Traditionally the cottage garden is a small plot which is densely planted, an area of chaotic confusion which looks delightful. It does not looked contrived, and yet it is carefully tended, with every available space being used. There will be paths, wide enough to be of use but not wasteful of space. There will be borders, with small patches of grass near the house or beneath fruit trees. The densely planted borders, which are the main characteristic of the cottage garden, are filled with tall perennials, shrubs and ground cover plants, with self-seeding annuals and biennials growing between them. There will be herbs, fruit, aromatic and bee-nectar plants. Sometimes you will see salad plants and vegetables growing among the flowers or in vegetable plots surrounded by borders of herbs and aromatic plants which deter insect pests from finding their 'host' vegetables.
Originally the true cottage garden was an area devoted to food production. Flowers were tucked in here and there. These came in from friends or were started from bits taken from the borders of 'The Big House'. Some came in as seeds, carried in on boots, brought in by birds and the wind, or were transplanted from hedgerows and meadows. Native plants which had abnormalities, such as variegated leaves or white or double flowers, were prized. Dotted planting, where plants of different characteristics are grown together, is a true feature of cottage gardens. There might be an ornament or an arch, but hedges, unless utilised to keep animals out, were a waste of space and nutrients.
The medieval cottage garden was probably just a yard separated into sections with hurdles. One of the sections would be used for growing vegetables and corn, and others for keeping animals. The sections would have been rotated each year in good husbandry manner. A cottager may have been anyone who worked on a big estate but did not live in the 'Big House', such as farm workers, gardeners and dairymen, or they may have been self-employed small farmers or country craftsmen. Farmstead gardens usually consisted of a small orchard, a turf area, and rectangular beds for herbs and vegetables, and these gardens became the inspiration for the grander small country houses which began to adopt the cottage garden style by the late eighteenth century. Such gardens also had features, such as topiary, bowers, and decorative trellis-work, reminiscent of the pleasure gardens of medieval Tudor manor houses.
Then came the Industrial Revolution. People moved away from the country and into the towns. Short term tenancies meant people lost interest in their gardens, and, by the beginning of the twentieth century the cottage garden had declined. However, the cottage style continued to evolve in the grander country cottages inhabited by relatively wealthy people, who tended to stay put. Then, in the late nineteenth century, along came Gertrude Jekyll, who popularized the more informal and natural approach to gardening.
Then, in the l970's, people became aware of the dangers of too much chemical spreading on the soil, and the value of wild-life gardening. Many insect pests have natural insect predators, and a wide range of plants, including wild flowers, in the garden helps to provide nectar and pollen needed at various stages of the predatory insect's life cycle. Trees and shrubs and carefully sited nest-boxes soon attract a variety of birds. The relatively undisturbed habitat of the mixed shrub and perennial border is an ideal habitat for hedgehogs. A small pond will soon be buzzing with aquatic life. Wildlife in the garden makes it a more rewarding place and reduces the need for chemical control of pests. Many wild flowers can be grown in borders where they may compete for beauty with the garden varieties.
And so the cottage garden style enjoyed another revival, and this revival of interest is still gathering momentum. In the modern cottage garden every available niche is used to grow perennial plants. For example, a clematis will happily twine through a climber on a wall or over a border shrub. Sometimes annuals and biennials are allowed to intrude, especially those that self-seed. This form of gardening is ideal for a small garden because a much greater number and variety of plants can be grown. This style copies nature, as a walk through the countryside will show, so is not recommended for the tidy-minded gardener! Nature is often beautiful but rarely tidy. But it can be a place of serenity where colour and scent, beauty and birdsong can be enjoyed.
Happy gardening.
written by Bill Hutchings
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page last updated 6 JUNE 1998