Do you have a cottage garden?

[Whattinger]

If so would you be willing to share photos of the planting?

We're finally sorting out our garden & have cleared 3 beds

I know the look i want - layred, lush cottage garden with old fashioned plants like hollyhocks, delphiniums, lupins, peonies etc but i'm finding it hard plan how to organise them

Do we plant in clumps or rows? Do we start sparse? How do we get that wonderful dense look?

All help greatly appreciated - thanks

I'm trying for the same effect, so will follow along. I assume we don't want rows if we want it to be all jumbly?

I've just taken cuttings for the first time to try to increase my stocks cheaply - lavender and verbena borienesis so far.

A lot of my cottage garden style plants have struggled this year, and we haven't even had a hosepipe ban... are you confident of rain throughout summer?

Yes! Lot's of rain here + we have a well so no bans for us.

We have some plants in but they're v sparse & now that we've tidied it all up & put in proper edging, it's time

I also want to plant bulbs this autumn but can't figure out how to 'arange' them - i want tulips

I've been looking at beautiful plants on Farmer Gracy site & at risk of splurging a LOT of money if someone doesn't take charge 😅

I'm a total beginner at gardening so someone with more expertise will be more helpful but chatgpt has been extremely useful with helping me with plant layering, arranging and researching.

Ha! I always spend loads of money on FG every year!

For the plan I'd pick taller perennial style for back of bed, personally I go evergreen because I hate looking at fences. Pittosporum is my go to, I love them.

Then airy, see through plants for middle, Gaura has been amazing this year. Again, perennials.

Then for front I get smaller and floppy plants so they fall over the edge... alchemilla mollis I absolutely love and will be good if you have lots of rain, lots of erigeron etc

I also leave a few patches throughout to plant bulbs and annuals to keep me interested... plan for patches of tulips throughout and to dig them out after flowering and plant annuals over the top... they die in winter when im ready to plant whichever tulips ive failed to resist this year.

I leave daffodils, crocus, ipherion for the lawn, I plant in thin drifts so I can mow around the dying back foliage which I personally love- drifts of longer grass among shorter mown grass is my absolute favorite garden sight.

GL!!!

Oh brilliant! Thanks
Can i ask, if you're planting lupins for instance, do you plant a row all along thr bed or do you bunch them together? So three or four plants & then something else? Do you put an order on it.

We have a v long bed & i was thinking - do we plant tulip bulbs in clusters at intervals?

Sorry, that's loads of questions!

I do a drift rather than a bunch, then I dot the odd one around elsewhere... so maybe 7 bulbs in a thin bunch, then 2 close but kind of separate... then a random one somewhere.

I think in my head a bird might have done this or they self seeded this way... the aim I'm always going for is that it maybe could have happened naturally...

I don't think this is right though? Just look at other peoples gardens or pictures of gardens and see how you like things to look...

I think that sounds like a great way to plant them!

I love the idea of a drift. I will try that.

I've never seen a successful cottage garden in real life, only in magazines or online & they're always so incredibly full & impossibly perfect - no gaps or bare bits or lopsided scale which is what we ended up with before.

I want loads of peonies!

We have stone walls with earth embankments & lots of mature trees growing on them. What would you plant on the tops of the walls - it's shady because of the trees

Jesus! Stone walls, earth embankments, mature trees? Your garden sounds like an absolute dream! How exciting for you 🥰. Sorry I have no idea what I'd plant on a stone wall in shade but I'd absolutely love to have that question myself 😉...
Good luck and post pictures if you can xx

Depends how higgledy piggedly you want it. Shoot me a picture if you have one and I will tell you how to plant that.

I would look at Beth Chattos website. Unless you have clay you need to think carefully about how to plant this with the new weather.

You can get cottage esque without actual cottage plants

ie. Eremus or verbascum instead of lupins
Some delphiums are drought tolerant, same with hollyhocks so pick varieties wisely.

Choose roses instead of peonies.

Thanks @dairydebris & @Forelon
I appreciate all the suggestions.
It is a lovely garden & we're v lucky even if we don't quite know how to do it justice!

