Emily Chan
The heart of suburbia is made up of meticulously manicured green lawns lined with tasteful flower beds and surrounded by white picket fences. But lately, people have been shifting away from the traditional image of suburban homes and turning to a more rustic design vision.
And that’s where the English cottage garden comes in. With an English cottage garden, you are able to add more whimsy and personality to your surroundings.
Instead of your yard being perfectly polished and bare, you get to be enveloped by a variety of lovely flowers, bushes, shrubs, and other plants.
Compared to the classic minimal green lawns, which take a lot of work to care for, English cottage gardens are all about abundance and low maintenance.
You can let your plants take over! However, there is such a thing as too overgrown, so here are some tips on how to create an English cottage garden that looks like it’s a place straight out of a fairytale.
Your garden can contain whatever plants you want. Put your own spin on it! But if you want a little more guidance on how to cultivate it, take a look at some common flowers that are usually incorporated in English cottage gardens.
For example, there are roses, peonies, wisteria, hydrangeas, coneflowers, dahlias, cosmos, foxgloves, hollyhocks, and snapdragons.
Have a healthy mix of both annuals and perennials so there will always be some color in your garden. To give your garden structure and style, add blossoms of different hues and heights. You can try balancing blue flowers with yellow ones to really up the uniqueness factor.
Flowers aren’t the only thing you can grow in this type of garden. Herbs are also a great addition, especially if they’re edible! Plant some in pots and others next to flowers.
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