landscaping and Creating an English cottage garden

No you won't need a formal garden design. However, although some Landscape gardening writers tell us that the old cottage gardens had no formality, no design or  planting plan (and at first sight Cottage gardeners seem to break all the usual rules with lots of colour and interest crammed haphazardly into small spaces).

Some planning will be essential to recreate a traditional cottage garden and be as authentic as possible. Cottage folk depended on the garden for almost everything they ate, sold and shared, So there will be a certain amount off planning. 

Yes. Times have changed and most of us are no longer dependent on our cottage garden produce, but to fully enjoy our garden we still need to plan in the paved seating areas, pathways along the borders and through the kitchen garden and vegetable patch. It's mostly common sense, it's easier and safer, especially as we get older to walk from the kitchen herb garden to the herbaceous borders using a solid pathway rather than walking through wet grass or trampling over dug soil. So behind the apparent random profusion of  colour, herbaceous plants, bedding plants, fruit and vegetables, the best and most enjoyed cottage gardens do have a carefully thought out hard landscaping structure and planting plan.

However, In most cases you won't need a formal and expensive garden design. A good cottage garden landscape gardener will run through your ideas and budget with you and suggest the best materials for and positioning off the hard landscaping, flower and vegetable plants to make the most of the space available. 

some Ideas to help with the hard landscaping layout, structure and planting plan.

• The front garden should be welcoming, maybe framing the house with small flowering trees on each side, and grow a rambling rose or honeysuckle around the front door.
• The Boundaries. Plant a hedge, or build dry stonewalls or easier fit picket fencing around the garden boundaries with a path leading from the gate to the front door.
• The garden path could be built using reclaimed brick or sandstone with chamomile growing between the gaps and cracks.
• The back garden, separate areas of the cottage garden can be divided with paths and trellis, using  runner beans as climbers and planted with fruit vegetables and don't forget the herb garden sited near to the kitchen door. Be careful planting ivy, it quickly gets out of control. If you do have a problem with ivy, this may help. How to clear Ivy 
• For narrow borders, climbers and tall plants are planted toward the back, with low-growing plants at the front. In the wide borders a mixture of heights works. Hollyhocks and other tall plants look good growing near walls and fences. 
• Scented flowers should be grown around garden benches and windows for their fragrance.
• Plant for the seasons, snowdrops and crocuses for the spring, anemone and daisy for the autumn. Brighten up dark winter days with the fiery-coloured rose-hips of old roses, and Christmas rose.
• Fill gaps by sowing Snapdragons, Poppies and Cornflowers. Try not to include modern hybrids and double flowers they are not traditional cottage garden plants and offer wildlife nothing at all. 

No it's not, however, we can be put off cottage gardening because of the misconception that it is high maintenance. If you don't mind the occasional bit of weeding, cutting scented flowers and pulling fresh carrots, a cottage garden need not be high maintenance, in fact if you follow the various tips on my website, like no dig gardening and companion planting it can be low maintenance. I have included links to basic gardening tips at the bottom of this page. 

Our traditional cottage garden plants won't need much care. Old-fashioned roses do not need pruning, just tidying up each year. Self-seeding perennials and herbaceous flowers just need thinning out or dividing in springtime. If clay soil is a problem my article may help Improving clay soil.

The difference is partly in the design and build, sourcing and choice of materials, reclaimed brick for pathways and retaining walls also the use of natural flagstones for the paved areas, somehow concrete slabs seem out of place in a cottage garden setting. 

Another difference is in the planting, we try to encourage using English herbaceous plants, trees and shrubs, trying not to include modern hybrids and double flowers they are not traditional cottage garden plants and offer wildlife nothing at all. The big difference will be the mixing of flowers and vegetables together in the same beds. There's a hidden benefit to mixed planting it's called companion planting.

Do I need a large garden?

The answer is no. A cottage garden blends happily and naturally with most smaller houses and bungalows. It's charm is its random groupings of colour and texture, not its size (for once size does not matter).  Even the smallest garden can be transformed into a sea of colour and scent, (most cottage gardens were small anyway) and you won't need the thatched, chocolate box house, on the edge of the village green in John Nettles Midsummer Murders, (Dodgy place to live anyway).       

This is the Wikipedia definition of the word cottage.

"A cottage is, typically, a small house. It may carry the connotation of being an old or old-fashioned building. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location.

The word comes from the architecture of England, where it originally referred to a house with ground floor living space and an upper floor of one or more bedrooms fitting under the eaves. In British English the term now denotes a small dwelling of traditional build, although it can also be applied to modern construction designed to resemble traditional houses ("mock cottages"). Cottages may be detached houses, or terraced, such as those built to house workers in mining villages. The tied accommodation provided to farm workers was usually a cottage. Peasant farmers were once known as cotters." 

Herbaceous borders form an important part of a cottage garden;

• They are an informal mix of old fashioned flowers including; Foxgloves, Lupins, Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Pinks, Lavenders and many more.  
• It looks and smells good so to get full benefit it is best planned to border the patio or pathway, it attracts birds and butterflies and is low maintenance as most plants are perennials or self seeding. 
• Wherever possible choose plants that offer nectar and pollen like the old cottage plants because they attract bees and butterflies. Modern hybrids and double flowers are not traditional cottage garden plants and offer wildlife nothing at all. 
• With a bit of planning of the layout of your cottage garden, even the smallest border or garden can be transformed into a sea of colour and scent.

Yes you can.     The cottagers often planted vegetables and flowers together making more efficient use of their small gardens. Flowering herbs like thyme and rosemary, and unusual salad plants like curly endive and red lettuce, add scent and texture to flower borders. Flowers and vegetables are also planted together as a way of controlling pests..........This is called companion planting and is a natural method of controlling garden pests.