If you are looking for cottage garden ideas to create a charming, characterful plot, then start with your own vision of what the space could be. Is it tumbling climbers creeping up walls, romantic drifts of softly colored perennials, or vintage containers bursting with perfumed flowers and home-grown crops?
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 cottage garden approach is ‘slow gardening’, allowing self-seeding to establish, curating the plant display and relying on plants that might be found on country roadsides like foxgloves and ferns to self-colonise. It’s really the opposite of planting in that you either leave a plant in that’s found its own way to you or you take it out,’ says Claire Masset, author of Cottage Gardens(opens in new tab).
1 second of 26 secondsVolume 0%Next UpHow To Clean Grout | Homes & Gardens00:39PLAY SOUNDCottage Garden Ideas – To Inspire Your Scheme
Cottage garden plants are the main event when it comes to cottage garden ideas blending abundant blooms in a random way that mixes up color and form. Roses, lavender and tall spires of lupins, foxgloves and hollyhocks are the stars of the show. 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.
‘As a concept, a cottage garden is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Cozy, snug, informal, profuse, the cottage garden looks entirely at home in its surroundings, as though it has slowly evolved over time – and often it has,’ adds Clare.
If you want to channel your inner Gertrude Jekyll and go big on cottage garden ideas, the trick is to create an intimate space packed with color and scent, with dense planting spilling over pathways and framing windows and doors to create a serendipitous vibe.
1. Get Rid Of The Grass
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Cottage gardens provide the backbone to both cottage backyard ideas and front yard cottage ideas. In a traditional cottage garden there is no room for a lawn. Growing space is at a premium and every inch should be planted, whether that’s with pretty flower bed ideas, delicious fruit or crops or scented herbs.
‘Typically the cottage garden surrounds a quaint home adorned in scented roses and climbers, is a confined space with no lawn, and intersected with paths,’ says garden expert Leigh Clapp. Pathways provide access and structure to the space while rich planting in the garden provides abundant interest and character.
2. Let You Planting Cover All The Soil
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Exposed soil is a clear marker of a curated garden which stands in opposition to the freer cottage style. In order to avoid this, incorporate creeping and trailing ground cover plants into your scheme. Creeping thyme, wall germander and snow in summer are beautiful examples. Add rocks and boulders around which the plants can snake and climb to further the naturalistic edge and introduce a new texture. Don’t forget to also add height to your borders, the best flowering climbers and the best flowering shrubs will ensure that there is balance to your scheme.
3. Frame Your Trees With Blooms
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Underplanting your trees with seasonal blooms is a great way to add interest to an otherwise uninspiring part of your garden. There are many different approaches to landscaping around trees, but bulbs are one of the easiest options. Here, vibrant red tulips interspersed with naturalized grape hyacinths and dots of yellow tulips and daffodils make a painterly palette in this otherwise dead space.
The beauty of bulbs is that they are perfect for any size of garden, will divide and naturalise over time and also require minimal maintenance. Plant a mix of the best summer bulbs and the best spring bulbs to ensure a continuous display throughout the warmer months.
‘The cottage garden style can be adapted to any garden, whether rural or not, small or large. Best of all, it allows for great amounts of self-expression; there are very few rules other than a profusion of plants, a love of flowers and a distinct lack of grandiosity,’ adds Clare.
4. Add Screening To Your Cottage Garden
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Of course, planting pretty blooms is the first part of learning how to plant a cottage garden border, however, hard landscaping is also very important in creating an aesthetically pleasing space.
In addition to providing valuable privacy, garden screening ideas will help you to zone your garden and divide the planting into specific spaces. When looking for screens to use in your cottage garden ideas, opt for a natural material such as wood to help it blend in. Alternatively, opt for an artfully aged decorative metal design for a bold statement that will add interest all year round.
5. Make Your Own Cottage Garden Rules
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Rooted in the romance of quintessential English garden ideas, cottage garden ideas are a firm favorite and can be found alongside a wide range of house styles. No two cottage gardens are the same – your cottage garden ideas will be a reflection of your own tastes as well as drawing ideas from the exterior design of your home.
