Cottage GARDENS
A supplement to THE
english
GARDEN
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COVER IMAGE GAP/RICHARD BLOOM IMAGES ZARA NAPIER; SHUTTERSTOCK
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t’s a style of garden to which so many of us aspire: that perfect combination of pretty flowers and abundant vegetables, all muddled together with seemingly effortless charm. Cottage gardens have been high on our wish lists for years, and their appeal shows no sign of fading as we strive for a simpler lifestyle that leaves behind the stress of modern life, technology and consumerism. It’s no wonder that ‘cottage-core’ became such a fashionable trend during the fraught months of the pandemic. So, escape from it all in your own version of rustic bliss. Over the following pages you will find all you need to create a perfect cottage garden. Learn about their history, find essential components to conjure the look, discover a thatched cottage’s rose-filled garden to inspire you and read about decorative edible plants, and the best annuals to sow for an instant cottage garden. A little bit of gardening, and that bucolic idyll will soon be yours! CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR
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Contents 4 Potted History Sandra Lawrence considers how today’s classic, much-coveted, nostalgic cottagegarden style has its roots in Victorian aristocrats reimagining their tenants’ humble gardens. 10 Essential Elements Rustic features, quaint finishing touches and the right plants all play their part when it comes to creating the quintessential cottage-garden look.
16 Two Cottages Owner Michelle Thomas, has poured love and creativity into her engaging rosefilled cottage garden in Essex. 22 Cottage Garden Vegetables Create the feel of a cottage garden by weaving pretty vegetables and herbs through ornamental planting. 27 Top 10 Plants Charming annuals for instant cottage-garden appeal. THE ENGLISH GARDEN 3
COTTAGE GARDENS
The Test of Time
A vision of nostalgia, cottage-garden style is as coveted today as it was when Victorian aristocrats reimagined their tenants’ humble gardens, says Sandra Lawrence
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WORDS SANDRA LAWRENCE IMAGE CLIVE NICHOLS; ALAMY
Rustic wigwams supporting fragrant sweet peas add instant cottagegarden appeal.
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COTTAGE GARDENS
Above A climbing rose
around the front door – try ‘Rambling Rosie’ for similar crimson blooms – epitomises the classic cottage-garden style.
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rifts of colourful perennials jostle around fragrant climbers; joyful selfseeders romp past the odd, random exotic. Rustic fruit and vegetables clamber up characterful hazel poles behind a half-timbered, thatch-roofed idyll deep in the countryside. A topiary beast, weathered sundial, battered arch or homemade obelisk may act as an eye-catcher; more usually the plants are the stars. “It is a contrived image to sell an idyllic lifestyle,” admits Patricia Foster, who is chair of the Cottage
Garden Society. “The original cottage dwellers would have had a pretty hard time of it.” The precursors to the classic, English, chocolatebox gardens would have been simple affairs. Potagers supplied working-class households with basic crops and somewhere to keep a pig or a few chickens. Some found room for a beehive, which would have been a welcome source of sweetness before sugar became widely available. Home-grown vegetables were essential and, in the days before the National Health Service, herbs
Ideal plants for a COTTAGE-GARDEN BORDER
IMAGES ALAMY; SHUTTERSTOCK
Pretty flowers that keep on coming over the summer months are a hallmark of this style
ROSES Ramblers scramble happily
VIOLETS Sweet violet (Viola odorata)
HOLLYHOCKS A variety of colours
through trees and can hide unsightly outbuildings. Choose a highly scented variety for heady summer evenings.
brings a fragrant whiff of Victoriana to quiet corners. It will grow in sun or dappled shade and in most soil types.
against a wall or at the back of the border lend height and structure. Grow as an annual to avoid problems with rust.
ALCHEMILLA MOLLIS Lady’s mantle is a
ORIENTAL POPPIES All poppies work
quietly elegant groundcover plant, best enjoyed in the mornings when overnight dew shines like diamonds on its leaves.
nicely in the cottage garden, but the furry leaves and buds of the oriental varieties are particularly lovely.
FOXGLOVES One of the oldest traditional plants in the cottage-garden lexicon. Introduce these biennial plants two years running for annual blooms.
LUPINS Nostalgic flower spires in an array of rich, jewel-like colours make lupins a must. Their clumps of foliage make a lovely bulb-backdrop in spring.
DAYLILIES The brightly coloured trumpets of hemerocallis flower constantly for weeks on end over clumps of bright green, strappy leaves.
HONEYSUCKLES It is hard to beat our scrambling native woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum) as the sweetest-smelling honeysuckle of them all.
