Tony O’Neill, gardener and author of the popular “Composting Masterclass” and “Your First Vegetable Garden,” combines lifelong passion and expert knowledge to simplify the art of gardening. His mission? Helping you cultivate a thriving garden.
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People’s image of a cottage differs from country to country. The term originated in England and initially referred to a modest rural home with a thriving garden.
Modern cottages can range from simple dwellings to opulent holiday homes. Typically, a traditional house offers one large living room downstairs, two bedrooms upstairs, and a thatched roof. Of course, a formal cottage garden sported rambling rose bushes, a picket fence, and a bird bath.
Table of Contents
- Types of Cottage Gardens
- Considerations for Designing a Cottage Garden
- Start With a Sketch
- Sloped Cottage Gardens
- Cottage Garden Background
- Cottage Garden Success Factor One
- Plant Light and Darkness Needs
- Cottage Garden Location Choices
- Cottage Garden Borders and Islands
- Avoid Competing with Trees
- Cottage Garden Bed Width
- Cottage Garden Bed Shapes
- Cottage Garden Plant Height
- Plan for Interest and Constant Color
- Cottage Garden Form
- Cottage Garden Plant Arrangement
- Other Cottage Garden Plants
- 8 Cottage Garden Ideas
- FAQs on Sloped Cottage Gardens: Tips for Creating a Beautiful Landscape
- In Closing
Types of Cottage Gardens
An English Cottage Garden
English cottage gardens are marked by an abundance of plants; old roses, a gravel path, and a scattering of flowering shrubs and flowers. Edible plants are also popular, and most cottages have a kitchen garden.
Thatched roofs are popular, keeping the house cool in summer and warm throughout the rainy and cold seasons. English gardens often appear overgrown, and old vines may cover the cottage walls.
Beatrix Potter’s readers can imagine the perfect cottage garden with Peter Rabbit at odds with Mr. McGregor over his vegetables. Flowers in these gardens are often self-seeding, and sweet peas flourish.
The Nordic Cottage Style Garden
Cottages dot the landscape in Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway. These houses have wood exteriors that are frequently painted a brilliant red, and the interiors keep the homey feel but in a more fundamental manner.
If you’re interested in the topic, check out the New Nordic Gardens website by the Nordic garden designer Annika Zetterman. Scandinavian history is fascinating, and the harsh environment and rural living have affected how they approach gardening.
It’s almost opposite to the English gardens that love abundance and even crowdedness. Interesting about the Nordic cottage garden with a minimalist approach and hard landscaping.
In music, the silent parts accentuate the ones that follow. Similarly, Scandinavian gardeners use bare and exposed spaces to emphasize their choice of quality plants to create features and add value.
Sustainability, now a widely used term, has long been central to the Scandinavian identity. Their cottages are not thatched but rather have steep roofs to ensure snow can’t accumulate. Every resource is optimized, and their gardens reflect that culture.
Holiday Cottage Garden Ideas
The gardens of cottages that are only periodically occupied should require minimal maintenance. Low-maintenance garden ideas will let your outdoor space have an effect all year without requiring much work. If you want to keep things simple, avoid straight lines and maximize the use of natural materials.
It boils down to reducing the garden landscaping you must manage. By working with nature, you can build a magnificent plant display that will become self-sufficient over time, offering year-round interest.
Whether it’s selecting the easiest landscaping plants or fuss-free garden decor, here are ten-holiday cottage garden ideas for you to try.
Minimal Maintenance Tips
- Add a low-maintenance rock garden
- Diy a living wall with a self-watering system
- Choose hardy plants
- Reduce the need for watering with mulch
- Used raised beds and drip irrigation for easy convenience.
- Get rid of your lawn completely
- Use featured iron windbreaks as features
- Use rigid materials and clean lines to keep things simple.
- Use solar lighting to keep costs down and lighting schedules running
- Plant plants that attract beneficial insects
Creole Cottage Gardens
Because of the region’s unique climate, geology, and architectural style—not to mention its swamplands, floods, hurricanes, rich alluvial soil deposits, and harmful insects. Cottage gardeners in New Orleans believe in letting their gardens do their own thing—to overgrow a little rather than to manicure them.
