The Cottage Garden

The original planting out from a blank canvas.The same view a few years later.

The garden as an entity surrounds the house on all sides, totalling an acre. The cottage garden is the part that people see as they arrive at the house, and it is very much a focal point of interest. Measuring about 100' x 30' it is a series of informal beds with mowed grass pathways winding through them. A mixture of old-fashioned herbaceous perennials and a few shrubs blend in to form a very informal haphazard display, all backed by a row of various buddleias along the southern boundary that continues along the adjoining pond garden, separated by a privet hedge.

It is a rambling, random blaze of colour - the vast majority of the plants being grown primarily for their nectar value. The list of plants is endless but includes: aubretia, knapweeds and hawkweeds, cranesbill, dame's-violet, various scabious especially devil's-bit scabious, feverfew, foxglove, hebe, honesty, lavender, marigold, marjoram, red valerian, sedum, verbena...

The informal design of the cottage garden blends in very well with the semi-wild nature of the rest of the garden.

Cottage garden 1

Cottage garden 2