One cannot deny the inspiration gained from a small homely English Cottage garden with beautiful seasonal flowers glowing in the pathway brightly in the sun. It was natural that one would brush the mint herbs and rosemary bushes and the flowers while reaching the entrance thus releasing a fresh, pungent aroma of rosemary or mint in the air.
Strong scents of country air becoming alive with these beautiful flowers would give that nostalgic memories that would be prettier than any staged ornamental garden in the world.
But alas, like all other vintage objects, the English Cottage Gardens are fast disappearing from sight.
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Do you own an English style cottage garden?
I don't think indòr gardens are technicaĺy cottage gardens but they can have things inncomon. The tall plants of the cottage garden are not suitable for indoors. The use of ornamental grasses is,I think, later than The cottage garden.
It strictly doesn't fall under English-style cottage gardens where the greatest parts of the back, front and side lands are grasses, albeit non-turf even as they are hand- and mower-mowed and they enjoy regular clumps of even wilder varieties, and mosses.
The edible, medicinal and ornamental plants may not be heritage even as they are admired -- such as surprise lilies and Virginia bluebells -- and wild -- such as wild mushrooms, onions, strawberries and violets.
Would it be stretching things too far to say that houseplant, indoor -- ;-D -- gardens are English cottage-style?
My front garden is very, very small. There was no garden when we moved in and I got the concrete up and planted a small cottage garden. Soon the neighbours along here did the same. I have lavender, roses, campanula, peonies, dwarf azaleas, begonias, dwarf rhododendrons, and more. Best of all, I have plants in pots leading to the door and under the lounge window. I have hanging baskets by the front door.
Many allotment gardeners have a flower bed at the front, and some of these duplicate the cottage garden style.
I try to replicate this style of gardening, but I never live in any place long enough to do a good job. I have a small yard, so the perennials share space with garden vegetables and annuals. I am getting into growing herbs and edible flowers as well, and I save seeds to plant the following year. In my own mind, on a very small scale, I have a cottage garden!
@frankbeswick - I love the tradition of having one's own cottage garden, small farm house, livestock and growing one's own food. But that is possible only for rich, nowadays real estate commands exorbitant price in urban settings. One has to go to outskirts to buy a small piece of land here and that too is not affordable even to middle class.
I am glad that the Cottage gardens never went out of style. Like everything else they are evolving too. I am happy if the essence of Cottager still remains in the landscaping of UK either by the people who are rich or not so rich.
Cottage gardens underwent an evolution in style. Earlier gardens were like small farms, especially at the rear of the cottage, where cottagers grew vegetables and kept pigs and chickens. But in the nineteenth century, when some people became richer, the garden began to develop the style that you know as the cottage garden.
Herbs would have been essential to cottagers,as medicine was expensive, and so many people grew their own medicaments.
@Digby_Adams and @Tolovaj - The English styled cottage gardens were full of colour. I can imagine how colorful they would have looked with all those yellow and white poppies, fiery red and orange blooms in the spring.
I would never leave a chance to visit any garden Botanical or of any design. It gives a chance to explore the local flora. I would certainly want to visit a traditional Cottage garden preserved in its originality.
I have to say that I love fragrant flowers in the garden and that's why I have planted them in abundance.
@blackspanielgallery - I cannot imagine a cottage garden or any other home garden without herbs. I do agree the cottage styled gardens look adorable because of the English cottages too. The humble cottages look so earthly in the countryside.
@frankbeswick - Using local varieties instead of the exotic species is certainly the way an authentic Cottage Garden should be. Using the designs of Cottage Garden by growing apple and plum trees in unison with the other plants is also a source of seasonal supply of fruits in your garden. Herbs are underestimated and undervalued, they can be used for fast homemade cures, they do not have side effects.
Hybrid varieties of flowers are used for ornamental and commercial purposes. And if you decide to plant them in your garden you cannot attract bees. Bees love nectar and the double layered, big petals blooms are devoid of it.
The urban area of Bangalore that I live was known as pensioner's paradise a few decades back. The entire city was full of greenery with a lavish growth of coconut, jackfruit and mango trees. Alas, all this is giving way to high rises and a concrete jungle.