“One particular chapter in English garden history that is not as well documented, but is just as interesting, is the cottage garden. With their uncultivated aesthetic and picturesque charm, cottage gardens encapsulate the spirit of the English countryside beloved to so many.” —Claus Dalby, Danish gardener and author of The Cottage Garden (2023)

As the RHS Chelsea Flower Show begins in London (yesterday – Sunday) and runs through this week, coinciding with our annual tradition here at TSLL of celebrating all things British during British Week, it seemed like the perfect time to share a post dedicated to gardening.

From beginning the day with the dawn chorus (a new term to me, but not to British readers most likely, referring to the birdsong that begins the day), to strolling through the garden as the sun rises ensuring all is well, then donning the wide brimmed hat and wellies to water, sow, transplant, divide, deadhead, feed, the list really can go on for days sharing the many tasks a gardener undertakes in a gardening season. And I am so grateful to have found this lifetime hobby that I so dearly love. The tasks really are a treasured time I look forward to each moment I have the chance to step outside or into the potting table area.

I have written a handful of posts sharing how garden elevates the quality of our life, so I will refer you to those here, and today, let’s focus on the Cottage Garden aesthetic. An approach that is not singularly found in Britain but indeed was founded in England, as Danish gardener Claus Dalby shares in his book, but definitely is a style of garden I associate with the beauty of the English countryside.

Claus Dalby’s book The Cottage Garden is full of photographs of inspirational Cottage Gardens found in England, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the states as well as the detailed biographies of the gardeners who became prominent creators of this beloved approach to gardens – Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West, Margery Fish, William Robinson and others.

While there are many other garden styles in Britain, and many far more grand in scale and design, it is for me, the appearance of being haphazard that really is anything but, and the filling of every gap with something beautiful that also has a function that draws me to the cottage garden.

The history of the cottage garden is centered around one of purpose to feed and provide for the inhabitants and keepers of the garden, so mixed among the flowers are your vegetables, herbs and fruits (tree, shrub, and vine varietals). Also, animals would be present – a cow, and as Dalby points out, likely a couple of pigs. The addition in more current generations of beehives, birdhouses and insect hotels are common in modern cottage gardens to again, provide for and work with nature and how it thrives best, not to fight it, tame it or kill it as often was the case with the use of pesticides during the 20th century.

The primary reason I continue to be drawn to the cottage garden, (and it overlaps wonderfully with the French potager in this primary purpose as well) is that it marries beauty with function.

How (and Why) to Create Your Own Potager

So where to begin?

As with any garden, it will take time, but with intention, in time, it will begin to flourish as you had envisioned. Granted, climate will play a roll in what each of us can grow, but within the larger climate we live in, our individual areas of soil around our homes will have their own micro-climate based on how much sun they receive, how we condition the soil, and surrounding plants that provide shade or protection. Once we come to be a student of our individual space, I think each of us will be amazed and delighted in all that we can grow.

It has been now five years, so five garden seasons, tending to my attempt at cultivating a cottage garden here at Le Papillon in Bend, Oregon, and each year it improves. Some years have been immense years of growth (and not the kind I would have wanted – but rather in my knowledge base – i.e., losing trees or shrubs, etc.), and others have seen giant leaps and bounds in their maturity of plants. So it is an adventure of discovery every single season and throughout the season as well.

Let’s take a look at the core components to consider and begin adding or exploring as you design and plan your own cottage garden.

1.Planning the flowers

Most memorable to cottage gardens is the flowers. Bursting borders full of a variety of different colors, complementary, yet unique, and successional, so that beginning in spring and running all the way through the autumn, blooms are present.

This takes planning, and as mentioned above, while the bundle of oodles of different flowers may look haphazard and random, it is anything but. Yes, you do often let them self-seed – the foxglove, the forget-me-nots, and many others – but you are grateful when they do.

The below list is just an introduction. Many other plants can certainly be part of your garden.

• roses – shrub, climbing and rambling
• hardy geraniums (seek out sterile plant varietals so that they will bloom all summer) – Rozanne is my favorite (perennial)
• foxgloves (biennial)
• aquilegia – aka columbine or granny’s bonnets (perennial)
• delphiniums (perennial)
• phlox (perennial)
• lupins (perennial)
• hollyhocks (biennial)
• peonies (herbaceous perennial)
• sweetpeas (annual)
• alliums (bulb)
• clematis
• honeysuckle or jasmine (perennial)
• daffodils (bulb)
• tulips (bulb)

As I began planning which flowers to add to my garden back in 2020, I began with the rambling roses as they would be the ones to climb up the columns on the front of my house, and would need time (years) to eventually stretch over the porch. I also began purchasing little by little the perennials that would also take time to mature, but you only need to purchase once – the peonies, the hellebores, etc. Often these plants won’t give you flowers for a couple of years, but if happy, in a couple years’ time, they will be sharing profuse amounts each and every season.