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COTTAGE GARDENS
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Creating a cottage garden Use key materials and plants, and let nature take its course
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ou don’t need a huge garden,” says Patricia Foster. “If you’ve got the space, you can have an oldfashioned cottage garden and it will be a riot, but modern cottage gardens are more streamlined – there’s more of a design element. Nature doesn’t think about design, though. Plants will selfseed and there is sometimes a happy accident. “Lots of people have to grow in containers these days and cottage garden plants are very forgiving. They grow happily in baskets, pots and even gravel.” There is no specific cottagegarden style. “We’re all different, by virtue of geography if nothing else,” notes Patricia. “You can enjoy elements of cottage gardening in any garden.” Classic materials include wood, brick, local stone, rusting metal and those found objects that seem to turn up just at the right moment. Hedges from native species such as hawthorn,
holly, crab apple and hazel work beautifully. Lavender, meanwhile, remains much loved by humans and bees alike. Many gardeners follow their forebears’ tradition of passing cuttings over the garden gate; the Cottage Garden Society holds sales of unusual varieties grown by its members and, once a year, organises a giant seed swap. Pick a few favourites, allow them to spill across paths, grow up walls and scramble through each other to create something unique. “Most cottage garden plants are tough,” says Patricia. “They have no rules and are forgiving of the British climate.”
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; NATIONAL TRUST/ROBERT MORRIS; GAP/GARY SMITH; ALAMY; THE GARDEN COLLECTION; CLIVE NICHOLS; MEGAN TAYLOR; STEPHEN HAMILTON
formed the family medicine cabinet. Scented flowers masked unpleasant household smells and tempted pollinating insects to the vegetable patch, while soft and stone fruit supplemented an often monotonous diet. Gardens would have been tended outside long working hours, sometimes by moonlight, simply because that was the only time available to do so. Yet it was aristocratic garden lovers, celebrating their tenants’ humble homes as a nostalgic image of ‘Merrie Olde England’, who set about reinventing and reimagining cottage gardens on a grander scale. The Cottage Gardener magazine (1848-1861) set the scene for the style’s late-Victorian heyday. Irish gardener and writer William Robinson’s influential books, The Wild Garden (1870), The English Flower Garden and his journal The Garden, promoted ideas of ‘natural’ planting, eagerly adopted by devotees of the Arts & Crafts movement. By the Edwardian age, gardens by trailblazers such as Gertrude Jekyll truly began to resemble what we now call ‘the cottage garden’. This inclination towards the cottage garden style continued well into the 20th century. By 1982, however, cottage gardening was increasingly outmoded. With the rise of garden centres and massBelow A melee of produced bedding, bright perennials jostle some gardeners feared in densely planted the ‘old plants’ were borders; brick paths becoming endangered. add to the informal style.
Below Beehives, whether These concerns led to they’re functional or the formation of The purely decorative, will Cottage Garden Society, immediately conjure up the purpose of which was the cottage-garden look. to help preserve them. Four decades on, and 3,000 members and 34 regional groups later, the wheel of gardening fortune has turned once more. Small in scale, natural and organic, cottage gardening is now fashionable once again. Plants like the dark-leaved cow parsley Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’, preserved by Cottage Garden Society members, are now readily available from garden centres. “People’s interest in gardening has changed,” says Patricia. “It used to be something people did when they retired. We’re now getting younger families who are interested in grow-your-own and beekeeping. We’re still doing what the original cottage gardeners did, though,” she continues, “growing plants they knew would be useful.” Those plants have proved useful in unexpected ways. Science has found cancer cures from yew, heart treatments from foxgloves and is open to new discoveries. There is still much to be gleaned from the cottage garden, and not just as a welcome retreat from the punishing pace of the 21st century. n
See thecottagegardensociety.org.uk
Great cottage gardens to visit BARNSDALE GARDENS Much-
missed TV gardener Geoff Hamilton created two demonstration plots for his 1995 BBC TV series Geoff Hamilton’s Cottage Gardens. Both the Gentleman’s and Artisan’s gardens remain at Barnsdale in Rutland. Geoff’s son Nick is president of the Cottage Garden Society. barnsdalegardens.co.uk HARDY’S COTTAGE When Thomas
Hardy was born in 1840, his little thatched cottage in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, was probably not as bucolic as it is now, but it is hard to imagine a more traditional cottage garden with its perennial-packed flower borders. nationaltrust.org.uk/hardys-cottage EAST LAMBROOK MANOR GARDEN
Celebrated plantswoman Margery Fish took elements of traditional cottage gardening and added her own touches, creating a relaxed style with a hint of something more contemporary. Paths wind through abundant borders in a Somerset garden that has been restored since the early 2000s. eastlambrook.com BLUEBELL COTTAGE GARDENS
Wide borders of stalwart cottage garden plants such as heleniums, salvias and sidalcea, a wildflower meadow and a bluebell wood feature in this Cheshire garden, where you’ll also find a nursery specialising in flowering perennial plants, with more than 700 varieties in stock. bluebellcottage.co.uk ANNE HATHAWAY’S COTTAGE
In Stratford-upon-Avon, this chocolate-box thatched cottage, once home to Shakespeare’s wife, is fronted by large beds of perennials that have recently been redeveloped and planted. A productive vegetable patch and wildflower orchard complete the idyllic setting. shakespeare.org.uk
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ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
Core Cottage
In the garden at Hardy’s Cottage in Dorset, a wigwam made from prunings oozes rustic charm. nationaltrust.org.uk
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WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES NATIONAL TRUST/CHRIS LACEY/ANDREW BUTLER
What gives a cottage garden its unmistakable style? Rustic features, quaint finishing touches and certain plants all play their part – read on to find out how to create this quintessential English look
Vita Sackville-West’s vision for Sissinghurst was cottage-inspired: ‘a tumble of rose and honeysuckle, figs and vines’. Visit nationaltrust.org.uk
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ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
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lowsy pastel petals against a still blue sky, bees buzzing and whirring within a diverse tapestry of colourful flowers, curlicued tendrils creeping up a wooden frame, and the heady scents of lavender, rose, catmint and honeysuckle. With such a delicious mix of sensory pleasures on offer, it’s no wonder traditional cottage garden style is such a well-loved favourite. Whether you have lots of space to play with or not much at all, anyone can capture the haphazard perfection of this type of garden by introducing some of these classic features.