Plant your bulbs behind your perennials otherwise you will be looking a dying bulb foliage in front of your lovely lupins etc. If you can't see them as they die back you will also not be tempted to tidy up and cut off the foliage, which the bulb will need to build up it's strength if it is going to flower the next year. For an informal look take a handful of bulbs, say 5, and toss them in the air above where they will go (like a referee at the start of a sports match, so not too wild! ) and then plant them where they land. Finally check on the package whether bulbs are early / mid or late so you should get a mix and they will flower in succession, rather than a big show all at the same time and a gap while you wait for your perennials to appear and flower. Apols for long post!

That area will also be dry because the trees suck out all the moisture, so look for plants that like dry shade, and will thrive there. RHS website has good advice for specific areas.

I've never seen a successful cottage garden in real life, only in magazines or online & they're always so incredibly full & impossibly perfect.
It's a Bank Holiday on Monday. I'll bet there will be lots of cottage gardens on display through the NGS. Go and visit one and pick their brains!

The Middle-Sized Garden has a video on cottage gardens. It's one of her compilation ones so be warned that it's over an hour long! She also has a written article.

Do we plant in clumps or rows?
I think you want a feeling of abundance so plant in clumps or drifts. I think plants tend to do better if they are in a group - they encourage each other along (if that doesn't sound too daft).
I remember Adam Frost saying not to think in terms of numbers-of-plants (shall I plant 3 or 5 or 7?) but in terms of square-footage (I want X-area of this plant, how many plants do I need to accomplish that? It could be only one of a mega-plant but could be loads of a tiny plant).
Get started and then let the garden decide how it will look!

NGS

Middle Sized Garden 2

Ferns for shady stone walls.

Also be warned that people always show pictures of cottage gardens in high summer, full of flowers.
Don't forget to plan for how it looks in winter, too.

I strived for the cottage garden look, but over the years I've learnt to just plant things that don't get eaten, hydrangea, scabius, geraniums, mallow and others.

I buy summer bulbs from Sainsburys as they do really good packs in the spring, all my plants are mainly from Morrisons and tulips from Suttons when they do their £3 promotion.

Scatter poppy seeds everywhere and they will come up and fill gaps. Once they’ve flowered their seeds pods and foliage are attractive. Hollyhocks are also great for back of border and so easy to grow from seed. They are biennial so will flower in their second year (like foxgloves). Scatter nigella seeds too, they are an ethereal plant which is again easy to grow and will come up every year once established and if you allow to go to seed, again, they produce attractive seed pods.

We have a cottage garden and some of our neighbours have them - some are on the NGS. Our next door neighbour isn't but has the most perfect cottage garden but he said it took him 6 years and he's out there a lot. We started in 2023 and also have lots of mature trees around, about 10 and just clearing the leaves from those is a lot of work. Its all great exercise and we love it but it takes a lot of work to keep it looking lovely. It does look lovely all year round if you say go out once a week (though both me and husband garden together) for a few hours but in BST we do three times a week for several hours together though do have 3 chickens and an adult who walks in garden a lot.

I use RHS for plants and also keep the signs by them though my silkies dig out the signs and bulbs. RHS will tell you what's in flower when, what's hardy, what suits different conditions etc and very good quality.

If you want flowers all year round you have to think about getting flowers that flower at different times and how to place them in the garden. I do rows but only 3 or 4 and spaced out with other plants inbetween but its personal preference. Also do height order so tallest plants at the back. I almost always go for hardy, and try to get scented ones.

Was also going to recommend the Middle Sized Garden- her most recent on YouTube on narrow borders isnt labelled 'cottage garden' but shows some beautiful borders and plant lists for a very classy, muted colour cottage style planting. No peonies but they'd mingle perfectly with all of the other suggestions. I think the smaller perennials should be in big drifts but peonies get big enough that they can be more dotted about, just give them a decent bit of space to grow into and get sun to the tops of the tubers. Most things can be jammed in closer.

Chat gpt will do you a planting plan