‘There is no typical cottage garden – and that’s one of the joys of cottage gardening,’ says Margaret Hensel, author of English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners(opens in new tab). ‘Cottage gardens are individual, personal expressions. I have visited hundreds of gardens in both the UK and the US, and that is one of the points. They are the children of a gardener’s imagination and the many different sites, houses and cottages.’
Today, cottage gardening is more of an ethos than a set of rules to be followed. It’s about embracing nature’s beauty and intricacies, rather than forcing it to conform. Rambling, rather than rigid. Imperfectly charming, rather than perfectly chic.
While certain established cottage garden ideas will help you to get the overall look and feel, you should embrace the freedom to create a scheme that is truly unique to you and your home.
6. Pick The Right Flowers
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According to garden designer Tracy Foster(opens in new tab) MSGD, historically, as well as being pretty to look at, the plants in a cottage garden earned their place by being easy to grow, useful, edible or a mixture of all three. When deciding on your planting schemes, take inspiration from kitchen garden ideas as well as companion planting ideas to help you combine the best mix of blooms and crops.
It’s the versatility of the cottage garden style which appeals too. Tracy suggests that ‘the resulting symphony of shape, texture, colour and scent in a seemingly unstructured layout can bring bucolic charm to any plot, even in the heart of a city.’
For a truly authentic cottage look there will be a variety of different shapes and forms in the border. Landscape and garden designer Ana Mari Bull(opens in new tab) MSGD recommends using history as a guide, ‘where possible look at modern cultivar equivalents of the plants which would have originally grown in a Victorian cottage garden. Roses are the obvious choice but they must be scented.’
Tracy Foster adds height with hollyhocks, delphiniums and foxgloves. For other flower shapes try the flat panicles of achillea, ball shaped inflorescences of globe thistle (Echinops ritro) or cheerful daisy flowers of leucanthemum or rudbeckia.
7. Install Raised Beds To Create A Sense Of Order Amongst Chaos
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As has already been said, the beauty of cottage garden ideas is that there are no rules. Therefore, you don’t necessarily have to embrace the floral free-for-all of traditional cottage style. There are plenty of raised bed ideas that will help to bring order to your space, while still letting you indulge in the vibrant and chaotic planting of your cottage garden ideas. Confining plants to the boxes not only makes your garden easier to navigate and tend, but also makes it easier to combine plants and crops together in one place – as you would when planning a kitchen garden.
8. Add Vertical Interest With Climbing Plants
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If you’re looking for cottage garden ideas that will create the most impact, then start with the best climbing plants. There are so many varieties that can be grown upwards, and so many benefits to adding them – from covering an unsightly wall to filling the air with fragrance.
‘For millennia we have used climbing plants to green a surface or espaliered fruit against a warm wall. Arbours, arches, tunnels, trellises and pergolas can become lovely focal points adorned in profusely flowering roses entwined with clematis for example,’ says gardening expert and writer Leigh Clapp.
Roses are a classic option – consider a rambling rose, such as the repeat-flowering Phylis Bide from David Austin(opens in new tab), which will grow more quickly than a standard climber and cover a larger surface area. If you are thinking about adding roses to your cottage garden ideas, be sure you know how to plant roses and how to prune climbing roses for maximum flowers.
‘Another easy way to include vertical interest is to add some hanging baskets or containers on windowsills, balconies, along walls or displayed on stately plinths or a theatre stand,’ adds Clapp.
9. Grow Plants Overhead For Instant Drama
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As well as growing upwards, explore the possibilities of growing plants overhead in a cottage garden, for a truly immersive experience.
Pergola ideas is ideal for this purpose and can also create a private shaded, sheltered area to escape the midday sun.
If you know how to grow wisteria, then it’s the obvious choice, with its twisted branches and glorious drapes of purple flowers; but roses, clematis, honeysuckle and jasmine are all good cottage garden plants to provide overhead interest.
10. Go For A Pink And Mauve Color Palette
Verbena bonariensis in a mass of jewel-toned colours
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Choose the right color scheme for your cottage garden look and you’re halfway there. A muted palette of soft pinks and mauves (perhaps with a dash of purple to add some drama) always works, especially if you keep things simple and stick to it.
Add in some touches of vintage cream and set the whole thing against a neutral backdrop of green and the result will be positively painterly. As you get more confident mix in some pale greys, washed out blues and silvery foliage to add depth and complexity that will segue beautifully with your look.