Because of the mild weather, southern cottages are a little breezier, emphasizing outside life. Creole cottages are small, one-story residences with a porch spanning the front of the house and a side-gabled roof falling over it. The Creole cottage garden design reflects the outdoor lifestyle.
Popular Creole Cottage Garden Features
Creole plant choices are typically cascading greens and colorful and long-lasting annuals. New Orleans is a double-harvest country, with crops in early spring and then again in fall, and Mid-summer is generally too hot for cottage garden plantings.
- The ten features of the typical Creole cottage garden.
- Water features: Bird baths or fish ponds
- Ornate cast-iron cottage trimmings
- The cottage garden classic; hanging baskets with abundant cascading ferns
- Tropical fragrant plants
- Raised stone beds and water fountains
- An abundance of cascading green plants
- A garden style marked by filigree fences and cast-iron ornaments
- A bright color scheme and flourishing ferns
- Verandas with seating areas to escape the heat and avoid the rain
Applying Cottage Garden Designs
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 only require limited space and are as well suited to urban back gardens as to pretty village or country plots.
Some cottage gardens may look wild, but most are a product of careful planning and year-round care, balancing the harmonious, ‘as nature intended’ garden style with a rigorous planting scheme.
One thing you may need to reconcile yourself with is possibly giving up on a lot of lawn space and room for the best garden furniture, as a cottage garden scheme requires dense planting. However, it’s a small sacrifice to make in exchange for all those gorgeous flowers you’ll enjoy and a romantic feel.
Considerations for Designing a Cottage Garden
Cottage gardens are romantic, relaxed, free-flowering and fun. They can be planted with pastel tones or brighter hues that you love.
Below are just guidelines for cottage garden design. Some general gardening practices will help you succeed, like excellent soil preparation and using plants hard to your climate. Still, generally, cottage garden design beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and you’re the one that lives with it.
Aesthetic appeal is a matter of personal preference. You may choose a more formal appearance with straight-edged beds and plants in patterns or a more natural look with sweeping curves and uneven plant groupings. It is entirely up to you to define your cottage garden style.
I strive not to be prescriptive in the recommendations below, instead pointing out popular aesthetic preferences. Remember that there is more than one way to arrange plants, and many of the so-called principles of cottage garden design are merely recommendations.
What matters is that your garden appeals to you and offers you a place of refuge and tranquility. Life is too short not to carve out some enjoyment.
Start With a Sketch
Start by sketching out your design ideas on paper. Begin with your home’s footprint, and include the garage, other structures, driveway, pathways, fences, and patios.
Draw in existing trees and plantings. Indicate which direction is north on your sketch to become more aware of how much sun different locations receive. For example, areas along the north sides of buildings receive less direct sunlight.
Sloped Cottage Gardens
Flower gardens are easy to create on flat or slightly sloping ground. Steep slopes present unique challenges, particularly in preserving soil from erosion. Terracing may be required if you wish to build flowerbeds without losing soil.
Such slopes could also benefit from a robust, spreading, mat-forming ground cover. Some steep slopes could be excellent locations for rock gardens. On your sketch, indicate steep slopes.
Cottage Garden Background
Consider the background before penciling in prospective bed places. Most plantings benefit from some visual contrast between the plants and the environment. Buildings, fences, hedges, or a row of evergreen trees might prevent the plants from blending into the surrounding scenery.
Growing vines on a fence can provide texture to the background. Larger plants in the center of an island bed might serve as a backdrop for other plants. One word of caution: solid grounds might restrict airflow and exacerbate disease concerns if plants are spaced too closely together.
Cottage Garden Success Factor One
The other unbreakable rule is this. The majority of garden plants require well-drained soil. Avoid placing flower gardens with standing water after heavy rains or during the spring thaw unless you are limited to plants that can handle swampy soil conditions.
