The concept of the cottage garden has evolved into the prettiness of a rural idyll we think of today – a garden bursting with colourful blowsy blooms, all growing in an apparently glorious muddle. This style of garden design has come a long way from its origins of British peasants planting around their humble dwellings to supply the family with food and medicine.
A cottage garden’s greatest appeal is that it seems to lack any conscious design. But even a cottage garden needs to be controlled. Some of the most successful cottage gardens start with a formal structure and soften the framework with the lavishness of cottage plants.
Typically the cottage garden surrounds a quaint home adorned in scented roses and climbers, is a confined space with no lawn, and intersected with paths. However, whether you want to evoke a chocolate box image or just draw on elements of the flower-filled cottage style in a border, the appeal is popular for both country and urban dwellers and any garden size.