THE COTTAGE GARDEN

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"I should plant [the thicket] much too thickly and extravagantly to start with, and then should thin it out gradually as my shrubs and trees developed in size, crowding one another out; I should eliminate the ones I liked least, replacing them with something I liked better, as my taste and knowledge increase.... You could remove, and add, and alter indefinitely. There would be no end to the fun and interest and variety.

— Vita Sackville-West
A Joy of Gardening, 1959

Planning the Garden

Most garden designs call for limiting variety to achieve an overall unified effect. While this makes good sense to me in principle, my true nature, like that of many plant lovers, is more like a kid in a candy store. I want to try everything. And I always overplant. Feeling guilty about my unrestrained approach, I was happy to find the words about planting a thicket, from Vita Sackville-West, one of the world's great gardeners.

The cottage approach allows you to be such an inquisitive collector. True, forethought and knowledge about the plants' habits—their height, character, bloom period, color, and rate of growth—make for a more successful garden, even of this informal, spontaneous style. If you don't know that angelica is big and rank, and sweet yarrow small and delicate, that lady's-mantle can be a pest when allowed to go to seed, or that the foliage of leopard's-bane may disappear in late summer, you could make real aesthetic errors.

There is still no better combination than roses, lilies, and foxgloves planted together.

But, as Sackville-West says, you can always change things! As I've been writing this, I've resolved to dig up all the buphthalmums from my garden. Their foliage has been diseased all summer, and their yellow is too harsh. So off to the orchard they'll go, where they'll look fine with the field flowers. In their place I'll try heliotropes—a truly romantic old-fashioned flower.

In general, the goal is to avoid artificial appearances. For example, rather than planting the conventional tall, medium, and short arrangements of plants from back to front, make groupings of mixed heights.

Likewise, while raised beds are currently very popular with serious vegetable growers, they look too strict and geometrical for cottage gardens. Digging deeply, then planting on the level, will allow a freer, less formal style. Paths through the garden should follow a natural course rather than being straight or twisting needlessly. Stone path ways are especially pretty, with trailing plants like chamomile and thyme between the stones, spilling over and blurring hard edges. Gravel or chipped-bark paths also permit plants to creep over and soften the edges.

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