Cottage gardens: how to plan yours and 14 cottage garden ideas
Table Of Content
When you are ready to get started, be sure to take the time to prepare your soil. This step is crucial if you have poor-quality soil, as it will help your plants to thrive. The first step to designing your cottage garden is understanding what the style entails. A cottage garden is traditionally defined as a small plot of land surrounding a house, usually less than one acre in size. The word “cottage” refers to the humble origins of this type of gardening; in those days, these were the types of gardens you would find around the homes of peasants and laborers. With an abundant mix of beautiful flowers and foliage spilling out from their confines, a cottage garden is simply organized chaos at its best.
Perennials, biennials and annuals
No matter the size of your garden, these plans will accommodate different varieties plants and features, such as fence posts and borders, to create a harmonized growing space. You don’t need to be confined to only authentic plants, though, as a colorful mix of bulbs, perennials, annuals and flowering shrubs will give a year-round vision with more structure. For more on cottage garden plants and flowers, take a look at our feature. Adding fragrance, color and height, traditional sweetpeas would have to be your first option if you could only choose one plant. Once you know how to grow sweetpeas, they will quickly become an integral part of your cottage garden ideas.
Sissinghurst Castle Garden: The most beautiful garden in Britain? - Country Living UK
Sissinghurst Castle Garden: The most beautiful garden in Britain?.
Posted: Thu, 07 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
FRONT OF BORDER PLANTS
This style of planting softens the look of a garden, and brings you up close with scent, foliage textures and a tapestry of soothing garden color schemes. Hollyhock is a classic cottage garden plant, with tall stalks of large open-faced flowers in shades of purple, pink, red, white, peach, or lavender. Add this biennial or short-lived perennial to the back of a border or plant against a tall fence or wall. Cheerful daisy-like flowers of this quintessential cottage garden favorite occur in colors of pink, white, burgundy, apricot, orange, or yellow.
Clary Sage
This can be pressure treated boards set on edge to outline the path. No matter the material used for the main path, it should be edged to prevent mulch and soil from spilling onto the path and vice versa, to prevent gravel going into the garden. Other soft natural paths can consist of pea gravel, wood chips or bark mulch. The latter will need a 4-6″ gravel base and a retaining edge.
Add a summer house to your cottage garden
Allow the tendriled vines to clamor along a rustic picket fence or grow up a trellis near a pathway where the fragrant flowers can be enjoyed close up. Support monarchs and other butterflies with this bushy herbaceous perennial that produces clusters of tubular star-shaped orange or yellow flowers. Combine in a cottage border alongside ornamental grasses or complementary-hued purple flowers of salvia, asters, and garden phlox.
More so than in any other garden ideas, cottage garden ideas are guided by nature. Full of self-seeding plants, tumbling blooms and rambling vines, a cottage garden is more an act of editing rather than planting. The yellow daisy is a flower that can be found in zones four through eight. It is a plant that is only about three feet tall when it is fully mature, but with the proper care, these plants will produce blooms that will last all spring and summer. This is a plant that will grow best in hardiness zones four to nine.
9 spring gardening trends for 2024 - Country Living UK
9 spring gardening trends for 2024.
Posted: Sat, 17 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Structure is also important, and necessary to hold the design elements together. A network of paths is important for a cottage garden, Titchmarsh advises. Despite the name, cottage gardens aren't just for period cottages. You can have a cottage garden even if you live in a modern home in a town or city. Cottage gardens don't require a lot of space, and are as well suited to urban back gardens as they are to pretty village or country plots.
Have comments or questions about our modern cottage garden design ideas? Tell us in the section below.
Effervescent, fragrant and self-seeding choices will help you create the look. Multi-petalled flowers will give that romantic feel, such as blousy peonies and old roses. Keep scrolling for our cottage garden ideas and design information – then for more garden ideas you can visit our gallery.
All of the beautiful plants, with their diverse range of colors, textures, and fragrances, bring a sense of charm and enchantment to any outdoor space. Plant shrubs and small trees among the flowers to add height, structure, and visual interest to garden beds. Place benches, chairs, and chaises strategically in the garden to lure visitors to spend time sitting among the bees and the blossoms. Consider adding seats to a hidden corner, a knoll with a view, or smack in the middle of an especially pretty flower bed (provide stepping stones to guide the way).
Monarda is a low-maintenance, North American native herb with feathery flowers that draw butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds to the cottage garden. It is susceptible to mildew so plant it where it will have good air circulation and avoid overhead watering. Also, look for mildew resistant varieties, like ‘Bright Eyes’ — pink with red eyes. Unlike rudbeckia, this perennial will not tolerate dry conditions. It is the perfect plant to place near a down-spout so that it gets to grow in moist, well-drained soil.
An important food source for insect pollinators and songbirds, the cone-shaped flowers occur in colors of pink, white, orange, yellow, green, and sunset hues. Combine in a cottage-style border with other summer-blooming natives such as yarrow, bee balm, milkweed, and gayfeather (Liatris). This mint relative has pungent foliage and long-blooming flowers reminiscent of fireworks. Attractive to butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees, this old-fashioned favorite is a staple of cottage gardens. You can achieve the cottage garden style in your own yard by growing quintessential cottage garden plants.
Comments
Post a Comment