Where to start? With drifts of heavenly mauve lavender and ruffled old-fashioned pink roses (of course), as well as jewel-toned purple and magenta Verbena bonariensis like these beauties.
11. Plant A Wildflower Meadow In Your Cottage Garden
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One of the most romantic cottage garden ideas, adding wildflower garden ideas to your borders creates a sense of areas being reclaimed by nature, and, as they will be packed with plants for pollinators, is a wonderful way to attract these precious insects to your plot.
‘Meadows can be a glorious addition to the garden, whether purely wildflowers or enhanced with other species. They make a harmonious medley, attractive to us and also to a host of wildlife,’ says Clapp.
A meadow area doesn’t have to be big – you can sow seed in neglected corners or even large containers, as long as the area gets good sunlight. Classic seed mixes can include ox-eye daisies, marigolds, teasel, chamomile, foxgloves and poppies, but you can also include ever-popular cosmos and ammi majus.
‘Once established, meadows are quite low maintenance, needing cutting down after flowering and cuttings removed so they don’t increase fertility,’ says Clapp. ‘Annual meadows will need some repeated sowings; others will improve over time with many plants self-seeding to reinforce the natural effect. As your perennial meadow matures, add in some new plants for a longer season of interest, such as spring and summer bulbs.’
If you are hoping to introduce a wildlflower meadow to your cottage garden ideas, it is essential that you know how to plant a wildflower meadow to ensure you achieve a thriving tapestry of blooms.
12. Use Paths And Steps To Zone Areas
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In times past, cottage gardens didn’t have large, pristine lawns, but were intersected by winding paths giving access to different areas.
While today there is no reason why you can’t embrace a luscious lawned area, consider how effective a meandering pathway would look to help your eye – and feet – travel through your cottage garden ideas.
‘Paths are important as visual relief, give a sense of discovery on your journey and allow access,’ says Clapp. ‘Use materials in keeping with the look, such as weathered bricks, flagstone, wood chips, gravel or stepping-stones, for paths and paving.’
Steps are also a wonderful way to embrace different levels in a cottage garden, and make a lovely spot to add potted plants.
The trick is not to cut a straight line through the garden – keep it winding; seemingly random. Even though it takes careful consideration to plan the perfect route, you want it to appear effortless.
13. Blur The Boundaries
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This is so easy to achieve. Pick plants that will flop over paths, tumble from arbors and pergolas, and scramble over walls and fences. This softens the hard landscaping so it fades into the background rather than being the dominant force as is often the case with more contemporary gardens.
It’s time to let nature takes its course too. Put away those secateurs and let your plants go on a rampage. Get a hazy effect with lady’s mantle (AKA Alchemilla mollis, used to edge the path here).
The soft lacy flowers form scalloped edging. And you can’t beat airy cow parsley to blend in hard boundaries. It’s like looking through a filtered lens to enhance things.
14. Fill Your Cottage Garden With Containers
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Container garden ideas provide the perfect way to punctate hard landscaping in your cottage ideas. They also offer wealth of other benefits too.
It is easy to control the soil mix – growing acid-loving plants, for example, when your have alkaline soil.
You can also plant earlier, as when the soil is too cold to grow in early spring, containers filled with snowdrops, anemones or bergenias can absorb the warmth of the sun from their higher ground. You can also use your containers to reflect the changes in the seasons, for example there are plenty of fall planter ideas that will help bridge the gap between high summer and your winter garden ideas.
If your garden is small or largely paved over, containers also work wonders to add cottage garden color and interest to your cottage patio ideas.
‘The choice of container material is endless,’ says Isabel Palmer, founder of The Balcony Gardener(opens in new tab). ‘Large-scale planters, such as dolly tubs, add maximum impact, while containers made from natural materials complement plants well – wicker planters create natural looking displays reminiscent of a cottage garden.
“‘Thriller, filler, spiller,’ is a useful phrase to bear in mind when choosing plants for the container. Select a strong statement variety to act as a focal point, and then complement it with filler plants – mixing upright choices at the back with compact ones arranged in the middle. Then add in spiller plants that will trail over the container sides.’
