The genius behind the lawn at Chatsworth was Capability Brown (1716-1783). In the course of…
Everybody Loves Cottage Gardens
What is it about cottage gardens that we love?
There is a certain sentimentality and at the same time an immediate connection with a cottage garden. Perhaps it’s because cottage gardens display a landscape that is both in a beautiful form and in a small space.
The excellent use of limited space may well be what we find so attractive in cottage gardens. The cottage garden represents an ideal way to deal with limited space for a homeowner.
English cottage gardens for centuries represented the gardening of laborers or cottagers who had little money and a limited outdoor space, but a love of gardening that inspired them.
Margaret Hensel in her book English Cottage Gardening: For American Gardeners says it all when she writes, “The magic is not in having the biggest garden on the block but in making whatever space you do have as beautiful as it possibly can be.”
Then she lists the essential flowers in any cottage garden: delphiniums, roses, hollyhocks, old-fashioned pinks, and oriental poppies.
The blog called gardeninggreen.net offers this image in a post about cottage gardens. [below] The image illustrates so well an English cottage garden that happens to be in England’s Worcestershire.
Hensel dedicates her book “to all of the gardeners whose gardens and love of gardening made it possible.”
What do you think about the cottage garden?
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I love the cottage garden and am trying to merge it with native plants more….not easy but I love the effect.
Sounds like you have a fabulous garden with combining native plants along with the cottage garden look. Well done.
I have enjoyed Hensel’s book for many years. I like the quote you have included about making your garden as beautiful as it possibly can be. -Beth
That goal of doing the best you can in the garden with the space you have guides us all in the garden we make. Nonetheless, oNe day I wish I had more space, and the next day less space. But ultimately, I am content with the three-fourth’s of an acre that I have. It is enough for me.