Cottage Garden Plants

Cottage Gardening
a country garden anywhere

B esides abundance of blooms, and heritage plants, what constitutes a cottage garden style? A sense of enclosure, within a fence or hedged by shrubs, is part of most of these gardens. And while there is profusion of plants, they are highly cultivated and it is not a wild garden. Many times there are structures of arches or small fences within the garden, containers of plants and vines over the doorways, and no-nonsense pathways. A small chicken coop or rabbit hutch wouldn't be out of place, either!

What if you like the look, but don't want to devote your self or your entire yard to intensive gardening? There are several possibilities: lining a driveway with the old fashioned choices of carnations, lilies, lavender, and mignonette, daisies, columbines, and daylilies. Creating an entry with an exuberant dooryard garden within a small picket fence. Tired of weed whacking under the post fences? consider the cottage flowers underneath (easy to mow around,too).
This is a garden style for those who love plants and are willing to invest a little time.

Celia Thaxter made a seaside cottage garden that became quite famous due to her illustrious guests (Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier). Her small garden overflowed with flowers, many identifiable in paintings of Childe Hassam. His brush capturing the tumble of blooms and -almost- their very fragrance on the air.

She became famous for her book, "An Island Garden". Here are a few quotes from Celia Thaxter:

The very act of planting a seed in the earth has in it to me something beautiful. I always do it with a joy that is largely mixed with awe. I watch my garden beds after they are sown, and think how one of God's exquisite miracles is going on beneath the dark earth out of sight. I never forget my planted seeds. Often I wake in the night and think how the rains and the dews have reached to the dry shell and softened it; how the spirit of life begins to stir within, and the individuality of the plant to assert itself; how it is thrusting two hands forth from the imprisoning husk, one, the root, to grasp the earth, to hold itself firm and absorb its food, the other stretching above to find the light, that it may drink in the breeze and sunshine and so climb to its full perfection of beauty.

"Some seeds take longer than others to germinate: for instance, Hollyhocks, Marigolds, ten weeks Stocks or Gillyflowers, Rose of Heaven, Zinnias, and many others come up in from three to five days if all circumstances are favorable, that is, if it is warm, moist, and sunny enough; Asters, single Dahlias, Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Mignonette, Coreopsis, Morning-glory, Picotee Pinks, Wallflowers, Sweet Williams, and by far the greater number of annuals appear in from five to seven days; Balsams, Pansies, Begonias, Drummond's Phlox, Poppies, Verbenas, Thunbergia, and many others, in from eight to ten days; Columbines, Flax, Artemisia, Feverfew, Campanula, and so forth, in from ten to twelve days; Maurandia, Forget-me-not, Petunia, Lantana, Nicotiana (an exquisite flower, by the way), in from twelve to fifteen days; Coboea, Gloxinia, Primroses, Geraniums, and others, in from fifteen to twenty days; Perennial Phlox, Clematis, Perennial Larkspurs (which are heavenly!), and various others, take from twenty to thirty-five days to germinate; and as for Lupines and Lilies and Ampelopsis, and the like, they take a whole year! But common gardeners don't try to raise these from seed, fortunately."

"Ever since I could remember anything, flowers have been like dear friends to me, comforters, inspirers, powers to uplift and to cheer. " -Celia Thaxter

Plants for the Traditional Cottage Garden

T hese were homely gardens with space given over to a variety of vegetables and herbs for remedies. Many are beautiful in their own right and mixed together are anything but mundane. By rearranging the planting style the same plant could make a kitchen garden like the one at the Château de Villandry, or an Herb Garden ... it all depends on the use and display of the the plants. Many of these plants are used in perennial garden plans, like fennel and the wormwoods. A book with good pictures can be a great inspiration in designing your own sweet cottage garden.

                       

Gertrude Jekyll:

    Gertrude Jekyll was a great plantswoman who influenced our gardening styles of today immensely. She often drew upon the cottage plants and planting of old to create her garden "pictures". She is considered the pre-eminent garden stylist in the Cottage Garden genre.

"When the eye is trained to perceive pictorial effect, it is frequently struck by something - some combination of grouping, lighting and colour - that is seen to have that complete aspect of unity and beauty that to the artist's eye forms a picture. Such are the impressions that the artist-gardener endeavours to produce in every portion of the garden"-Gertrude Jekyll

• Cottage Gardening: The Style
• Cottage Garden Compendium
• The Country Garden

Quicklist: hints and tips

• Cottage gardens are "contained" gardens. Within a picket fence, in defined "rooms" of walls or hedges.
• They are intensively planted, without sacrificing the health of the plants.
• Plantings give a feeling of "fullness", billowing over each other, weaving though, tumbling over fences and creeping into pathways.
• Often "humanized" with paths, benches, and various pots, sometimes small sheds, and arches (over a gate, or a bench)
• For all their abundance they look "cared for", not wild.

