Cottage garden style. The definition.

Cottage garden style. What things come to your mind when you think about it?

Perhaps something colourful, fragrant, fun and very cosy.

This informal garden design style actually gives a lot of freedom and often asks for improvisations. The funniest part is that sometimes it seems to lack any conscious design.  There's no rules for spacing, no worry about planting in odd numbers, no graduations in height. That makes this gardening style is perfect for those who wants to have something unique. It's simply impossible to clone.

Some of the most successful cottage gardens start with a formal structure and soften the framework with the lavishness of ornamental local plants. Among them you might find various flowers, fruit trees ,culinary and medicinal herbs and some ornamental grasses.

Materials. Using natural materials in a gardening decor as clay, paths covered with locally made bricks or stone, rustic wood in fences and garden gates makes the garden more relaxed. Sometimes it’s a good idea to use old furniture to give the impression of an old-fashioned country garden.

If there's a failing in cottage gardening, it's the idea that the garden can take care of itself. Not true. In fact, a cottage garden can be high maintenance. Some flowers will become thugs, squeezing out others. Self-sowers can quickly get out of hand. Perennials will still need periodic dividing, or they will die out. With so many flowers, deadheading becomes time-consuming, but the alternative is a lot of past-prime flowers.