A rustic bench tucked under a wisteria-clad pergola, a winding path lined with lavender, an arched doorway leading to a hidden kitchen garden – the cottage garden style never goes out of fashion. While your home may not be ancient, rural and thatched, there are still plenty of ways to bring the charm of a cottage garden into your outdoor space.
Outdoor furniture
For a truly rustic look, Charles Taylor garden furniture features handcrafted wood from sustainable sources and has a simple, country style. Wrought iron pieces also create a heritage look, and rattan can work too, although opt for more classic, rounded styles, rather than the more modern angular shapes.
Traditional planting
Choosing shrubs and flowers that have been popular for hundreds of years is an effective way of replicating a historic style. Roses, lavender, foxgloves, delphiniums, lupins and sweet William are all traditional choices. Climbing plants like wisteria, clematis and ivy help to recreate the soft edges of walled gardens.
Soften pathways
Rather than the sharp lines of modern garden design, let informal planting spill over on to pathways, softening and blurring the edges. Pathways themselves should be cobbled, loosely gravelled or made with rustic paving that allows for growth of mosses and wildflowers in the gaps.
Mixed planting
The essence of a cottage garden is the mixture of ornamental and edible plants – a garden that looks pretty, but also provides produce. This could include raised bed for vegetables, some soft fruit canes in a corner or broadly mixed planting with peonies happily sharing a spot with peppers, for example.
Soft edges, a focus on mixed planting and an informal layout are all cottage garden features you can easily introduce into your own outside space.