• Tulips and Daffodils
• Just Tulips
• The Minor Bulbs

Traditional Choices

A LIST:

Old Fashioned Herbs and Vegetables Common Name:Angelica Botanical Name:Angelica archangelica Plant Use:Used for food and medicine. Grows 3- to 6-feet with interesting yellow-green flowers and seeds Common Name: Beet Botanical Name: Beta vulgaris Plant Use: Used for its greens, as well as root. Common Name: Borage Botanical Name: Borago officinalis Plant Use: A beautiful plant with blue star-shaped edible flowers, tastes like cucumber Common Name: Burnet Botanical Name: Poterium sanguisorba Plant Use: Medicinal and culinary herb. Good in salads Common Name: Cabbage Botanical Name: Brassica oleracea var. capitata Plant Use: A healthy vegetable. Common Name: Calendula Botanical Name: Calendula officinalis Plant Use: Edible yellow, gold, and orange flowers. Also called pot marigold, was used to flavor stew Common Name: Carrot Botanical Name: Daucus carota sativa Plant Use: Many forms, eaten fresh and cooked. Common Name: Elecampane Botanical Name: Inula elenium Plant Use: Root used to treat deep cough and phlegm.A huge plant with daisy form flowers. Common Name: Fennel Botanical Name: Foeniculum vulgare Plant Use: Culinary and medicinal plant with edible seed, leaf and flower. Has an anise taste, has a purple form. Common Name: Feverfew Botanical Name: Parthenium chrysanthemum Plant Use: Used as a tea, or tisane for its ability to aid digestion and ease migraines. Common Name: Gillyflower Botanical Name: Dianthus caryophyllus Plant Use: Fragrant edible and medicinal flower known as pinks or clove gillyflower. Common Name: Houseleek Botanical Name: Sempervivum tectorum Plant Use: Used to patch holes in roofs. Known now as Hens and Chicks or Houseleeks. Common Name: Hyssop Botanical Name: Hyssopus officinalis Plant Use: Medicinal and culinary herb used for its properties as an expectorant and for flavoring. Good with Chicken dishes. Common Name: Leek Botanical Name: Allium porrum Plant Use: Sometimes planted as a companion border around a bed of tender salad greens to keep out garden pests Common Name: Lettuce Botanical Name: Lactuca sativa Plant Use: The Cos and Romaine varieties are common salad ingredients.

Common Name: Mustard or Garden Cress Botanical Name: Brassica juncea Plant Use: An addition to salads, sometimes used as cooked greens. Common Name: Onion Botanical Name: Allium cepa Plant Use: Common kitchen vegetable; also companion planted to keep out flea beetles and aphids from salad plants. Common Name: Parsley Botanical Name: Petroselinum crispum Plant Use: A kitchen flavoring known for its diuretic properties. Common Name: Rosemary Botanical Name: Rosmarinus officinalis Plant Use: Medicinal and culinary herb. Reputed to be good for memory. Common Name: Rue Botanical Name: Ruta graveolens Plant Use: Silver-blue foliage and yellow flowers, extremely bitter. Once used medicinally, not recommended now. Common Name: Sage Botanical Name: Salvia officinalis Plant Use: Edible leaf and flower. Used in cooking, has many reputed values Common Name: Sorrel Botanical Name: Rumex acetosa Plant Use: Culinary and medicinal; sour-flavored leaf used in salads, soups and sauces. Common Name: Southern Wood Botanical Name: Artemisia abrotanum Plant Use: Fragrant plant used to keep away moths, and for worming (poisonous). Common Name: Tansy Botanical Name: Tanacetum vulgare Plant Use: Medicinal and culinary herb in former times. Small amounts used to flavor baked goods. Common Name: Thyme Botanical Name: Thymus vulgaris Plant Use: Creeping plant with edible flowers and leaves has numerous forms. Used for culinary and medicinal purposes. Common Name: Violet Botanical Name: Viola odorata Plant Use: Flowers used in salads, fragrant oils and medicines. Common Name: Winter Savory Botanical Name: Satureja montana Plant Use: Savory pot herb with edible leaf and flower, especially good with bean dishes. Common Name: Wormwood Botanical Name: Artemisia absinthium Plant Use: Tall, silver-gray medicinal plant. Used for insecticidal purposes and as strewing herb, don't eat it

a selection of pages on the web
Best gardening Cottage Gardens Cottage Garden Society Newsletter Monet's Garden at Giverny Monet's Garden Plan Your Cottage Garden

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