A Cottage Garden Design Is Beautiful And Practical
The picture of a beautiful country cottage surrounded by a traditional cottage garden in full bloom is one which all of us will readily admit is one of pure beauty which fills the soul with feelings of peace and tranquility. All of use aspire to do well in life and many of us have retirement plans, some of which include a move to a country cottage. Sadly, for most of us this is beyond reality but we can have a little of it by having a landscape gardener create a cottage garden design for our home.
A beautiful garden is a great asset to a house, not only does it provide a beautiful place in which to relax, it adds to the overall beauty of the home and even it's value. A cottage garden design can help soften an otherwise modern building and such a dramatic improvement can add character to an otherwise plain building. In fact a cottage garden design can add something special to almost any building, creating a wonderful atmosphere of beauty and serenity.
Many gardens have a formal design with borders and a centerpiece but a cottage garden design is almost chaotic in comparison. Where many a formal garden offers uniformity in a tidy and almost regimental appearance the cottage garden can appear unkempt and even untidy but offering a natural beauty which is impossible to create any other way. Some cottage garden designs are neat and orderly and maintain the core aspects of cottage garden design but the best examples are those which appear natural and rather wild.
The cottage garden design has stood the test of time. Almost throughout history there have been numerous cottage gardens. Even during periods of severe structured design principles the cottage garden design remained popular. Often gardens which featured a formal garden also had an area of cottage garden design, especially during the Victorian period.
During the Victorian era international trade increased dramatically, explorers traveled to areas of the world not visited by western man before such as areas of Africa and tropical islands. Often the traveler would return with examples of the flora and fauna of the newly discovered areas of the world. Botanical gardens would gladly accept new specimens for study and cultivation. Often there would be a demand, for these new plants, for use in gardens, so new strains were often developed which offered more beautiful flowers or which were more likely to survive in it's new climate. Obviously some new species grew better than others and some required a hot house to grow but many were able to survive in most climates and quickly became popular additions to the common garden.
Over the decades more and more plants were introduced to the West from far flung places. More new strains, hybrids and hardier examples of popular plants were created so that, today we have a truly massive choice of garden plants at our disposal. Today's cottage garden design may be drastically different to historic cottage garden designs in the plants that are used but, surprisingly many plants have remained incredibly popular.
A cottage garden design, if done correctly, should create a fantastic garden which required less work than other designs. The extensive use of perennial plants and the widespread use of self seeding annuals help to create a garden which is low in maintenance and requires much less work than a conventional garden design.
This makes the cottage garden highly suited to today's fast paced life style which leaves little time for such things as gardening.
If you are planning to redesign your garden and have decided that you like the sound of a cottage garden design you have a number of options available to you. Most landscape gardeners will be knowledgeable in this area of garden design and many will have a few fine examples in their portfolio to show you. Even the smallest of gardens can have elements of cottage garden design incorporated into that space but, obviously, larger spaces have great advantages and allow for more adventurous designs.
If you, like many of us, can not afford the services of a landscape architect it is possible to create your own cottage garden design. All you really need to do is buy (or get from your local library) a small selection of books about cottage garden design. These books will show you a number of examples of cottage gardens but also list the plants used. Often such books provide diagrams of the plantings which can show you how the professionals do it. By carefully studying these books it is possible to understand the basics and, within a short space of time, it will be possible to create a simple design for your cottage garden.
You will find more books about cottage garden design at the bottom of this page.
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Below is a selection of books about cottage garden design:
