THE COTTAGE GARDEN

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Eliminate flowers that persist in ailing—except for roses, which are worth any amount of trouble.

Garden Care

Just as with an organic vegetable plot, good soil is vital for success in cottage gardens. Indeed, many flowers require very good drainage if they are to be long-lived. If you plan to have a large garden eventually but are quite sensibly taking several years to achieve it, you can plant a portion now and seed the remainder in attractive, soil-building cover crops such as clover, vetch, and buckwheat.

The old-fashioned warmth and grace of a cottage garden evoke the past for each of us.

Soil fertility will need to be maintained once it's established. The classic cottage gardener was generous with well-rotted manure and spent hops. Modem gardeners would do well to use these and other humus building materials rather than scattering the 10-10-10. A thick mulch will keep weeds from invading, preserve moisture, and eventually add organic matter to the soil as well. I like well-rotted sawdust. Its fine texture and dark color resemble those of good earth, and fallen flower seeds can germinate well in it.

The cottage gardener did not use chemical sprays, of course. Tobacco, turpentine, sulfur, herbal decoctions, and even—as Sackville-West noted—kitchen soapsuds were used to control pests and diseases. Keeping spent flowers and withered foliage cut away will also discourage disease (and encourage bloom). Still, not every plant will thrive. I would suggest eliminating those that persist in ailing. This summer I dusted with sulfur several times to try to control fungus on Stokes' asters, lupines, and roses (my mountain climate is quite hot and humid in the summer). But if they suffer again next year, I'll probably do away with all but the roses, which are worth any amount of trouble to me.

Linking Yesterday to Tomorrow

The cottage gardening style has come to us through hundreds of years of practical experience, years of people loving and tending their gardens and taking pleasure in simple beauty. Something about the old-fashioned warmth and grace of such a garden can still speak to us, evoking our own past. An older visitor to my garden this summer kept saying, "My grandmother had those-and those-and those!" I know I love a certain single white chrysanthemum because it came from plants my mother grew.

Another cottage flower, Fenbow's nutmeg clove pink, dates from the 14th century, when it was used to flavor wine and was known as sops in wine. Apparently lost completely for some time, it was rediscovered in 1960 in the garden of a family whose records showed it had grown there since 1652!

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