Begin with what you love and what has the best chance of success in your garden (climate, sun availability, temps, etc.), don’t forget to purchase flowers for their scent and attractiveness to pollinators, and see what works. Purchase a few more of the same or a different plant or plants each year, and before you know it, you will have a garden that is singing in color and pollinator interest along with contentment all gardening season long.

Norman and Nelle under the rose, Over the Moon. (Norman loved to garden, be introduced to him here and learn more about his long 15 1/2 years of living and being my companion.)

~Nelle under the Hollyhocks, Black Knight~

2. Invest in trees

While deciduous would be the typical tree to have in a cottage garden, you will also want to consider coniferous to keep interest year-round (during the winter months), so keep those in mind leaving space for them in your garden. However, you will want to have a few fruit trees or trees that provide beautiful blossoms in the spring. There are many different varietals for keeping the size small if space is limited, so don’t worry that you cannot add a tree due to a small space. It is possible.

Consider the shade it would provide and thus how it will influence the plants you surround it with underneath. Consider how you want to see it while you are inside, if it will be visible from within your home. And then explore the trees that would thrive in your climate and garden. This may take some time to research, and remember that the best time to plant a new tree is spring, and the second best time is early or mid autumn to ensure that the tree isn’t too stressed before it begins to establish its roots and heads into winter.

Trees add height as well as structure, and while they take time to mature, as typically the first three years all the growth is happening underground to build its foundation and secure water resources, once it is established, the growth will be impressive depending on the variety of tree. Enjoy deciding which trees you will add to your garden, and feel free to either choose a tree to symbolize or memorialize someone or an event in your life you want to remember, or name your tree. I have done both in my garden, and it makes Le Papillon’s outdoor living space even more welcoming and cozy than it already is. ☺️

Le Papillon was fortunate to have many of the trees that provide the fruit in the garden already present when I moved in. One is this dwarf peach tree that gifts us with delicious peaches each early September so long as a late frost doesn’t take the blossoms in the spring.

3. Select the herbs you want to grow

Often, but not always, the herbs grown in the garden will be annuals (especially if you live in a colder climate such as Bend, Oregon), but woody herbs such as sage and rosemary will definitely return and mature year after year. One herb I love and am delighted that it returns each year with ease is sorrel, an herbaceous herb rather than a woody herb (I talk about it and incorporate into a recipe for a delicious dinner as taught while traveling in France here).

The beauty of a cottage garden is that it appreciates the beauty of the herb as much as the ability to enjoy it in food and for its medicinal properties, so choose a sunny spot in your garden and consider its neighbors, then plant away! Either sow from seed or pick up a starter plant at your local nursery or farmers’ market.

A wonderful book I reach for every time I have a question about herbs is from British gardener and cook Judith Hann. She takes you through the seasons, introduces you to oodles of herbs, and then shows you how to cook with them. Simple, an abundance of visual inspiration and inspiring.

Herbs: Delicious Recipes and Growing Tips to Transform Your Food by Judith Hann

4. Consider structures and plan well

From structures for your climbing vines, to seating, to obelisks, gates and fences, these decisions of what to place where will both support your plants as well as deepen your enjoyment and time spent in the garden. Dalby brings readers’ attention to the British gardener who was one of the long-running hosts of Gardeners’ World, Geoff Hamilton and his many DIY projects for building benches, obelisks and arches. Geoff Hamilton’s Cottage Gardens (1995) book contains many of the drawings and how-tos to build your own structures.

 “In this book Geoff Hamilton looks to the superb old cottages of the past and adapts the more popular features to modern gardens. In building three cottage gardens from scratch at his home in Barnsdale, he sets out to simplify the practical problems of creating a natural rustic look and shows how to build new constructions such as arbours and bowers, arches, seats and boundaries to suit readers’ budgets. A diverse selection of planting plans emphasizing colour schemes and perfume, with explanations of how to cultivate cottage-style plants, has also been included. Practical advice covers a variety of subjects such as herbaceous plants, roses, perennials and annuals, climbers, bulbs, containers, herbs, vegetables and fruit.”

Purchase used on Abe’s Books here.

Deciding on which type of structures you want may take time as you live in your garden and discover how you most enjoy being in your outdoor spaces, as well as what plants you will plant and what they will need. So be patient as you wait to discover and know with confidence what you want; however, you can always be playing with the ideas in the back of your mind and keeping your eyes open for inspiration while you visit other gardens.

