The cottage garden, a staple for houses in the United States since the colonial days, is a beautiful and seemingly overgrown garden, with a naturalistic and bountiful feel to it. Though it seems all chaos and no order, a cottage garden is best served by a good garden design. Plan your cottage garden to look its finest by considering these 8 aspects.
1. Fences and Gates – the classic picket fence provides a nice framing for lush greenery and flowers. Additionally, they can act as support for sprawling flowers. You can use painted wood, bent willow, or latticed bamboo for your fences and gates.
2. Walls and Hedges – these are other structures that can provide support for your sprawling plants. If you have the dough for it, go for stonewalls. A cheaper option is to use trimmed hedges. Another choice is to use evergreens such as boxwood, wax myrtle, or yew.
3. Paths and Pergolas – dividing even a small space can make it seem more spacious. Use this to your advantage to make your paths more interesting to walk. Informal paths work well, like gravel or flagstone. Additionally, consider putting in a pergola it can add a structure for your vines to crawl on and add beautiful variety to your garden.
4. Basic Plants – the old-time favorites – roses, coneflowers, phlox are still good choices, but you can use almost anything! Adapt it to your local area and climate. Groundcovers like creeping Jenny, bellflowers, or lady’s mantle are necessary for weed-control and reduced daily maintenance. You can also include annuals like violas and calendulas to extend your blooming season!
5. Ornamental Edibles – these serve the double purpose of decorating your garden and providing food to eat! Adapt what you grow with the other plants you have in your garden and be sure not to use pesticides and herbicides that are unsafe for human consumption.
6. Natural Fences – cut grapevines work well as fencing, gates, or arches.
7. Lattices – these can blend in perfectly with vines and provide structure for them to grow on.
8. Decorative Objects – the options here are endless, but consider using birdbaths, fountains, and sundials as attractions for your garden. Also consider using plants as “living sculptures” – your imagination’s the limit!
Consider these 8 aspects of the cottage garden and you’re well on your way to designing it to succeed. Remember, though these gardens may seem all chaos, the underlying order of them is key to their beauty. Also, it’s about more than the plants you use – the fencing, paths, and decorative objects make huge impacts on how your garden turns out. Go plan your dream cottage garden!
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