How to Create a Cottage-style Garden
Cottage gardens are productive, with no wasted space, so if you like abundant plants, this is the garden style for you
You don’t need a quaint old cottage to create a cottage-style garden. Just pack a lot into the borders by blending some old-fashioned flowers, useful herbs and vegetables, climbers, self-seeding annuals and productive fruit trees for an informal, ‘just happened’ natural look. With so much seed, birds will love it, and the bees and insects will be in heaven.
See more in this series: How to Create a Scented Garden | How to Create a Jungle-style Garden
See more in this series: How to Create a Scented Garden | How to Create a Jungle-style Garden
Choose your blooms
Commonly known as granny’s bonnets or columbines, aquilegia produce nodding, spurred flowers with delicate leaves that will self-seed all over the beds. There are so many colours available, from deep blues to pale mauves, pinks, creams and bi-colours, as well as double forms, such as the lovely pink ‘Nora Barlow’, as seen in this garden. The deeper, double ‘Black Barlow’ looks stunning teamed with border grasses, such as Luzula nivea.
Hardy geraniums are a cottage favourite, too, and make good ground cover, especially under roses. Peonies (Paeonia officinalis) and poppies (Papaver) are some other herbaceous plants associated with cottage gardens. They have large, blowsy blooms, in both vibrant colours or soft shades. A favourite of mine is Papaver orientale ‘Patty’s Plum’.
There are so many more cottage-style plants – here are just a few: pinks (Dianthus), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla), primroses (Primula vulgaris), Salvia, snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), lupins (Lupinus), pansies (Viola) and wallflowers (Cheiranthus cheiri).
Commonly known as granny’s bonnets or columbines, aquilegia produce nodding, spurred flowers with delicate leaves that will self-seed all over the beds. There are so many colours available, from deep blues to pale mauves, pinks, creams and bi-colours, as well as double forms, such as the lovely pink ‘Nora Barlow’, as seen in this garden. The deeper, double ‘Black Barlow’ looks stunning teamed with border grasses, such as Luzula nivea.
Hardy geraniums are a cottage favourite, too, and make good ground cover, especially under roses. Peonies (Paeonia officinalis) and poppies (Papaver) are some other herbaceous plants associated with cottage gardens. They have large, blowsy blooms, in both vibrant colours or soft shades. A favourite of mine is Papaver orientale ‘Patty’s Plum’.
There are so many more cottage-style plants – here are just a few: pinks (Dianthus), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla), primroses (Primula vulgaris), Salvia, snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), lupins (Lupinus), pansies (Viola) and wallflowers (Cheiranthus cheiri).
Prop up your climbers
Climbers need support and in the cottage garden you can use arbours, pergolas and arches. Allow plants such as jasmine, roses, clematis, wisteria, honeysuckle, beans and sweet peas to scramble up these structures; they’ll add height as well as creating a natural ‘doorway’ into another part of the garden.
Another plant to consider for an arbour is the golden hop Humulus lupulus aureus. With its broad leaves, it’s a vigorous climber and needs space to spread. When this plant’s leaves turn a golden yellow in the autumn, and it’s covered with cone-shaped dangling flowers that turn to hops, it makes a lovely addition to indoor decorating if you cut back the long tresses.
You can also underplant the bases of supports with the annual self-seeding nasturtium. A great cottage favourite, the nasturtium will even scramble over fences and through gates with a mass of orange trumpet flowers and circular leaves throughout the summer.
Climbers need support and in the cottage garden you can use arbours, pergolas and arches. Allow plants such as jasmine, roses, clematis, wisteria, honeysuckle, beans and sweet peas to scramble up these structures; they’ll add height as well as creating a natural ‘doorway’ into another part of the garden.
Another plant to consider for an arbour is the golden hop Humulus lupulus aureus. With its broad leaves, it’s a vigorous climber and needs space to spread. When this plant’s leaves turn a golden yellow in the autumn, and it’s covered with cone-shaped dangling flowers that turn to hops, it makes a lovely addition to indoor decorating if you cut back the long tresses.
You can also underplant the bases of supports with the annual self-seeding nasturtium. A great cottage favourite, the nasturtium will even scramble over fences and through gates with a mass of orange trumpet flowers and circular leaves throughout the summer.