Self-seeding flowers One of the most powerful ways to achieve that beautiful cottage garden look of carefree abundance is to leave the garden to govern itself. By populating the area with robust, self-seeding plants that grow and spread themselves around freely, the garden will take on a life of its own, with a spontaneity that will trounce any formal garden. Find seeds at your local garden centre, send off for them online, or, if you covet a particularly fetching plant in a friend or neighbour’s garden, suggest a seed swap, to continue the longstanding tradition of sharing favourite plants. You could even participate in a larger-scale swap through The Cottage Garden Society (thecottagegardensociety.org.uk). Include a variety of heights and textures in the mix and don’t leave empty space in your planting – putting plants close together will achieve an attractively untamed aesthetic. Try the pretty pastel flowers of phlox, frothy green lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), the buzzing turrets of foxgloves, punches of vivid colour from poppies, tall and airy verbena and dependable Geranium pratense.
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A winding path Many of us carry the idyllic illustrations of Beatrix Potter around in our heads as the pinnacle of cottage garden splendour. Potter immortalised the winding cobblestone path in her garden at Hill Top in Cumbria (nationaltrust.org.uk) in the title illustration of The Tale of Tom Kitten, in which a naughty Tom is frogmarched up the garden path by his mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit. To bring such higgledy-piggledy bliss to your own garden, lay a winding path through the space using bricks or cobblestones. Include focal points such Top Leave the garden to its own devices by as statues, bird baths or growing a wide variety seating. Most crucially, of self-seeding plants allow plants to spill over close together. the path’s edges, so it is Far right Plants spill over a winding path at the never seen in its entirety. National Trust’s Hill Top. Take advantage of the Right Rambling rose ‘The brick matching service Lady of the Lake’ was offered by the Reclaimed bred by David Austin.
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Brick Company (reclaimedbrickcompany.co.uk) or order cobbles reclaimed from famous landmarks at Horsham Stone (horshamstone.co.uk).
An arch for roses and climbers No English cottage garden is complete without an arch, framing a view or positioned to make a pretty entrance, tumbling with fragrant flowers. Agriframes’ round arches are made from sturdy steel and have the right traditional look and feel – try the Classic Extra Round Arch or an arch from their Elegance Collection (agriframes.co.uk). The wirework lattice is perfect for tying climbers into. When it comes to plants, climbing roses are the classic choice, blooming in proliferation. Single, open flowers, like ‘Francis E. Lester’, are brilliant at attracting pollinators. Bees will also enjoy beautiful, pink, repeat-flowering rose ‘The Lady of the Lake’. For a truly delicious fragrance, as well as creamywhite, ruffled blooms, try ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’, which flowers well into autumn. Order all of these from David Austin Roses (davidaustinroses.co.uk).
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An old-fashioned watering can It’s a relaxing truth that the ‘less is more’ approach is extremely effective when establishing a cottage garden: simply step back and give plants the opportunity to settle into the dynamics that allow them to coexist successfully. But there’s no getting around the universal necessity for watering. Rather than ruin your carefully curated, bucolic landscape with a fluorescent sprinkler, invest in a classic galvanized watering can with a big brass rose. You won’t have to hide it away once you’ve finished the job. Try RE-foundobjects (re-foundobjects.com) or English Salvage (englishsalvage.co.uk).
IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; HOWARD RICE; NATIONAL TRUST/STEPHEN ROBSON/VAL CORBETT; AGRIFRAMES/ZINNIA DESIGN
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Masses of sweet peas Cottage garden or not, there’s an argument for having an obelisk of sweet peas in every growing space. With their clusters of butterfly-shaped flowers and gorgeous fragrance, these annual climbers put on a fantastic show. Find the perfect obelisk for them at Agriframes. The King Obelisk in the Elegance Collection looks the part, with a sage-green finish that offers subtle support without distracting from the blooms (agriframes.co.uk). Obtain sweet pea seeds and young plants from the expert growers at Easton Walled Gardens (visiteaston.co.uk) or visit Sarah Raven for seedlings and plants (sarahraven.com).
