how to create a cottage style garden
how to create a cottage style garden
Cottage-style gardens are a quintessential part of British gardening and are a popular way to enjoy your spring and summer flowering perennials. If it's something you've always aspired to have, but you're not sure where to start, or perhaps you're new to gardening, we've created a list of our top 10 easy to grow plants for a cottage-style garden, as well as beginner friendly planting tips, keep reading for how to create a cottage style garden.
10 Cottage Style Plants For Beginners
Here's your list, this includes the Latin name plus the variety we think you'll need...and love! Digitalis purpurea, Lavandula 'Hidcote', Aquilegia 'Barlow', Geranium 'Roxanne', Erigeron karvinskianus, Salvia 'Amethyst Lips', Verbena 'bonariensis', Persicaria 'Superba', Stipa 'Ponytails', Achillea 'millefolium'.
Planting Tips: The Planning
Explore amazing gardening ideas on Instagram or Pinterest for inspiration. Learn which plants will thrive in your space. For example, if you adore cottage-style gardens but your space is shady and damp, some of those plants may not work - research is everything! Don't be afraid of shade though, there's plenty you can still do! Not sure what aspect your garden has? Try making note of where you notice the sun appearing AM & PM or doodle on some paper and annotate your initial planting ideas of where you think things should go.
Soil Type
Not sure what your soil type is? We won't go into the technical jargon, but we can help you with a simple check you can do at home, without spending money! Dig a small hole at least 3-6 inches deep, rub a bit of soil from the hole in between your fingertips, does it feel gritty, grainy with a loose texture? You're more likely to have well-drained, sandy or chalky soil. Does it feel close, claggy and thick? Then it's more likely to be clay/silty based soil. Each come with their own challenges, but it's always best to improve your soil with well-rotted manure or organic matter weeks before planting your cottage-style garden, dig it in, using a garden fork to help turn over the soil.
Planting Advice & Creating Natural Borders
Plants don't tend to grow in straight lines, so our biggest piece of advice is plant on diagonals! Don't be afraid of carving out deep borders/zoning your spaces to create natural pathways in your garden. If you're not sure where your borders should go, take a little walk and see where you naturally gravitate to when strolling around in your outside space, bring a ball of string or some pieces of wood to mark where you been...that's your path! You can decide if you'd like borders mirroring this space.
How To Plant...Continued!
A simple way to plan and plant your cottage-garden is creating a repeat pattern. Start with tall, larger plants at the back of your border, medium sized plants in the middle, finishing with the smallest or groundcover plants to soften the front of the border...always remembering to plant on diagonals! Once you have, let's say a 1m x 2m pattern in mind, you can repeat it on other parts of your garden borders, perhaps swapping out the odd plant in the pattern to keep in looking natural. Staggered plant heights will help to create that dramatic, full, cottage-style effect you're after! (Don't forget to give plants space to grow too!)
We hope how to create a cottage style garden help you, tag us on instagram @hayloftplants we'd love to see your progress.