Say hello to a hive
Having a beehive, even if it’s just for decorative purposes, always looks romantic in a cottage garden. You don’t have to buy a real hive if you don’t intend to keep bees. You can now buy a lookalike hive, which is actually a small storage box or compost bin, or try making one using seasoned wood. You can easily paint it and secure a felt or zinc roof on top to stop water damage.
Either position the hive on a brick path or on a grassy area, where you can allow buttercups and clover to nestle against the legs for a really natural look.
Other feature ornaments to include in a cottage-style garden are seats and bowers – a shaded, leafy shelter – Victorian forcing pots, cloches and old chimney pots. Traditionally, the cottage garden was often full of discarded or found objects that were all repurposed and used, perhaps as decoration in among the beds or on paths, or even as a focal point.
Having a beehive, even if it’s just for decorative purposes, always looks romantic in a cottage garden. You don’t have to buy a real hive if you don’t intend to keep bees. You can now buy a lookalike hive, which is actually a small storage box or compost bin, or try making one using seasoned wood. You can easily paint it and secure a felt or zinc roof on top to stop water damage.
Either position the hive on a brick path or on a grassy area, where you can allow buttercups and clover to nestle against the legs for a really natural look.
Other feature ornaments to include in a cottage-style garden are seats and bowers – a shaded, leafy shelter – Victorian forcing pots, cloches and old chimney pots. Traditionally, the cottage garden was often full of discarded or found objects that were all repurposed and used, perhaps as decoration in among the beds or on paths, or even as a focal point.
Clip to perfection
Topiary is an important element of the cottage garden, adding structure for the winter months and providing a backdrop for many of the perennial plants. Although holly has traditionally been more widely used, other evergreen shrubs have become trained into fashionable cottage garden features.
Plants such as the classic yew (Taxus baccata), which can be clipped into various shapes, or Buxus sempervirens are more commonly fashioned into simple or complex shapes. Both yew and Buxus can be bought as cone-ball-, spiral-, or pyramid-shaped plants, and if you’re feeling creative with the clippers, you could create your own squirrel or peacock topiary!
Another good plant to clip is Lonicera nitida, which is slow-growing and has a small leaf. It can also be used as a low hedge between the borders or along a path.
Topiary is an important element of the cottage garden, adding structure for the winter months and providing a backdrop for many of the perennial plants. Although holly has traditionally been more widely used, other evergreen shrubs have become trained into fashionable cottage garden features.
Plants such as the classic yew (Taxus baccata), which can be clipped into various shapes, or Buxus sempervirens are more commonly fashioned into simple or complex shapes. Both yew and Buxus can be bought as cone-ball-, spiral-, or pyramid-shaped plants, and if you’re feeling creative with the clippers, you could create your own squirrel or peacock topiary!
Another good plant to clip is Lonicera nitida, which is slow-growing and has a small leaf. It can also be used as a low hedge between the borders or along a path.
Breathe in lilac
Sweet-smelling lilac is short-lived as a flowering tree or shrub, but no cottage garden should be without one; it’s a shame they’re not often planted anymore.
When mature, lilacs, with their twisted, characterful trunks, look good planted next to fruit trees and underplanted with sweet rocket, bulbs and foxgloves. Apart from the well-known Syringa vulgaris cultivars, you could also consider planting Syringa pubescens subsp microphylla ‘Superba’, which will flower in the spring but also well into October, though the flowers will be more intermittent later in the year. It can also be grown as a hedge or wall shrub.
Sweet-smelling lilac is short-lived as a flowering tree or shrub, but no cottage garden should be without one; it’s a shame they’re not often planted anymore.
When mature, lilacs, with their twisted, characterful trunks, look good planted next to fruit trees and underplanted with sweet rocket, bulbs and foxgloves. Apart from the well-known Syringa vulgaris cultivars, you could also consider planting Syringa pubescens subsp microphylla ‘Superba’, which will flower in the spring but also well into October, though the flowers will be more intermittent later in the year. It can also be grown as a hedge or wall shrub.
Brick path heaven
A brick path leading to the door and edged in lavender is what many people picture when they think of a traditional cottage garden. Brick paths can be laid in straight lines or curved around borders that lead to a vegetable area or around the side of a house.