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A picket fence 6 The cottage garden developed from humble origins, starting with the Elizabethan workers who used the modest spaces in front of their vernacular thatched cottages as gardens in which to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for medicines. These narrow
Top Romantic arches are a key part of the cottage garden look. Try these Elegance Round Arches from Agriframes. Above Hill Top’s low white gate harks back to humble beginnings.
confines were often delineated by a picket fence and matching gate, rather like the one you will find at Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top cottage garden (left; nationaltrust.org.uk). Bring a sense of enclosure to your garden the traditional way, without causing any unnecessary light obstruction, by encircling your garden with a low picket fence. Opt for classic white or a natural tawny finish, or modernise the look by using an understated shade from Farrow & Ball (farrow-ball.com) or Little Greene (littlegreene.com). THE ENGLISH GARDEN 13
MUST-HAVES ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS A fruit tree Over time, the focus of cottage gardens has shifted from one of self-sufficiency to the cultivation of diverse ornamentals for a wilder kind of aesthetic, but these two camps are by no means mutually exclusive. If you have the space in your garden, a fruit tree will provide visual punctuation, cleaner air and some truly delicious puddings – provided you don’t let the wildlife get to it first. Try Blackmoor Nurseries (blackmoor.co.uk) or Pomona Fruits (pomonafruits.co.uk) for a wide selection.
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A bird bath Just as it is imperative that a cottage garden is buzzing and whirring with insects going about their daily duties, it is also important that it provides a welcoming space for other forms of wildlife, including feathered visitors. How else will you bring the Beatrix Potter books to life? Include trees for nesting and shelter, plus seed-producing plants and lots of tasty berries for nutrition. Finally, a well-considered stone bird bath could prove itself as worthy a focal point as any statue or fountain. Try Haddonstone (haddonstone.com) or Chilstone (chilstone.com) for affordable options.
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A rustic wigwam A quick, inexpensive and effective path to rustic majesty is to create simple wigwams from prunings and string, as the gardeners do at Thomas Hardy’s Cottage in Dorset (nationaltrust.org.uk). Or, seek out plant supports with a rustic look, such as Agriframes’ Runner Bean Tower, which comes in a rust-coloured finish (agriframes.co.uk). Use them for sweet peas, or choose a traditional candidate that’s equally showstopping – the trusty runner bean, which erupts into a mass of verdant leaves, pendulous beans and little scarlet flowers. Complete the eclectic planting scheme with some bright companion flowers.
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Above Agriframes’ Runner Bean Tower comes in a rustic, rust-coloured finish. Left A Plankbridge shepherd’s hut looks the part and gives you a whole extra room. Below Bountiful fruit trees are easy to grow and add structure.
Scented plants “To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat” said writer Beverley Nichols, and there’s no style of garden better positioned to impose such wonderful ruin than the cottage garden, with its jungle of fragrant flowers. Defeat yourself delectably with deep purple-blue and bushy lavender shrubs – Lavandula angustifolia ‘Folgate’ is particularly aromatic; cover a wall with sprawling wisteria, dripping into great clusters of purple or white – try Wisteria x valderi ‘Murasakikapitan’ for powerful fragrance or Wisteria floribunda ‘Kuchi-beni’ for a softer scent and mauve-pink petals; and give moths a food source with a honeysuckle such as reliable Lonicera etrusca ‘Superba’ or evergreen Lonicera japonica, both of which emit their sweet fragrance throughout the day.
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A shepherd’s hut Dating back to 1596, shepherd’s huts were originally created to shelter shepherds from Britain’s unpredictable weather in remote places, so despite being untethered, their roots are firmly in the British countryside – and they certainly look the part. These wheeled cabins are perfect for those with bigger budgets looking for an extra room in which to work from home, play with the kids or – if you opt for a shower room and kitchenette – put up guests. To find a shepherd’s hut of your own, try Plankbridge (plankbridge.com) or Ashwood Shepherd Huts (ashwoodshepherdhuts.co.uk).
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Dreaming spires A sea of flower spires in a mix of vibrant pinks and blues and candyfloss pastels is a stalwart element of the traditional cottage garden. Think delphiniums, lupins, hollyhocks and foxgloves. You should plant these at the back of the border to give smaller plants a chance to share the limelight, and be sure to stake them if they are liable to grow too tall. Remember, too, that they make great cut flowers – so plant generously throughout the garden. For stunning delphiniums, try Blackmore & Langdon (blackmore-langdon.com) or find your perfect foxglove variety at The Botanic Nursery (thebotanicnursery.co.uk). IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY; CLIVE NICHOLS
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A milk churn planter Add rustic charm to your garden with quirky pieces of countryside gardenalia such as milk churns. Rather than being solely for show, a milk churn can be put to good use by planting it up with a tumble of carefree Erigeron karvinskianus or a fragrant spray of lavender – or you could employ it as a vessel for cut flowers. Find a stylish stainless-steel churn at Garden Trading (gardentrading.co.uk) or Nordic House (nordichouse.co.uk).
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Coalbrookdale table and chairs There is no point to establishing a feast for the senses, filled with interesting plant combinations, heady fragrances and a lively wildlife community, if there’s no seating on which to take a break and drink it all in. The right table and chair set will let you sit for hours soaking up your surroundings, a cup of tea to hand. Invest in cast iron, Coalbrookdale-style garden furniture such as a bench, table or chairs, for an elegant, period feel. Top Add height to your Find your set at beds with tall, colourful Buttercup Farm spires of foxgloves. (buttercupfarm.co.uk) Left Plant up a stainlessor go for a contemporary steel milk churn, like this one from Nordic House. take with the more Far left Wrought-iron lightweight Seletti chairs are intricate yet chair from Selfridges robust, with a period feel that fits the style. (selfridges.com). ■
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Michelle Thomas’s picture postcard thatched cottage is surrounded by flower beds and roses.
