Picture walking down the street and seeing a house with climbing roses all over the fences and foxgloves shooting up like church steeples. It is disorganized in a way that is pleasing and beautiful. This is the charm and drawing point of a cottage garden border. The beauty of the garden is in the design and maintenance. It does not need to be perfect or costly. The right plants can be paired together to create natural and self sustaining beauty.
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Check PriceThese nine champions of the cottage garden not only look good together but are also solving the same everyday garden problems and adding the storybook charm you seek.
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Roses: The Sentimental Staple That Keeps Giving
Roses will give your border a cottage style charm. For example, try resistant, re-blooming, low-spray cultivars like 'Knockouts' and 'Edens.' These types of roses should be placed in northern exposure with good air circulation. With time, your roses will be able to naturally draw beneficial insects as structural elements to the design as other plants grow.
Foxglove – Vertical Drama that self-seeds every year
Foxglove will self-seed, which means they will take care of your investment for years to come. Position them towards the back of smaller plants where their height will create a beautiful layered effect. Also, their late-season seed heads will feed the goldfinches.
Peonies: Lasting Generational Spring Showstoppers
If you decide to plant peonies, you’ll get to enjoy enormous, scented flowers year after year. Their strong stems also aid in supporting later blooming clematis flowers. With peonies, the most important thing to consider is the amount of space they will need to grow. They deter from being moved. Each year, they’ll further reward your effort by producing even more beautiful flowers.
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Salvia: a never-ending, insatiable, phenomenal pollinator powerhouse
Salvias produce flowers from the end of the spring season until the first frost in the fall. Unlike many flowers that stop blooming during the summer, salvias produce flowers throughout the growing season. This means that they are able to consistently supply a food source for bees and butterflies. Salvia flowers also provide an important blue-purple color for cottage gardens that help to make other flowers pop.
Allium: Design Globalues That Cross The Seasons
These beautiful purple ball-shaped flowers bloom at the same time as tulips fade and summer perennials are not out yet. They fill in the odd 'dead zones' in the garden. Their seed heads feed goldfinches in winter and provide interest in winter. Also the strong onion scent keeps deer and rabbits away.
Clematis: Magic to Maximise Your Vertical Space
One way to create vertical flowering features in your cottage garden using clematis is to encourage them to grow up obelisks, fences, and through shrubs. Use clematis varieties that bloom at different times. For early spring go with clematis montana, for summer clematis 'Jackmanii', and for late summer clematis sweet autumn.
Hardy Geranium: The Answer to Your Ground Cover Problems
Geraniums are tough perennials that spread and form lovely flower carpets and bloom for several months. They are excellent for filling spaces and provide that flowing bonded appearance that cottage gardens feel so organically abundant.
Chives: A Worthwhile Addition
The purple pom-poms have cottage core charm, look great edible and pest deterring! These plants are great because they have an odor that fends off aphids and other soft bodied pests. Also, early in the season they provide nectar, which helps pollinators.
Viburnum: The Champion of Four Seasons
This amazing plant provides a cottage garden must-have that gives wildlife habitat and cottage border beauty. This plant has room for over 40 bird species during the fall with its dense branches which also provide nesting sites. It also has spring flowers, summer leaves, and winter structure which gives the garden year round interest.
Building Your Self Managing Cottage Paradise
It will be exciting to watch your border begin to grow and take shape! Try anchoring your border with viburnum and roses. Geraniums and chives can go in between the larger plants. For height variation, use foxgloves. This will encourage natural succession blooming and provide you with continuous color from spring to fall!
Cottage gardens emphasize a natural yet organized design. For a true cottage garden look, aim to group your plants in threes. Try to plant in fall; your plants will be better established before winter and will have a stronger root system to take hold and spread. Choose self-maintaining plants that will give a wild and unruly look to your garden. Taking inspiration from the English countryside, let the unique wildlife and chaotic beauty of the English countryside remain untamed.