5. Invite wildlife in and dance with the flora & fauna, appreciating their beauty

From adding a birdbath and bird cafés to insect hotels, beehives and planting your beloved tulips inside the fenced area so that you continue to enjoy the deer’s visits rather than curse them, discover the many ways you can support wildlife and Mother Nature’s many creatures.

One of two bird cafés in Le Papillon hangs in the cherry tree, a year-round destination for all different species of birds. Nelle protects them, I delight in them and what pleasure they bring.

6. Choose to garden organically

After all, you are gardening because you want to support Mother Nature, and you will be eating the food you grow and your loved ones which include your dogs and cats will be frolicking outside with you. So stop using pesticides, stop fertilizing your lawn with non-organic material and begin to discover the many ways you can create the same results and ultimately and eventually better results in other ways.

Practices to consider:

• Quiet down your tools – noise from both lawnmowers and leaf blowers disturbs the organisms in the soil
  • Choose a battery operated or electric mower, both of which are quieter than gas operated ones.
    • I use a small Ryobi battery powered lawn-mower, and find it simple to use and keep clean as well as small enough for my petite lawn with tight corners. They have all different sizes and battery voltages to choose from.
      • See photos of it here in my monthly gardening post shared in 2023.
    • Pick up the broom, finding a sturdy and efficient broom such as a bristle broom (like this one) that with one push grabs everything in its way and moves it aside. Yes, a workout, but what we blow away will either land in our neighbor’s sidewalk or garden or right back into ours. Or just live with a bit of untidiness and wait for the wind. 🙂
• Aerate and thatch your lawn each spring and/or fall, and then seed. You’d be amazed how much improved your lawn will be without needing a sprinkle of fertilizer.
• Use organic seaweed liquid feed to give you plants and flowers the natural fertilizer they will happily drink up and in return give you bountiful blooms and fruit.
  • I have been using Neptune Harvest’s Fish & Seaweed liquid fertilizer for five years, once a week.
• Compost at least once a year (in the spring) and also in autumn if possible.
  • This nourishes your soil naturally, conditioning it to make a happy home for your plants to flourish, as well as reduces the weeds and retains water. A win on multiple fronts for beauty and sustainability.
  • We have a local business that makes compost from the area, all-natural. And each spring I have 4 cubic-yards delivered. A cheap investment for caring well for my plants.
  • Note: this is not mulch that is made of bark chips for aesthetic purposes. Often in the states we interchange the term compost and mulch and even in Britain, they will say mulch when we here in the states would call what they use compost, so just be sure it is compost to enhance your soil not for display purposes.
• Plant the plants that will thrive in your climate.
  • Part of our frustration is often wanting plants we love to be happy in places they are not designed to thrive. We have to honor their needs. Yes, we need to care for every plant well, no matter how well suited it is for its placement, I speak from experience of having lost plants due to my ignorance and stubbornness, that we cause ourself unnecessary frustration. We begin to search for all sorts of solutions, often in chemicals and that only hurts the soil and insects that are thriving underneath. And the soil is what we begin with for any success we will have. So go purchase your compost, investigate the plants that will thrive, and invest in those, while feeding them well with organic liquid fertilizer. 🙂

7. Consider placement of a path, and make it curvy

If you have space, plan on adding a path comprised of some sort of natural material (enjoy exploring all of the options available as well) – cobbled stone, pea gravel, pavers, flagstone, limestone, etc., and however long it is, make sure it isn’t straight. Bring on the curves!

As it pertains to cottage gardens, as opposed to formal gardens, the paths curve to lead the eye and encourage wandering into the next space without necessarily revealing what that space is. However gradual or severe the curve, it will provide the appearance of lackadaisical, but be full of intention to slow the one who finds themselves on the path and encourage them to take in all the beauty of the borders and plants that flop onto the path and provide varying textures and colors to savor.

8. Planning the borders

British gardener Gertrude Jekyll made a name for herself in the gardening world for her designing of innovative, and often wonderfully deep herbaceous borders. Areas of soil that in the winter look nearly completely barren, but then come spring and then into the summer and autumn bursts full with plants just wanting to spring up from the soil year after year and share their unique beauty.

Cottage gardening thrives on an abundance of herbaceous perennials many placed in borders, and a few wonderful British gardens to visit to see how expertly they can be designed, in a variety of different ways is Great Dixter, Gravetye Manor, Hidecot Garden and Sissinghurst Castle Gardens.

The key is to layer height, with the tallest plants in the back. Now these tall specimens may be trees or grasses as well as an herbaceous plant, but the key is paying attention to height variation. And depending upon where your border is, the tall plants may actually be placed in the center with then mid-sized in between the lower plants that are in the front.