Gardening for THE SOUL
Two Cottages in Essex has been a form of therapy for owner Michelle Thomas, who has poured love and creativity into an engaging rose-filled space WORDS WIDGET FINN PHOTOGRAPHS ZARA NAPIER
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or Michelle Thomas, her one-acre garden in rural Essex has helped her cope with serious illness. As she puts it: “Being in the garden among my roses is better than any medicine.” When she first moved here 32 years ago, the ancient cottage was in a poor state with no heating or hot water. “There was no garden,” she says, “just brambles 25-foot high. I brought in a tractor to plough up the land and found three greenhouses and two sheds that I hadn’t known were there. It took three years to clear the site, then I put down grass seed as I had four young children and no time or money to worry about creating a garden.” The garden at Two Cottages has since been transformed into a celebration of roses of every colour and variety. The first hint of what’s in store lies beyond the front gate, where an old sailing boat is beached on the grass verge, its interior planted with house leeks. From its mast a cotton sail flaps in the breeze, screen-printed by Michelle’s daughter-inlaw, Tayla, with images of her favourite roses. The picture-postcard cottage is now crisply thatched, with yellow, lime-washed walls and blue-framed windows. A path along the side of the building leads past a vintage Massey Ferguson tractor – the same one that did such valiant work in clearing the garden all those years ago. It’s now engulfed in such a thick coat of honeysuckle that you can barely make out the machine underneath. Beneath the trees, meanwhile, is an area strewn with terracotta pots, some filled with plants and others chosen simply for their shapes and colours. On the path is a wooden arch smothered by wisteria, roses and clematis, through which you can glimpse a flash of green lawn in the garden ahead. Walk under the arch, breathing in the heady scents, and beyond it you’ll find an area brimming with colour and interest. A series of island beds are overflowing with much-loved cottage garden plants, including aquilegia, alchemilla and salvias; old fruit trees are garlanded with blooms; an arched walk is covered in wisteria; and beyond the garden is a paddock where Michelle’s miniature Shetland ponies, Button, Bertie, Bear and Bow enjoy the view. How did the garden progress from wilderness to a glorious tribute to the healing powers of nature and a source of relaxation and enjoyment for visitors? It all began with a miniature rose Top left Michelle Thomas with one of her Shetland given to Michelle by ponies; their halters are her daughter, Ria, 28 decorated with flowers years ago. “I didn’t for garden open days. know what to do with Top right Creamy yellow Rosa ‘Charles Darwin’ it and kept it indoors,” flowers open from Michelle recalls. “It pink-striped buds. started to look unwell Right Cream and pink so I took it outside, Rosa ‘Birthday Girl’. 18 THE ENGLISH GARDEN
Rosa ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ towers above a grassy path that winds through beds of more roses and perennials. THE ENGLISH GARDEN 19
Two Cottages’
PRETTIEST PLANTS Pastels jostle with jewel shades
cut a hole in the grass and planted it.” Soon other roses, presents from her sons, joined the first one. “When there were seven in the rough grass, I decided it was time to make a border,” she recalls. As she accumulated more roses, Michelle created more borders to give her somewhere to put them. “Nothing was planned in the garden, but I’d got the bug. My children were always playing in the garden finding creepy crawlies. They spent their childhood in it while I dug holes.” She estimates that she now has around 230 roses in total, but cannot name a single one. “My dyslexia means I struggle to read the labels, and anyway the names don’t interest me. When choosing a rose, the quality of it attracts me first, then I’ll look at its name and if that makes me smile I persuade myself that it’s the colour I want – and check that I haven’t already got it. I’ve probably only got three repeats.” Michelle’s mum, Cherry, is a keen gardener and advised her on how to look after the roses. “She taught me to feed them twice a year,” explains Michelle. At the beginning of the season I sprinkle Toprose, then, after the first flowering, I put on manure from my ponies. I do spray, to the horror of some of my visitors, but if you don’t then the plants get diseases. A person takes something to stop them getting ill, so I see it as giving my roses medicine.” Michelle hasn’t designed her garden. “There was never a plan. I just knew I wanted it to have life and colour, with flowing lines and shapes.” Like
ROSA ‘BRIGHT AS A BUTTON’
SCABIOSA COLUMBARIA
The pink flowers of this distinctive rose have a deep crimson eye. Glossy-leaved, healthy bushes reach 90cm.
Try ‘Butterfly Blue’ for lilac flowers that attract butterflies from far and wide. A sunny spot suits it best.
CISTUS X PURPUREUS ‘ALAN FRADD’
ROSA ‘BABY MASQUERADE’
Above The front door is almost engulfed by roses, including red ‘Uncle Walter’, and Alchemilla mollis.