Prepare the soil well in advance, incorporating compost in the fall for spring plantings and vice versa.
Plant Light and Darkness Needs
You break this rule at your own risk. Different plants require varying levels of light. Most flower garden candidates like full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun daily), and others need full or partial shade. Some plants grow well in the shadow but flower better in direct sunlight.
Remember that many flowers need a specific amount of total darkness to trigger their reproductive flowering phase.
Cottage Garden Location Choices
Plant flower beds where they may be seen. Consider the views from private outside spaces such as patios, decks, and terraces.
Remember to consider how the beds appear when viewed from within the house through windows. Consider how neighbors and passersby will perceive your cottage-style garden but don’t base your design on pleasing them.
Cottage Garden Borders and Islands
Returning to your sketch, look for potential locations for fresh flower beds to plant traditional cottage plants. These could be bordering beds with one edge connected to a building, fence, or walkway.
Avoid Competing with Trees
The typical cottage garden excludes large trees. If you have a tree, consider solid and competitive groundcovers, as these are among the few plants that will survive in the shade. Some hostas may do well.
Cottage Garden Bed Width
Two to three-foot-wide borders make the most sense in a small cottage garden. Traditional English perennial borders should be at least six to eight feet wide to accommodate the variety of plants required to produce variable heights and continuous flowering.
Allow at least two feet between shrubs and perennials for adequate ventilation and maintenance access if they are used as a background at the back of the garden.
In cottage gardening, your beds may take up most, if not all, of the yard, with only a few paths or steppingstones snaking, though—they’re pretty different from contemporary gardens.
Cottage Garden Bed Shapes
Formal gardens typically have beds with straight edges that are easier to maintain. Cottage gardeners, on the other hand, find these boring. Gently curved edges give the bed a less formal appearance and provide the idea that it is longer than it is.
On the other hand, sharp edges are more difficult to maintain and mow around. Fortunately, they seldom feature in the cottage garden.
Cottage Garden Plant Height
It’s time to start sketching out which plants will go where in your beds. Most gardeners arrange their plants in beds, with the tallest in the back and the smallest in the front.
If you are building a bed to be viewed from a window, the shorter plants should be placed closer to the house. Similarly, tall plants are typically found in the center of island beds, with lesser plants around the edges.
Plants less than one foot tall in the front third of the bed, plants greater than three feet tall in the back third of the bed, and plants between one and three feet tall in the center third of the bed might be included in a general layout.
If you want your garden to look like stair steps in profile, follow these instructions sparingly. Bring some taller plants forward and some lesser ones back to create a more varied terrain.
The tallest plants should be no taller than two-thirds the width of the bed, or half the width of the bed in the case of island beds, to produce a smooth gradation of heights.
Plan for Interest and Constant Color
Choose plants that will add color and interest to your garden throughout the growing season and even winter. Spring-flowering bulbs provide early shade.
Herbaceous perennials flower at specified times during the growing season, ranging from one to six weeks. Many annuals will continue to bloom until the first frost in the fall. (Some even survive the ice.)
As you continue to plan, note when you expect each species to bloom. Many good designs begin with penciling in plants that bloom in the fall or provide winter appeal, as these are sometimes overlooked in garden layouts.
Then work your way back through the seasons, filling in with summer and spring blooming plants. Color combinations that are attractive to the eye should also be considered.
Cottage Garden Form
Stunning blooms draw our attention but pay attention to the rest of the plant in your design. Many plants have colorful foliage that provides aesthetic appeal and texture to the yard.
Plants can also be found in various shapes (called form or habit). Some plants form cushions, mounds, or clumps as they grow. Others are spiky and upright, and others are rounded and bushy. Some gardeners combine these several types for a more diverse look. Others combine plants that have similar shapes together.
Cottage Garden Plant Arrangement
Plants in cottage gardens can be clumped (a circular group of three or more plants) or drifted (an elongated grouping of plants). Clumps and drifts are typically planted with an odd number of the same type of plant to create the illusion of a more natural bunch.