The beautiful part about herbaceous perennials beyond their beauty is that you can give yourself free plants by dividing the healthy plant every three years or so. I do this each early spring with any perennial that is both getting too large, or getting old and thus the middle is beginning to underperform. By dividing you both keep the plant vibrant and vigorous, but also expand the garden plants that you love.

~Delphiniums are wonderful tall perennials that provide blooms in late spring, and if you cut the expired bloom back, you might even get a second bloom in late summer, early autumn.~

9. Apply the same concepts of plant selection and care to your containers

Whether you don’t have diggable land or want to include containers as well as what you are able to grow in the ground, have fun experimenting with the types of plants you place in your pots. Dress up the porch or front of a gravel parking area, place by the entrance to a building, and all the while keeping in mind the climate you will be placing it in. The versatility of plants in pots allows for much learning and discovery of successful plants that will thrive where you live.

10. Add the fruit and vegetables

Many of the fruit plants you will plant can return year after year, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, marionberries, and really any berry. When it comes to strawberries, they make wonderful border/edging plants, can thrive in pots as well as provide great ground-cover and fill gaps in sunny places. Be sure to choose everbearing varietals as they will keep giving berries all summer long and not just once.

Choose the fruit for both its harvest as well as its beauty and structure. I love having my blackberry canes where I want some height, and then I underplant in the spring with tulips, hellebores and alliums as the blackberries take time to produce their leaves. But by summer they are lush and full of foliage after the tulips and other spring flowers are finished, and the birds love roosting in them, while also nibbling on the berries. ☺️

Vegetables will be an annual planting for most of what you will want to grow, so designate space in a sunny spot where you can plant the food you love to harvest. While I don’t have a veg-spot in my garden due to size, and instead head to the farmers’ markets locally for produce, this is something I am trying to figure out how to add.

When it comes to vegetables, remember, the concept of a cottage garden is to plant flower and food plants together. This saves space but it also helps the plants thrive. Companion planting, such as pairing tomato plants with basil, reduces unwanted pests and also adds beauty to the garden. Here is a list from the Farmers’ Almanac of many different companion planting pairs to consider as well as oodles of plant health benefits.

Norman and Nelle enjoying their lawn with strawberries planted along the edge of a border ready to pick.

~Nelle in the strawberry pots as a pup.~

11. Invite your four-legged companions to join you

There isn’t a moment I’m out in my garden that my pups aren’t with me. Each one of them has enjoyed the time outside as it gives them the liberty to potter about as well. They also have the opportunity to meet the neighbors, listen to the birds and lay in the cool grass, while knowing there is a bit of water for them to lap up if they need it either from the hose, the birdbath or newly added this year, a small cement teacup placed near the bird bath tucked into the ground cover.

~Norman sitting under one of the two flanking Acer trees in the front garden leading up to the front porch. ~

~Oscar enjoying being outside on the back porch of my first home in Bend. While not captured in as many photos as Norman and Nelle, as Oscar was always right by my side, never wandering far at all, he was my loyal companion for nearly 17 years. Meet him here. ~

12. Add some whimsy

While this has been something I just began doing lately once my garden ‘rooms’, borders and beds were more clearly organized in my head, I am now adding a few small statues and playful objects that mean something to me throughout the garden. From my Buddha in the rose garden, my teacup in the bird garden and a sunbathing frog in the front garden, each brings a smile and is not the star of its space, but rather a special treat for the eye when spied by someone looking closely at the plants.

You’ll know what to add and where as you get more and more familiar with not only your garden, but yourself. Enjoy what you discover to be most welcome in your outdoor living space.

Most importantly,

“There’s no single formula for a cottage garden. All you need is a love of flowers, a dash of creativity, and a willingness to let nature lead. That’s what makes a cottage garden such a joy. You can start small, with just a few plants and a path, and grow it over time. Add what you love, edit what doesn’t work, and enjoy the process.” —Jackson & Perkins

This quote really does say it best.

Enjoy the journey of gardening, and if you’d like to follow along on my own cottage garden journey, look for my monthly gardening posts here on TSLL (see them all from previous months here in the Archives), as well as follow on my gardening IG account here – @lepapillongarden.

Now, continuing along the theme of gardening, the next giveaway during this year’s British Week is one for gardeners, so be sure to stop back by in 12 hours when this post (the 2nd giveaway) will be shared: A handmade-in-England garden trug.

Handmade in England by Thomas Smith, the original maker of The Royal Sussex Trugs, is a Garden Trug, South Down Rother, no. 3. Enter to win here (giveaway will open on Monday at 6pm British time).

Explore all of the posts shared in this year’s British Week