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Pick this drought-tolerant shrub for hot, sunny spots with well-drained soil.
Orange-yellow blooms change to shades of pink as they age on this multicoloured miniature rose.
GERANIUM X MAGNIFICUM
DIANTHUS BARBATUS
One of the larger geraniums, producing strong clumps of mid-green leaves and violet flowers in May and June.
Sow biennial sweet Williams in early summer, then plant out in autumn for flowers the following year.
most gardeners she’s often led by impulse buys. When she spots a rose that she likes the look of, she takes it home. “Then I move it around the borders until I find the right place for it. If it doesn’t work anywhere, I dig another hole.” The garden is full of humour and quirky touches. Michelle asked her husband to buy her an oldfashioned district-nurse-style bike with a basket on the front. After a few weeks he noticed she hadn’t been riding it, so she showed him its transformation. She’d sprayed it blue all over and parked it in the garden with two clematis planted to climb up its frame. She has also created ‘living pictures’ – houseleeks planted in old photo frames, with mesh to contain the soil – and hung them on a wall where nothing else would grow. Every part of the garden has a table and chairs so visitors can sit and relax to enjoy their surroundings. The most popular table – often reserved by those in the know when the garden is open – is by the paddock. It has a view down the garden and is watched over by the ponies with Bow dressed for the party in a floral-decorated halter, which is usually a bit skew-whiff on account of her four-legged companions jealously trying to pull it off.
Above left Blowsy
magenta blooms open from June. Try ‘Adam Messerich’ for similar flowers in bright pink, from Peter Beales. Top right When there’s no room in the borders, roses go in containers; this is ‘Colby School’. Above right The walls are hung with sempervivumfilled picture frames.
The ponies, together with the garden and its roses, are part of the ongoing natural therapy that has helped Michelle through serious bouts of depression. “I know that I have to go outside even on a bad day because the ponies must be looked after, and once I’m outside and I put that spade in the ground I’m up and running again,” she says. She first opened in aid of the National Garden Scheme four years ago, being keen to support their charities, in particular Mind. “I decided that now I have this lovely garden I want it to help others as it has helped me,” she explains. For Michelle the names of her roses are irrelevant: it’s their effect on her and others that is so important. “I love the magical way a bud can be dark red when it’s tightly shut, but then opens to a creamy white. I adore their scent, and the velvety feel of the petals – even when you prick yourself on the thorns it reminds you that you’re alive. Roses have made me happy. My garden is good for the soul.” n Two Cottages, Church Road, Chrishall, Essex SG8 8QT. Opens for the National Garden Scheme on selected dates, with private group visits available by appointment. See ngs.org.uk. For similar roses, try Peter Beales Roses, classicroses.co.uk THE ENGLISH GARDEN 21
COTTAGE GARDEN EDIBLES
Play with your food Choose pretty and productive vegetables and herbs, and weave them through ornamental planting for instant cottage-garden appeal
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omegrown vegetables were an essential part of the original cottage garden, usually planted with herbs to take care of cottage dwellers’ diet and health. Limited space meant that they often ended up being grown alongside or among flowers, and for anyone wanting to create a cottage garden today, mixing fruit and vegetables with ornamental planting is the perfect way to achieve that charmingly jumbled effect. In fact, while many would agree that a well-tended kitchen garden with ruler-straight rows of crops is a thing of beauty, mixing edible crops with other plants and scattering them throughout the garden can actually bring better harvests. Not only can you create aesthetically pleasing plant combinations, you can also employ techniques of companion planting to discourage unwanted pests and problems. This kind of growing is explored in depth and with the benefit of masses of personal experience by Alys Fowler in her latest book Eat What You Grow (Octopus, April 2021). In it, Alys advocates a ‘polyculture’ – lots of different kinds of edible plants from fruit trees to ground-covering herbs and salads – all grown together. As she points out, nothing makes it easier for a hungry pest than providing a long uninterrupted line of its favourite meal. When it can’t leap straight from one cabbage to the next one along, its life is made far harder, and this practical, pest-deterring mixture is just what a cottage garden approach brings. Of course, if your cottage garden is going to include edible plants and still look as pretty as possible, it’s worth perusing seed catalogues and plant lists to seek out the most decorative varieties. Whatever crop you’d like to grow, there will be plenty of varieties to choose from, and many of them will be as beautiful as any purely ornamental plant, especially if you widen the search to include heritage or heirloom varieties, or quirkier crops. 22 THE ENGLISH GARDEN
IMAGE ALAMY
A harvest of homegrown fruit and vegetables is the aim in a cottage garden, mixed with flowers for a charmingly jumbled effect.
