Just in time for Valentine's Day, a romantic garden!
This article is part of my Spring 2001 Cottage Garden Design Series: An overview of cottage garden design and using a sense of enclosure in Part I, growing a wide variety of plants and working with nature in Part II, and nurturing the soil in Part III. And then, Follow Your Heart in Part IV.
The Cottage Garden's Romantic Appeal
Overwhelmingly, the appeal of cottage gardens is their romance and beauty. These are evocative gardens, beloved for their connections to times past and to the people who have gardened before us and who will garden when we no longer can. Time tested plants and techniques combine to bring us a sense of peace and to enjoy the bounties of nature, overflowing in a small space created for pleasure as much as for purpose.
It makes sense then to end this series on cottage garden design concepts with the very personal approach I like to call "Follow Your Heart."
Follow Your Heart Every cottage garden is unique. The old gardens were created out of necessity, a fence to keep the animals out or to mark the property line, a door yard or tiny patch devoted to growing fresh vegetables for the family to eat and herbs for the household, the medicine chest and the kitchen; add in fruits to eat fresh and preserve for winter and possibly a favorite flower or two. And a flowering vine or pretty rose to decorate the fence takes no room at all, another tiny (and flowering) fruit tree in the corner will cast a welcome shade to sit beneath. And so flowers crept in, of course, because no gardener can resist them!
And as gardeners will, seeds were planted, plants were swapped and traded, seedlings and starts passed along, always planting those treasured "gifts for mother" and certainly noticing pretty weeds that blew in and were allowed to stay. Gardens grow into collections that way, with each gardener enjoying trying their hand at growing all sorts of things. Hence the crowded look of the cottage garden came about because space was simply limited and gardeners always find room for "just one more" favorite plant. Note too that dense plantings leave no room for weeds. Cottage gardeners were busy people then as now, and had no time for extra work.
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