Cottage Gardening

The Cottage Garden

Cottage Gardening

The path runs straight between the flowering rows,
A moonlit path, hemmed in by beds of bloom,
Where phlox and marigolds dispute for room
With tall, red dahlias and the briar rose.
'T is reckless prodigality which throws
Into the night these wafts of rich perfume
Which sweep across the garden like a plume.
Over the trees a single bright star glows.
Dear garden of my childhood, here my years
Have run away like little grains of sand;
The moments of my life, its hopes and fears
Have all found utterance here, where now I stand;
My eyes ache with the weight of unshed tears,
You are my home, do you not understand?
~Amy Lowell

"The Cottage Style Series":
Cottage Gardening I
Cottage Gardening: The Plants
Cottage Garden Compendium

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Plan Your Cottage Garden

The cottage style of gardening is a way of bringing the country into the city, and is right at home in country vistas. I've always loved this style and it has variations to suit a number of situations. First some history and definitions:
Although the English form is well-known, cottage gardening is indigenous to any culture where people had small plots of their own and a need and interest in growing stands of useful plants. The look is abundant and informal. English cottage gardens, and their American counterparts, have a profusion of plants for cutting, herbs for cooking and areas or interspersions of vegetables. Fruit trees and roses usually find a place as well.

The original makers of such gardens were hardworking people, and they were sometimes hard-pressed to make ends meet. The roses were for medicinal use rather than simply a landscape beauty, and other medicinal and household herbs were grown for usefulness. A remainder of their economy in the garden is the quality of covering every square inch of soil with something of purpose, either plant or structure or feature, without crowding or sacrificing plant health.

During the Arts and Crafts Movement of late Victorian times, the cottage gardens took on a more romantic mantle that remains to this day. Flowers are more prominent and grown for their ornamental value, and the medical uses are forgotten: remember that foxglove is digitalis and delphiniums and Valerian have strong effects! They are also gorgeous flowers with spires of graceful form and color.
Many impressionist paintings portray the beauty of the cottage garden and be sure to follow the link to Monet's garden, an extant example. While anyone who wants it may grow a cottage style, its profusion best counters the plain or quaint facades of architecture rather than sleek contemporary looks. Anyplace that looks right with lace curtains in the windows is lovely with a cottage garden.
Of course, if you want a cottage garden, you may now be interested in plants and design ideas.The Cottage Gardener's Companion: A Seasonal Guide to Plants & Plantings for Informal Gardens

"What is the secret of the cottage garden's charm? Cottage gardeners are good to their plots, and in the course of years they make them fertile ... But there is something more and it is the absence of any pretentious 'plan,' which lets the flowers tell their story to the heart." -William Robinson, 1883

Plant Material for the Cottage Garden

Flowers in a Cottage Garden are many times old-fashioned types and they are planted in billowing drifting groups. Think of puffy summer clouds, and wafting mists.

A LIST:

Trees: Malus- any dwarf apples, well-pruned Standard apples, crabapples, and espaliered forms.; Ornamental trees- any small to medium flowering trees, interesting forms such as the twisted forms of willow and hazelnut ( corylus ).
Shrubs: Roses described as shrub types, lilacs, mock oranges, viburnum carlesii, sweetshrub (calycanthus), those that grow full, can be pruned, and preferably flower.
Spire and Tall flowers: Foxgloves, delphiniums, meadowsweet, Dames Rocket, Aruncus, lilies (all forms), campanulas, sunflowers, hollyhocks, these give height and visual variation to the garden.
Mounds of Flowers: Phlox, dianthus (carnations), Sweet William, daisies of all kinds, iberis, columbines, lavender, marjoram, sages, calendulas, monardas, and many, many others.
Creeping and filler plants: flowers of small proportions such as campanula carpatica or pusilla, violets, pansies, herbs of thyme, parsley, sedums, many diminutive annuals such as linaria, dahlberg daisies, and others listed on my annuals page all packed in so that every inch of ground is put to good use. Remember this is a trait of the cottage garden.
Vining and Weaving plants: Essential for the loosely laced design of cottage gardens is the interweaving of climbing rose, clematis, or honeysuckle. Depending on the amount of room and strength of supports, your choice of cultivars is wide. If you have constricted space choose a climber with polite habits: Nelly Moser rather than Jackmani clematis; The Alchemist rather than Paul's Himalayan climbing rose; a nd Belgica rather than Hall's honeysuckle.

More on Cottage Style and More Plants for the traditional Cottage Garden...

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