by Glenn Davis, El Dorado County Master Gardener
March 2003
When
you hear the term “Cottage Garden” the vision of a small British stone cottage
located in the midst of a variety of flowering plants comes to mind. Perhaps a
flower decked trellis, a birdbath, a rustic gate and a stone fence are included
as part of the garden picture. The flowers look as if they have been
arbitrarily selected and planted at random; they are close together and yet
somehow it all seems to come together.
Cottage gardens have probably been around for a long time;
initially they were the peasant’s gardens on large estates. In addition to
flowers, the small garden usually included herbs, vegetables and fruit of one
sort or another. Because there was very
little space the garden tended to look overcrowded and wild.
In the late nineteenth century a garden trend toward more
natural gardens started to emerge; prior to that, the most recognized gardens
were the large estate size gardens that, with plenty of cheap labor, attempted
to stylize the natural world by constructing lakes and artificial natural
scenes. These large gardens were generally designed to provide views from the
mansion out into the garden where one could view rolling meadows, lakes, and
tree-lined pathways leading to a statue or monument of one sort or another.
With the emergence of a natural garden movement, gardeners
started to blend gardens into the natural world instead of reconstructing
it. For the most part people grew what
was around them and at that time in England not a lot of color was available.
Well, the British Empire was far-flung and many travelers returned with species
of plants that could easily survive in English gardens. It was just a short
step to start including these new arrivals in the estates and gardens of the
time. The new found garden treasures soon became available to the working class
and as a result started to show up in their gardens; however, a lack of space
forced them to crowd the plants into a relatively small area and the plants
appeared to be randomly planted and mixed with the necessary herbs, fruits and
vegetables. There appeared to be a certain charm about the mixture and before
long renowned landscapers started to include the densely planted, colorful and
productive garden as a part of their landscape repertoire.
Don’t be deceived. The cottage garden may appear a whimsical
mixture of plant color, texture, size, and shape; in reality it requires a much
more fundamental knowledge of plant growth, timing, spacing and the use of
garden accessories.
The easiest choices for plants in a cottage garden are the
color choices; you decide which colors you want and select the plant with those
colors.
Blending, matching, or
complementing colors makes the chore a little more difficult; but when you add
the blooming period for each, the formula becomes more complicated. Be sure and consider the color and texture
of the plants leaf and stem structure as well as the flower.
Not all plants are the same size, so spacing them to let them
perform best is another factor to consider. One of the advantages of a cottage
garden is the lushness that is created by locating plants near one another;
this also shades the ground and cuts back on the weed population.
Good cottage gardens have color from early spring to late
fall. Look for plants that bloom in succession in order to provide your garden
with color throughout the growing year. Be sure and include some evergreens in
the scheme and don’t exclude the use of herbs, fruit and vegetables as part of
your overall color pattern.
In order to give the garden some focal points you might
consider any number of garden accessories, birdbaths, pots, trellises, gates,
walls or hanging baskets. About the
only suggestion I can add here is that the accessories appear natural and
weathered. The focal point of the cottage garden may also be a specific trait
for the plants in the garden, such as a blue garden where all the plants in it
are a shade of blue.
In the old days gardeners didn’t have the advantage of climate
zones so a lot of their choices came from trial and error or the nearest
gardener; take advantage of the climate zone map and select plants that are
going to survive together.
It is probably a lot easier to build and maintain a formal
garden than a cottage garden and I am sure it takes a lot more garden knowledge
to put together a good cottage garden than a formal garden. Cottage gardens,
though, establish themselves quickly and if the correct plants are selected,
will last, with minor changes, for a lifetime.
If you would like more information on cottage gardens plan to
attend the El Dorado County Master Gardener Class, “Cottage Gardens” March 15,
2003. For more information on any
backyard gardening topic, contact the Master Gardeners Office, (530) 621-5512,
Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to Noon.