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COTTAGE GARDEN EDIBLES
Built-in good looks Some vegetables are just inherently pretty. If you’ve ever grown runner beans they’ll spring immediately to mind thanks to their twining foliage and scarlet flowers that rival any annual climber for colour. White and peachy-pink flowered cultivars widen the choice for those seeking different colour schemes. White-flowered, heavy-cropping ‘Moonlight’ is excellent, or try ‘Sunset’ for pastel peach. Add a few sweet pea plants to the beans’ wigwam or row, for additional, ornamental flowers, or mix in the speckled pink-and-cream pods of the borlotti bean. Broad beans are less showy, but viewed up close, their flowers are very pretty nonetheless, and as an added bonus, they have the sweetest fragrance. Choose between the monochrome black-and-whiteflowered conventional cultivars, or the variety with crimson flowers – both will go on to produce plentiful velvet-lined pods of tender beans. 24 THE ENGLISH GARDEN
Above Combine runner beans with sweet peas for extra blooms and a tasty harvest. This image Runner bean flowers are ornamental in their own right. Left Borlotti beans’ pink speckled pods.
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK
Top Chicory flowers Other crops with have a simple charm, pretty flowers include and are very attractive the root crop salsify, to pollinators – just let a otherwise known as the few plants go to seed. Middle Harvest globe oyster plant. Its standout starry purple flowers artichokes or let them open out into opulent would trigger a run in purple thistle blooms. the garden centre if they Bottom Bright forced rhubarb stems make were for sale on the ornamental benches. Let a statement in spring. chicory plants bolt and they too bear beautiful flowers, which are a pretty shade of lilac-blue and brilliant for pollinators. For attractive foliage, Swiss chard may not be the most versatile vegetable in the kitchen, but it more than makes up for it with its colourful stems and leaves, and the fact that it can be harvested over a long period. With sunflower yellow, amber, pink and ruby stems, plus veined leaves that can look spectacular backlit by the sun, this decorative crop partners beautifully with bright flowers. Oca is an interesting crop, producing knobbly, colourful tubers underground that are a little potato-like, but with a crunchier texture and a lemony flavour. They’re a perennial, so each year you can retain some tubers for replanting the next, but best of all from a cottage gardener’s point of view is their mounds of fresh clover-like leaves (also edible – try them in salads). They’re perfect planted wherever you’re in need of green groundcover.
Statuesque and architectural Many vegetable plants have the kind of stature that makes them valuable components in a mixed border. Think of globe artichokes with their impressive fountains of silvery-green foliage, topped by huge, ornamental, thistle-like flowers (unless harvested to eat first). Rhubarb doesn’t achieve such enormous overall dimensions, but its individual leaves can be massive. Force a plant in darkness in early spring, and the resulting cerise stems and glowing yellow leaves will make a striking partner to spring bulbs, while the terracotta forcers themselves are a timeless focal point during the winter months. Kale is a great addition to ornamental borders, especially in the colder months when it stands proud, enhanced by frost. Try a purple-tinged cultivar such as ‘Redbor’ with crimson amaranthus or dark pink Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Dazzler’. The crinkly leaved curly kale varieties such as ‘Westland Winter’ work as a foil for any flower. Perhaps most ornamental and statuesque of all is the dark inky-green ‘Cavolo Nero’ – try it with a sea of marigolds such as Tagetes ‘Orange Gem’, nasturtiums or purple chives. Don’t forget that structures such as arches and obelisks can be clothed with edible crops. While pumpkins and gourds aren’t particularly architectural plants in themselves, let them romp THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25
COTTAGE GARDEN EDIBLES
Companion planting basics Team crops with the right partners to help counter pest problems Grow simple species and pollinator-pulling flowers among fruit and vegetables to attract beneficial insects. Borage, Echium vulgare ‘Blue Bedder’, Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and Hyssop officinalis are favourites. Include dual-purpose, insectfriendly flowers for cutting, such as globe artichoke, Cynara cardunculus, Echinops bannaticus ‘Albus’, eryngium, dahlia, helianthus and phlox. Use strongly scented or pungent plants, to distract pests and create a physical barrier from edible targets. Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, distracts low-flying carrot fly, while alliums, calendula and chives will deter aphids from lettuce and broccoli.
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Top left Distinctive
Plant pest-specific plant deterrents. Key combinations include: slug-repelling hyssop with lettuces; summer savory, Satureja hortensis, with broad beans to deter black bean aphids; hoverfly-attracting pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis), with kale to prevent outbreaks of aphids; onions with carrots so that the onions mask the carrots’ scent and distract carrot root fly; and nasturtiums with tomatoes and cucumbers to deter whitefly. Grow sacrificial plants around sacred plants. For example, basil distracts whitefly from tomatoes, radishes encourage root fly away from cabbage, and you could also allow a few lettuces to bolt to distract pests from succeeding crops.
