Cottage Garden in June
Cottage gardens have been around since the middle ages. Admittedly since 500AD there may have been some changes, not least in the sanitation! Since all but the most cherished and domesticated pets moved out of the home and we no longer had to feed ourselves from our own small patch of land entirely, the cottage garden's days have been numbered. Actually, that just isn't the case. They exist even today. In fact, it has been shown that we have a renewed enthusiasm to recreate our own modern versions.
Traditionally, cottage gardeners will have had little space, little time and virtually no budget. Whilst all of this can sound true of today, we do actually have more leisure time and more disposable income at our fingertips than the peasants of old. It is thought our renewed interest in cottage gardening comes from our need to discover ways to support our mental health, improving mood, reducing anxiety and depression. Gardening cottage style suits our need to find something that we can just do a little of, immersing ourselves in something outdoors, feeling the earth on our fingers and the sun on our backs. The satisfaction of growing something yourself is at the heart of modern cottage garden.
The Cottage Garden Raised Beds and Greenhouse
What are the Key Features of a Modern Cottage Garden?
1.Design
'The charm of a cottage garden is its naivety...' Geoff Hamilton
It's been said that cottage gardens are not designed. However, modern cottage gardens need to be practical. It's one of the main demands of modern life. In modern gardens there will be pathways, patios spaces for the shed, greenhouse and/or wheelie bin. The garden could evolve naturally around these over time, but in light of aesthetics it is better to have a plan. Paths are best direct if they are to be destination paths, but there's scope for a meandering path through the border for design purposes I believe. A true cottage garden to me does not have a manicured lawn; a meadow or patch of grass under fruit trees perhaps, could work. Fountains and water features, no. A pond, possibly, but a natural one with relaxed planting, no formality.
'[The] great rule of cottage gardening is to avoid the pretentious'. William Robinson.
2. Colour
Traditional cottage gardens are a mix of colours. Plants allowed to grow almost totally randomly; where there was space, where they seeded or just to provide colour. This was certainly my Dad's own approach. The more colour the better. No thought given to tone, or theme. Controversially then, I would argue that now is the time when the modern cottage garden could be allowed to veer from the traditional colour mayhem to suit modern tastes. There are precedents. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was considered to have the art of colour combination yet, was fascinated by the cottage garden. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) creator of the famous white border at Sissinghurst in Kent, perhaps showed an evolution of the cottage garden in her own style. While traditionalists will not agree, I believe a modern cottage gardener can and indeed should, have some control over the colour in their borders.
Plants for Colour: Linaria and Pot Marigolds
3. What to Grow
Cottage gardens are rarely designed and grown from scratch. They are more likely to have evolved over time. Either way there will be a lead plant or plants that are already in the ground, a tree or shrub, or rose perhaps. If not, its likely you will have a few choice must haves in mind. From these leads, and the conditions you're planting in (shade, soil type) you can begin to form a planting list based on colour, height and texture. For me a cottage garden has some must haves and favourites that I would be squeezing in:
Early season would start with spring bulbs. Many of which are native or would have been 'acquired' over the many years from nearby estates. They are more than justified as modern cottage garden plants, extending the traditional perennials season into the early months of the year. The rose has to epitomise cottage garden plants and for me the David Austin shrub roses offer the right choice for colour, disease resistance and flower. Other must have shrubs include Ribes (the flowering currant); Buddleia and Weigela. Perennials would include many traditionals such as delphiniums, lupins, polemonium, geraniums, foxgloves (Sutton's Apricot my favourite), papaver (Patty's Plum the plant of my choice), thalicitrium, alchemilla mollis and viola. Many of these are early season or mid-summer flowerers. Perennials that prolong the season are later additions to the cottage garden menu. Plants such as dahlias; Rudbeckia; Echinacea bend the traditional cottage garden planting lists but are justifiable additions to the modern plant list.
4. Containers
Until the 1950s terracotta was common and cheap, so our traditional cottage gardens would have had plenty of pots. They were likely to have used any other receptacles no longer needed for the house, including old boots. Rustic containers remain a key component to the modern cottage garden look. Remembering the 'avoid the pretentious' adage, rusted metal, aged terracotta, animal feed troughs, sinks, barrels and tins are all called into use.
Anything can be grown in a pot. Even trees. I mainly grow my tender plants in pots. Something that is not traditional for a cottage garden but tender summer bedding displays are often associated with modern cottage gardens. I think this comes from the traditional cottage gardeners' growing from seed and cuttings vibe. My pots are certainly for aesthetics, and I grow plants in them for seasonal display. I do have a collection of shrubs in pots forming a year round colour structure to a tricky area too.
Terracotta Pots are Traditional in a Cottage Garden
5. Edibles
Of course, now a days we associate the idea of being self sufficient with those that have an allotment, time and/or a great deal of dedication. But many gardeners do grow their own fruit and vegetables whether it be for the summer, or to supplement the grocery shop. We are most likely thinking of a vegetable patch with our plants loving sown in rows. In traditional cottage gardens the fruit and vegetables would be in amongst the flowering borders. In fact, it's likely they provided the majority of the colour in those borders. Now many of us don't go this far. I'm happy for an ornamental herb to be a border plant but I'm not prepared to clamber into the border to retrieve my tomatoes each morning in August. The art of border grown vegetables is not seen often. The modern country garden is more likely to see a row of cut flower seedlings in amongst its vegetable patch than the other way round. Practicality creeping in. However, border grown fruit maybe making a come back. Currant bushes are a fairly easy choice to add to the back of the border. Thornless blackberries up the clematis trellis perhaps?
Herbs will have been a big part of the cottage gardeners plot. Indeed many plants we grow for flowers alone, will have been grown for their medical possibilities. Today, we tend to grow herbs for the kitchen and for their beauty alone. No cottage garden would be complete without them.
6. Nature and Nurture
The ethos of the traditional cottage garden is perhaps the most important part of what are trying to capture today. There would be no fertilisers, pesticides and fancy solutions used in the traditionally and surely this is one of the most attractive features. The naturalising of bulbs. The gently self seeding plants around the borders. The mix of nature birds, insects and small creatures with human cultivation. Supporting each other. Providing the nature that we all crave.
'Just be good to your plot and let the flowers tell their story...' Geoff Hamilton.
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