Planting clumps or drifts of the same type of plant has a more significant visual impact than producing a single plant unless the plant is enormous and stunning enough to hold interest on its own.
Individual plants with flowers of different hues alternated in a strict pattern nearby might be disconcerting. However, repeating a plant or color along a border can provide cohesion to a seemingly random planting.
Other Cottage Garden Plants
Many flower gardeners use herbaceous perennials as the foundation of their plantings, with spring-flowering bulbs providing early color and annual flowers filling in the gaps. Don’t be constrained by such ideology.
Many gardeners also use evergreen or flowering shrubs and small trees. These are very useful for adding fall color and winter interest.
From the tall to the short, ornamental grasses can provide a backdrop, form, texture, and fall and winter appeal. Many veggies and herbs have the added benefit of appealing to the eye and palate.
8 Cottage Garden Ideas
These are some of my favorite cottage garden ideas; use them as inspiration.
1. Cottage Garden Climbing Roses
Traditional climbing roses are ideal for adding charm to a rustic garden. Roses, the perfect complement to weathered bricks and stone, are necessary for completing the chocolate box effect of period living.
Roses are the ultimate representative of cottage garden plants.
2. Mix Annuals And Perennials
Use a mix of annuals and perennials to add color to your cottage garden. He claims that annuals only live for a year, but they put on a fantastic display. Plants like clary sage, marigolds, and cornflowers are good choices.
3. Plant Perennials
You’ll most likely be planting perennials found in pots at the garden center. Penstemon is one of his favorites, and that’s all the convincing we need to add these to our cottage garden collection.
Simply dig holes for these, tap out the pot and plant in the soil. Fill around your new plants and water them thoroughly after they’re in.
4. Hardy Annuals
Even unskilled gardeners can successfully grow annuals from seed. Sprinkle the seeds into the soil and rake it over, then water if no rain is expected.
5. Design Focal Points In Your Cottage Garden
Use decorative artifacts as focal points, such as antique watering cans, ancient tools, flower-clothed obelisks, or sundials, to provide a bit of whimsy without complicating the overall sense of the cottage garden.
6. Include A Separate Seating Space
In a garden, well-placed seating is crucial so you can sit back and admire your work while enjoying the gorgeous and calm surroundings. Avoid anything bulky for a romantic and traditional appeal, opting for wrought iron garden furniture instead.
After all, there’s a better way to make the most of your meticulously maintained garden than to dine al fresco on a warm summer evening. The romantic atmosphere will be best complemented by vintage, elaborate wrought iron bistro sets and curving mellowed wood designs.
You need to define a space for tranquil meditation, a space to check out from life’s busyness.
7. Use Scented Plants To Decorate Walkways
Walkways – simple herringbone walkways and gravel paths twisting through flowerbeds – are not only a beautiful way to immerse yourself in the colors and scents of the garden, but they are also functional, giving easy access to plants and garden care.
Choose typical cottage plants that exude their fragrance when brushed past.
8. Include Traditional-Appearing Garden Accessories
Accessories should be included in cottage gardens. Choose vintage ephemera and equipment constructed with traditional processes, such as old iron watering cans and a metal wheelbarrow.
They ensure quality, make for attractive displays, and detract from the shed’s structure. Remember that you’ll have a place to store your tools and gardening supplies in your cottage garden, so make any garden shed as unique and characterful as possible.
To reduce the impact of the outside, add some old or rustic components and try painting it in a complementary hue. A delicate, pastel color can let the shed blend in with the surrounding frothy planting, and a darker color will act as a backdrop to the bright cottage garden flowers.
FAQs on Sloped Cottage Gardens: Tips for Creating a Beautiful Landscape
In Closing
When I think of a cottage garden, I can’t help imagining an idyllic setting filled with hummingbirds, butterflies, and fabulous fragrances. ThThat’she romantic side, but getting there requires some work.
Pathways covered in wood chips don’t happen; it requires doing. The point is that reward follows effort, so plant it and execute. Bring in some natural stone, and recreate grandma’s garden.
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