The traditional way of laying brick paths was to bed the bricks directly onto a sand base. This meant the paths were water permeable, but didn’t always retain their shape over time. It also meant that small seeds and plants would naturalise in the cracks. Nowadays, brick paths are more often bedded onto a weak sand and cement mix, which is also used to point them. Neither method is better than the other – it really depends on your preference and how the path will be used.
If you’re putting down a new brick path, make sure you choose frost-free bricks, as frozen water can damage their structure if not. There are many laying patterns to choose from, such as herringbone, basketweave or stretcher bond styles.
You can use bricks to edge borders, as the Victorians did. They look good positioned at a 45-degree angle, so the tops of the bricks make triangle shapes. This will keep in straggling plants and neaten edges.
For edging a brick path with lavender, choose ‘Hidcote’ or ‘Munstead’ varieties. Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’ (catmint) also works very well in the cottage garden along paths, especially if your soil isn’t free-draining, which doesn’t suit lavender.
A brick path leading to the door and edged in lavender is what many people picture when they think of a traditional cottage garden. Brick paths can be laid in straight lines or curved around borders that lead to a vegetable area or around the side of a house.
The traditional way of laying brick paths was to bed the bricks directly onto a sand base. This meant the paths were water permeable, but didn’t always retain their shape over time. It also meant that small seeds and plants would naturalise in the cracks. Nowadays, brick paths are more often bedded onto a weak sand and cement mix, which is also used to point them. Neither method is better than the other – it really depends on your preference and how the path will be used.
If you’re putting down a new brick path, make sure you choose frost-free bricks, as frozen water can damage their structure if not. There are many laying patterns to choose from, such as herringbone, basketweave or stretcher bond styles.
You can use bricks to edge borders, as the Victorians did. They look good positioned at a 45-degree angle, so the tops of the bricks make triangle shapes. This will keep in straggling plants and neaten edges.
For edging a brick path with lavender, choose ‘Hidcote’ or ‘Munstead’ varieties. Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’ (catmint) also works very well in the cottage garden along paths, especially if your soil isn’t free-draining, which doesn’t suit lavender.
Include tall favourites
The foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a biennial, which would naturally have found its way into the cottage garden from surrounding fields. As a result, once planted in your own garden, foxgloves will also soon pop up in all the unexpected places and thrive in the shade. Foxgloves flower and produce seed in their second year, so you have to plant them two years running to get flowering plants every summer.
No cottage garden should be without another tall favourite, the hollyhock (Alcea rosea). Hollyhocks, however, with their huge leaves and large flowers, are susceptible to getting hollyhock rust, a fungal infection, which can make the plant look untidy. As such, although they’re perennials, they’re often planted as biennials, since discarding them after they’ve flowered reduces the threat from rust.
Lupins (Lupinus) and delphiniums (part of the larkspur – Ranunculaceae – family) are also staples of the cottage garden. Lupins, like Hollyhocks, do not need rich soil or mollycoddling, but delphiniums will need feeding and staking.
The foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a biennial, which would naturally have found its way into the cottage garden from surrounding fields. As a result, once planted in your own garden, foxgloves will also soon pop up in all the unexpected places and thrive in the shade. Foxgloves flower and produce seed in their second year, so you have to plant them two years running to get flowering plants every summer.
No cottage garden should be without another tall favourite, the hollyhock (Alcea rosea). Hollyhocks, however, with their huge leaves and large flowers, are susceptible to getting hollyhock rust, a fungal infection, which can make the plant look untidy. As such, although they’re perennials, they’re often planted as biennials, since discarding them after they’ve flowered reduces the threat from rust.
Lupins (Lupinus) and delphiniums (part of the larkspur – Ranunculaceae – family) are also staples of the cottage garden. Lupins, like Hollyhocks, do not need rich soil or mollycoddling, but delphiniums will need feeding and staking.
Add fruity delights
Productive fruit trees are often found in the flowerbeds of cottage gardens and can also be grown as stepovers or cordons if space is limited.
The most obvious fruit trees are apples, pears, plums, cherries and greengages. But if you have the room, try growing a mulberry, which is better suited to a large garden, or a medlar (Mespilus germanica), which has a lovely spreading habit for something a bit different.
Don’t forget to plant a crab apple, such as Malus ‘Evereste’, which can also be trained to grow in a pleached style, adding height and separating areas of the garden.
