Cottage Garden Layout Design

Our gallery of cottage gardens shows the best design ideas from vast scapes to compact but still lovely front gardens.

Cottage garden layout design. Use materials in keeping with the look of the property. Download this free garden plan. 20 by 16 feet.

There s no concern for spacing no worry about planting in odd numbers no graduations in height. You re more likely to find garage sale bargains than high ticket purchases in a cottage garden. This garden plan uses soft pinks yellows blues purples and whites to create an old fashioned english cottage garden.

Cottage gardens traditionally have plant beds by the house packed tight with plants. When done well cottage gardens seamlessly blend colors textures forms and fragrance. The cottage garden projects a sense of relaxation often including shady corners where a gardener can take a break.

Delphiniums verbascum and hollyhocks will provide height at the back of borders while foxgloves lupins phlox achillea and bellflowers will help to bulk out the middle hardy geraniums lady s mantle and shorter types of geum are perfect at the front of displays. They can be kept wild and in keeping with their natural surroundings or be ordered into something structured with different sections for a cutting garden kitchen garden manicured lawn and wildflower meadow. An old dented watering can or a gate with peeling paint can work nicely.

This informal crowding of a wide variety of plants is a signature feature and the mix of perennial and annual flowers with vegetable and foliage plants twining around each other and competing for attention is what makes a cottage garden so fascinating. A cottage garden can incorporate quirky or funny ideas like painted signs that would not go with a more formal garden concept. But even a cottage garden needs to be controlled.

For instance if it is a period home consider weathered bricks flagstone wood chips gravel or stepping stones for paths and paving. A cottage garden s greatest appeal is that it seems to lack any conscious design. Dining areas and seating are often included in the cottage garden.