Garden landscape design guidance
Cottage Garden Landscape Design
The cottage garden is the garden landscape design style of choice for the true romantics at heart. When planning your own cottage garden design, consider that with the untamed abundance of rose bushes, perennial flowers, fruit trees, vine-covered arbors, and plants tumbling over walkways, this informal garden landscaping style is meant to evoke a mood of light-hearted gaiety as well as give the appearance of a "natural landscape."
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Garden Landscape Design Aspects
A classic cottage garden should have a variety of plant types, including flowers, herbs, shrubs and vegetables. A fruit tree is often used to add some vertical interest to the garden. Some classic plantings include:
- Flowers. Planted in abundance, flowers in the cottage garden provide color, but many have practical uses as well. Violets, hollyhocks, peonies, irises, calendula shrub roses, old-fashioned roses, climbing roses and primrose are all classic choices.
- Climbers. Climbing plants are often used to trail over a trellis, arbor or adjacent wall. Honeysuckle, clematis and jasmine are good choices.
- Hedges. A classic, cottage garden landscape design features hedges used as focal points or to define borders. Historically, holly, elderberry and privet were used for their functional appeal. More recently, ornamental shrubs like lilac, butterfly bush and japonica have been pressed into service.
- Herbs. A major part of the classic cottage garden is given over to herbs. Climate appropriate herbs are the best choice, but some classics include lavender, thyme and sage.
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Informal Garden Landscape Design
Although cottage gardens tend to be abundant and informal, the overall structure is well established. A classic garden design features a well-defined border, using hedges, trellises, walls or fences to mark the perimeter. The shape is typically rectangular. Often located at the front of a home, a cottage garden features a straight path leading from a front gate to the front door. In a "four square" design, the path is crossed at a 90-degree angle by a second path that divides the garden into smaller rectangles. And when it is all done, you will find your own “happily ever after” right outside your door.