Check out what to do in the garden in March
Productive fruit trees are often found in the flowerbeds of cottage gardens and can also be grown as stepovers or cordons if space is limited.
The most obvious fruit trees are apples, pears, plums, cherries and greengages. But if you have the room, try growing a mulberry, which is better suited to a large garden, or a medlar (Mespilus germanica), which has a lovely spreading habit for something a bit different.
Don’t forget to plant a crab apple, such as Malus ‘Evereste’, which can also be trained to grow in a pleached style, adding height and separating areas of the garden.
Check out what to do in the garden in March
Do include herbs and vegetables, too
Herbs and vegetables play a big part in a cottage-style garden and were traditionally planted amid the flowering herbaceous plants, not only for food, but also – in the case of herbs – to ward off insects. Herbs would also be grown for medicinal purposes, to make tinctures and treat ailments. (They were also once thought to ward off witches!)
Choose vegetable varieties such as the red-leaved beetroot ‘Bull’s Blood’, red frilly lettuce, such as ‘Lollo Rosso’, and swiss chard to give contrast and add interest.
Staple herbs to include are chives (Allium schoenoprasum), which always look good in the garden and will self-seed, popping up in the spaces between bricks, as well as being a good path edging plant. Sage (Salvia officinalis), especially the purple variety, is an aromatic, semi-evergreen shrub that never disappoints and looks great with catmint (Nepeta). Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is always a good choice, too, and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) has many different varieties, from creeping to large, mound-forming shrubs.
Herbs and vegetables play a big part in a cottage-style garden and were traditionally planted amid the flowering herbaceous plants, not only for food, but also – in the case of herbs – to ward off insects. Herbs would also be grown for medicinal purposes, to make tinctures and treat ailments. (They were also once thought to ward off witches!)
Choose vegetable varieties such as the red-leaved beetroot ‘Bull’s Blood’, red frilly lettuce, such as ‘Lollo Rosso’, and swiss chard to give contrast and add interest.
Staple herbs to include are chives (Allium schoenoprasum), which always look good in the garden and will self-seed, popping up in the spaces between bricks, as well as being a good path edging plant. Sage (Salvia officinalis), especially the purple variety, is an aromatic, semi-evergreen shrub that never disappoints and looks great with catmint (Nepeta). Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is always a good choice, too, and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) has many different varieties, from creeping to large, mound-forming shrubs.
Choose the right fencing
Rustic-style fencing instantly creates a cottage-style architectural element. Traditional, natural woven hazel or willow fencing is the preferred choice. You could also use a short picket fence that you could paint in the colour of your choice.
Hazel panels, once used for sheepfolds, can be bought in standard fence panel sizes or, for a genuine, bespoke, handmade finish, find a local hurdle maker, who will make the fence, supply lovely chestnut posts and even craft you a small gate for the entrance to the garden. The hazel panels should last a good eight years untreated.
Even of you don’t have fencing all around your garden, consider planting a native hedge, preferably a beech and thorn mix, to encourage wildlife and year-round interest.
TELL US…
Which element of the cottage garden is your favourite? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
Rustic-style fencing instantly creates a cottage-style architectural element. Traditional, natural woven hazel or willow fencing is the preferred choice. You could also use a short picket fence that you could paint in the colour of your choice.
Hazel panels, once used for sheepfolds, can be bought in standard fence panel sizes or, for a genuine, bespoke, handmade finish, find a local hurdle maker, who will make the fence, supply lovely chestnut posts and even craft you a small gate for the entrance to the garden. The hazel panels should last a good eight years untreated.
Even of you don’t have fencing all around your garden, consider planting a native hedge, preferably a beech and thorn mix, to encourage wildlife and year-round interest.
TELL US…
Which element of the cottage garden is your favourite? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
There are so many flowering plants to include, from roses, primroses, geraniums, poppies, lupins, fritillaria, forget-me-nots, stocks, sweet rocket, and sweet William, to name but a few.
Add an old brick path, a discarded Belfast sink, a bit of topiary, some wooden or woven pergolas, an arbour smothered in roses, old terracotta pots, rustic hurdle fencing, vegetable cloches, some rhubarb forcing pots and a beehive, and you’ll have that magical blend for the perfect cottage garden