Five Traditional Elements of a Cottage Garden

If you want your bungalow garden to be genuinely traditional , you might be surprised to know that up until the 19th century , many bungalow gardens boasted little more than potatoes . Nostalgia prompt our double of a typical cottage garden as being beautiful and timeless , but it was also operational . One ca n’t bury that state homes , especially if they were some way from a town or marketplace , were often require to be ego - sufficient .

1. A low fence or stone wall often encloses the garden and is a vehicle for plantings

fencing were a given for any bungalow garden , and they play a practical role aside from allow for structure for plants . Their primary purpose was , of course of instruction , to keep animals and rodents away from the vegetables . yard around the cottage were also fenced to keep chickens and other domesticated animals in and the predator out . Today the fence still attend to this determination , but its role has been expanded . A broken stone bulwark or picket fence offers a backdrop to blossom garden bed and sustain climbing plants .

2. Berry and vegetable plants, as well as fruit trees, reflect an emphasis on self-sufficiency

When you attempt to quicken a traditional cottage garden , incorporating vegetables , berries , and fruit trees is equivalence for the course of study . From there , total in herbs and fragrant efflorescence . These flora were picked for their usefulness in increase to their aesthetical economic value .

3. Common flowering plants, especially fragrant ones, grow in profusion

Fragrant plant were useful for covering barnyard olfactory property as well as for wangle and making herbal remedies . Sage , lavender , thyme , catnip , and others were distinctive of a bungalow garden . flower were included to attract bee and other pollinators , to secure the health of the garden , and to ensure a fruitful season . As cottage gardens evolve — and people began using them less for grow their own intellectual nourishment and medicines — so did the look .

4. Abundant and rambling plants grow right up to the house or other structures

The cottage garden ’s theme song ramble on purpose was expanded upon . This charming effect was , at least to some extent , an accidental side - effect . Our overworked forebear allowed plant to go to seed and vines to stretch out , and the garden naturally get to overflowing . Plants that characteristically agree into the rambling milieu were adopted into the English garden . blush wine were prise for their scent and beauty . Self - sowers and perennials abounded .

5. Self-sowers are encouraged

A novel generation of plants was adopted as pivotal to the bungalow garden look . Roses , foxglove , clematis , violet , daisies , and many others begin to be affiliate with the cottage garden . These plants make up the cottage garden as we know it today .

All together , these elements ferment together to make the “ Graeco-Roman ” garden of a nation cottage that hold out in our retentivity and center . With a small human elbow grease , plants , sunshine , and time , you’re able to create your very own version of a cottage garden wherever you call home .

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Climbing hydrangea vine has overtaken this tool shed, showing the horticultural bias of its owner. Photo fromLandscaping Ideas That Workby Julie Moir Messervy (The Taunton Press, 2014).Design and photo: Suzanne Albinson

Some of the perennials are false sunflower, daylilies, sneezeweed, dahlias, coral bells, lambs ears, and red switch grass. Behind the picket fence is a vegetable garden; to the left are gourd vines, and to the right are cucumber vines.Photo: courtesy of Carol Jean Kadonsky

This garden house overlooks a mixture of herbs, flowers, and vegetables.Photo: courtesy of Karen and Ted Harris

Spiraea‘Anthony Waterer’ and lavender behind.

A climbing hydrangea vine has overtaken this tool shed, showing the horticultural bias of its owner. Photo fromLandscaping Ideas That Workby Julie Moir Messervy (The Taunton Press, 2014).Design and photo: Suzanne Albinson