Whether you live in the countryside or not, a cottage style garden can make your outside space feel like a peaceful oasis. Typically full of colour and interest with an informal layout, this attractive and whimsical type of garden is one that is much-admired and can make a home look truly dreamy, wherever it is.
So, if you feel like creating a slice of the English countryside in your own back yard or want to invigorate an underwhelming garden, here’s how to do it.
Creating A Backdrop
Although it uses an informal style of planting, a cottage garden does benefit from some subtle landscaping, starting with the boundaries.
Cottage gardens feature lots of tall flowers, so it’s important to give them a suitable backdrop. Traditional brick walls, green hedges and white picket fences not only create the right feel but also provide your perennials with some shelter from wind. Some woven elements such as willow screening, can also help give it a natural and timeless appeal.
A brick wall costs between ￡70 and ￡120 per m2, while picket fencing costs between ￡20 and ￡45 per panel. A young box plant usually costs around ￡5 and you’ll need around three for every metre to create hedging in your cottage garden. Although, extras such as paint, pruning shears or cap stones will bump up your fence, hedge or brick wall cost.
Plotting Out The Borders
Wide borders also play a huge role in cottage garden design, so give them plenty of space in your plan. As a cottage garden has an informal feel, it’s a good idea to resist making square and rectangular beds. If you want your borders to follow a straight line, give them wavy edges, to make them appear more natural.
You needn’t go for one long continuous border. Borders laid out in shorter sections with other features in-between – such as garden seating, lawns, fruiting trees or water features – could create a more exciting and characterful design.
Sketching out a design can help you visualise how it will all look but it can also help you work out where to put your plants. Ideally you want to get them in their optimum position for sun or shade and place flowers with similar soil, watering and drainage demands together.
Getting The Planting Right
The plants you put in your garden will play a huge part in creating an authentic cottage style. These plants will provide both colour and structure, giving it that romantic, countryside aesthetic.
Tall perennials including delphiniums, lupins, and penstemons along with echinacea, alliums and salvias are good at providing height at the back and in the middle of borders. You could also throw in a few ornamental grasses for a bit of variety. Using some self-seeding plants such as foxgloves, snap dragons and poppies will help to keep your borders full at a minimal cost. And think about popping in a few garden obelisks to help support your plants and create a whimsical landscape.
Towards the front of your borders, plant shorter flowers such as lavender and daisies, to give them some shape. This also helps to keep your pathways open and allows more daylight through.
Try to think about the colours of flowers as well as their height. Perhaps planting an even mix of pink, blue and white flowers and grouping warmer tones of red, orange and yellow together.
Styling A Path
Cottage gardens are typified by paths that wind their way through the flower borders. As well as designing a snaking route around your garden, choosing the right materials for your path will help you achieve the right look for your outside space.
That said, there’s a lot of different materials that work well in creating cottage garden style paths. You could go for a rough-surfaced stone, cobbles or clay bricks and tiles to achieve a rustic style but more modern pavers or slabs in a mix of sizes could also work. And if you’re looking for something a bit more unusual, you might fancy installing a boardwalk style path made from wood or composite materials.
If budget is a concern, you might find gravel is the most cost-effective option with an 800kg bulk bag of shingle costing around ￡90. Using reclaimed materials from salvage yards or from sites such as eBay can also help to keep costs down.
To give your pathways a bit more character, you might consider edging them with decorative wood or stone. And you might consider adding in steps, along with wide sections or niches where you could place ornaments or seating.
Adding Complementary Features
Although it counts for a large part of a cottage garden, planting isn’t the only thing to consider. Adding some useful and complementary features will enhance the look and feel of your design.
For seating a traditional bench will fit in well but you could also use second-hand wooden tables and chairs for a vintage vibe – throw on a checked tablecloth and put up some bunting and you’ll have the ideal spot for summer lunches.
If you fancy adding a water feature, try to match it to your wider garden design. Troughs, classical fountains and bird baths are just some of the water features that fit seamlessly into cottage garden designs.
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