The English Cottage Garden
The English cottage garden is often favoured by people with
plenty of time to garden, who are romantic at heart, artists
or photographers as a ready source of subject matter, or by
anyone who enjoys a densely planted informal mixed garden
that looks natural and unstructured filled with interesting
shapes, textures, fragrances and colours from a wide variety
of flowers, shrubs and herbs.
If this is the style of garden you envision, then you have a wide variety of flowering and fragrant plants from which to choose. Some of the more commonly grown ones are: * Roses – a favourite amongst cottage gardeners with a mix of bush, climbing, tea roses and carpet roses to choose from. * Lavender – Along walkways, in containers or set amongst other plants. * Old-Fashioned Flowers – Stock, Delphiniums, Violets, Asters. Verbena, Calendula, Daisies, Cosmos, Pansies, Love-in-the-mist, Poppies, Foxgloves... * Shrubs and small trees - Geraniums, Hydrangeas, Lilacs... * Bulbs – Daffodils, Tulips, Jonquils, Gladioli, Lillie's... INCLUDING HERBS Culinary and medicinal herbs can often be found growing mingled with the shrubs and flowers, or in grown containers ready for use by the home gardener in a number of ways: * For adding colour, texture and flavour to culinary dishes * For making herbal teas * Homemade skin care products and lotions * Homemade medicines and ointments STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS Along with mass plantings the English cottage garden will often include several of the following structural elements within the garden setting. This could include: * A birdbath * A Sundial * Wishing well or other water feature * Gazebo * Trellis or archways * Picket fences * Plants in terracotta pots or hanging baskets * Garden seating * Brick or cobblestone walkways Caring for your Cottage Garden
To keep your cottage garden looking good regular dead-heading
of the spent flowers is required to prolong the blooming period.
Leave some flower heads for the purpose of re-seeding your garden
for next years growing period. Cut back the foliage of perennials
to the basil foliage when it is past it's best and destroy any
diseased plant material to keep your garden healthy. Allow plants
to self-sow and intermingle removing any tree seedlings while
they are small or plants that spring up in unwanted corners of
the garden. About the Author: Jill is a freelance writer and photographer based in New Zealand. You can visit Jill for more Home and Garden Articles and Ideas at her website.
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