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK
as well as decorative flowers. ‘Turk’s Turban’ squashes Think of chives, with their for an attractive and spiky oniony leaves topped in valuable autumn harvest. early summer with bobbing, Top right For a basil with pink flowers and purple spherical purple flowers, or leaves, try ‘African Blue’. shrubbily perennial oregano, Above right Perennial whose pretty pink flowers chives always make an attract pollinators from ornamental addition. Above left Rosemary’s miles around. Sweet cicely is early spring flowers. another lovely perennial herb with aniseed-scented feathery foliage – it’s traditionally added to rhubarb to sweeten it, thus reducing the amount of sugar required. Its white umbellifer flowers Handsome herbs are followed by distinctive seedpods you Feel free to delve into the vast palette of can nibble on as you pass by – they taste of beautiful and useful herbs to enhance the liquorice comfits. mix. If you need shrubby permanence, try Add a few annual herbs, sown in spring, handsome rosemary, with its pine-green to fill any gaps. Peppery green basil can and silver needles and bee-magnet lavender be mixed with its purple-bronze forms, coloured flowers in spring, or purple sage, coriander can be harvested for its leaves Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’, with its or left to run to seed, and chervil produces dusky bruise-purple leaves. Perennial herbs come back year after year mounds of delicate, frilly foliage that looks like parsley but tastes mildly of aniseed. n to provide aromatic crops for the kitchen over an arch or tunnel and they’ll form part of a highly decorative design element. Simply tie in their stems as they scramble and be ready to support any heavy fruits that might form. There are masses of decorative forms, but for looks and flavour combined, try the burnt orange squash ‘Uchiki Kuri’ or distinctive ‘Turk’s Turban’.
TOP 10 PLANTS
Pretty as a Picture Create a cottage-garden atmosphere in just one season with this selection of charming annuals. Sow seed in spring for an abundance of flowers by summer
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WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGE SHUTTERSTOCK
he appeal of annual flowers lies in their speed: if you want a cottage garden in the shortest time possible, sowing a selection of annuals this spring is the way to go about it. Hardy annuals, which are more tolerant of cold temperatures, can be sown directly into the ground where they’re to flower in around late-March and April. Just make sure the soil is raked
well. Alternatively, if you want to be more deliberate about their planting, start them off in pots and trays in a greenhouse and plant out later. Many of these hardy annuals will seed around to provide flowers next year and the year after, spreading in a charmingly haphazard way – perfect for that rustic cottage-garden look. Warm-blooded half-hardy annuals should be sown under glass from April and planted out once the risk of frost has passed.
1 Nasturtium ‘Gleam Salmon’ With their ability to cover the ground, trail from pots and scramble through low supports, nasturtiums are one of the most versatile annuals going. They’re easy too: simply push the large seeds into the soil where they’re to flower, or sow in pots and plant out. Both leaves and flowers are edible and pretty for cutting.
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TOP 10 PLANTS
2 Didiscus caeruleus
3 Borago officinalis
Otherwise known as the blue lace flower, this half-hardy annual produces delicate blooms of soft lilac-blue. Start the seed off in pots in April and plant out in a sunny spot after frosts have passed. Its tall, elegant stems make its flowers perfect for cutting, and they are also a magnet for butterflies and other pollinators.
The starry blue flowers of borage are adored by bees, and a patch of this hardy annual will be buzzing with them all summer long. Sow under glass in spring and plant out, and you may never have to sow again since it self-seeds, effortlessly filling gaps and looking wonderfully natural. Any unwanted plants are easy to pull up.
4 Sweet peas
5 Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’
If you grow only one hardy annual in a cottage garden, it has to be sweet peas – they are truly essential. There are hundreds of cultivars to choose from, all beautiful. Just pick one with incredible scent such as the heirloom varieties ‘Cupani’ and ‘Painted Lady’, seen here on Agriframes’ King Obelisk (agriframes.co.uk).
Cerinthe flowers, with their small central bells of purple, sheltered by layers of smoky blue-green bracts, make an unusual addition to bunches of garden flowers. This hardy annual is another favourite of bees and it’s easy to grow from a spring sowing – soak the seeds overnight to soften their tough outer coat before planting.
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IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; GARDEN WORLD IMAGES
6 Calendula officinalis Few things are more cheering than a sea of glossypetalled marigolds in vibrant orange. If, however, you prefer more subtle colour options, try the apricot-toned variety ‘Sunset Buff’ or creamy yellow ‘Snow Princess’. Sow this hardy annual direct into warm spring soil or start the seed off under glass.
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7 Daucus carota ‘Dara’
8 Meconopsis cambrica
A version of wild carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s lace, with dusky burgundy-pink flowers, this feathery-foliaged plant fares best in well-drained soil and full sun. It’s actually a biennial, but if it’s sown early in the season it will often produce flowers in its first summer. Try in a border with apricot verbascums, roses and irises.
The simple yet delicate flowers of the Welsh poppy add informal charm to areas of dappled shade from May right the way through until autumn. They need a rich woodland soil, but when happy will seed around to thread little bursts of canary-yellow through shady planting. Start seed off in an unheated greenhouse or coldframe.
9 Papaver dubium ‘Albiflorum’
10 Nigella damascena
This small annual poppy, often referred to as Beth’s poppy, after Beth Chatto, was much admired at the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show, where it popped up in several show gardens. Its ethereal flowers appear from May to July, depending on when it is sown. As with many hardy annuals, you can start seed off in autumn or spring.
Love-in-a-mist may be familiar, but that doesn’t diminish its star quality. Distinctive cornflower-blue flowers are followed by quirky puffed-up seedpods, and it makes an excellent cut flower at either stage. Sow this hardy annual into free-draining soil in a sunny spot where it will seed around, producing paler blue seedlings.
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IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; JAYNE LLOYD
TOP 10 PLANTS
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