, English garden favourites, they are loved for their fragrance and classic blooms, plus there are so many to choose from and they can be grown in all sorts of positions.

With their abundance of pretty floral sprays, climbing or rambling roses are brilliant for softening harsh walls or fences and they can be used to bring height and structure grown over an arch or obelisk.

Alternatively, choose shrub or bush roses for borders, or if space is tight you can grow them in pots, too.

Make a feature of your garden boundaries

Fixed features and boundaries like gates, hedges and fences all help lend themselves to the overall look and feel of a cottage garden. Traditionally they would have been made from local materials, so across Britain you will find variations in vernacular design from the dry-stone walls of the Cotswolds to wattled fences in Wiltshire and white-washed stone walls of Devon.

There’s nothing quite like a charming white picket fence to give your garden some instant cottage garden appeal though is there?

Create a relaxed feel by using curved borders

While formal gardens were laid out with parterres and terraces, traditional cottage gardens would have had no predetermined layout. There would have been little space for lawn and no hard surfacing.

To capture the romance of a country cottage garden, you should avoid straight lines and factor in plenty of deep, curved borders for planting. Curved landscaping always creates a more natural and relaxed feel that allows you to meander along pathways through the beautiful flowerbeds.

Add in meandering pathways

Unlike formal country gardens, cottage gardens have a relaxed, casual feel. One way to help achieve this is to embrace sinuous pathways.

Avoid geometrical, rigid materials like square paving and instead try materials which are softer on the eye such as a gravel path lined with reclaimed bricks that have a worn patina.

Include a stone wall for added character

A stone wall is a lovely addition to a cottage garden, for a timeless, countryside look. It also provides a useful divider between ‘rooms’ of your garden, or for added privacy and shelter.

You can plant it up with foliage, succulents, moss, and even tumbling flowers such as Erigeron, for a much softer, fairytale-like feel.

Choose colourful cottage garden perennials

Cottage gardens are all about abundance, so don’t hold back on the flowers even if you are restricted on space. Pack your borders with a mix of perennial favourites which will bring uplifting colour year after year, such as hollyhocks, everlasting sweetpeas, poppies, and hardy geraniums.

Ensure interest all year round by planting for each season. In winter think about cyclamen, hellebore and snowdrops, and try daffodils, muscari, bluebells and tulips for spring colour, as well as iconic primroses.

In summer, no cottage garden should be without roses, lavender, ox-eye daisies, delphiniums and foxgloves. Plant dahlias, rudbeckia and echinacea to keep the garden blooming into late summer and consider michaelmas daisies and Japanese anemones for autumn interest.

Set the scene with your front garden

Cottage gardens aren’t just for back gardens. Why not set the scene with your front garden, too? If you’re lucky enough to live in a period property such as this, billowing borders of soft flowers will provide the perfect setting to complement the architecture.

But, even for modern houses, a cottage-style front garden will provide a wonderful welcome for you and your guests.