A Natural Cottage Garden in the Countryside

The lily pond in full bloom
- summer

For an amateur gardener like myself, the natural cottage garden surrounding our home in the countryside is, quite simply, a paradise.

The combination of romantic, old-fashioned flowers - that many of you may "remember from Grandma's garden", fruit and wildlife, an informal, restful character and the relative ease of upkeep make a cottage garden the perfect answer if you are looking for your own private and personal space, in close harmony with nature.

How we can Help You

Step by step, we explain how we designed and built our own cottage garden from scratch. All opinions and advice given on this site are based on the practical experience gained in 50 years of active gardening pleasure - and a lot of reading.

Use the information in our guide to cottage gardening to create your own garden filled with flowers, fruit and wildlife. We believe that you will be successful, irrespective of whether you live in a city, town or village.

Thinking about redesigning your garden but don't know much about gardening?

You'll find detailed instructions for designing and creating a natural cottage garden, far from the madding crowd. It's great fun and a marvelous way to keep fit.

Your reward? A peaceful place to rest and enjoy nature in harmony with the insects, birds and animals who will move in soon after you've completed the job.

Searching for gardening tips and ideas for changing the appearance of your garden?

Our cottage garden photographs, plant lists and building guides may be helpful and give you the new insight and inspiration you're looking for.

All photos were taken by Judy or John and are linked to larger versions so you can get a really close look at the results.

What will a Keen Gardener Find Here?

• Roots, a potted history of cottage gardening - how, when and where cottage gardening started, its development over four centuries and the relevance of the cottage garden today, plagued as we are by climate change and the speed of modern life.
• Design and create your own cottage garden - layouts and measurements, sight lines and views, sun and shade, flower borders and fruit trees, fencing, paths and seating. We aimed for natural surroundings, a warm welcome to wildlife, organic gardening (no artificial fertilizer or summer watering required) and the recycling of all available materials. With step-by-step instructions for sketching a light and shade plan and a garden layout plan, using current drawings of our own garden to illustrate each step.
• Build your own cottage garden - the next stage after you've completed designing the garden you want. You'll learn about the influence of climate and soil, do a lot of digging, clearing and re-cycling to prepare your plot for planting and finish with stage one of your garden paths. If your garden - or part(s) of it - is waterlogged, we have a tried and proven solution for you as well.
• Add cottage garden features - at long last you can finally install your wish list. The pond preparation, excavation and construction pages are now online and the water plants you need page will follow soon;
• Flowers in four seasons - the photo galleries: Four seasons of pictures to give you an impression of what you can achieve and, hopefully, inspire you to become a cottage gardener. The spring, summer, autumn and winter photograph collections are all online.
• News, RSS feed and site updates - cottage gardening news, site updates, articles, garden tips, plant ideas and suggestions. Subscribe (free of charge) to our RSS feed and receive our most recent natural cottage garden articles and gardening tips delivered automatically to your news reader.
• Natural cottage garden wildlife visitors - the opening pages are all about sparrows and how we can help them by building a nest box.

What's Still to be Done?

The following pages are currently being written and will become available during April through June:

1. Add the garden features you want. How to build a:
   • Fountain - where to put it, the accessories required and the electrical installation;
   • Waterfall - terracing the hillside, laying the rocks and stones and the pump installation;
   • Rustic bridge - the materials you will need, the construction plan and how to put it all together.
   You can add all the garden features you want even with a low budget like ours.
2. Choose your favourite cottage garden plants - a complete guide to the trees, shrubs, perennial plants, bi-annual plants, annual plants, bulbs and water plants we use to give a natural and romantic result.
3. We'll be adding pages for more birds, butterflies, bees, field mice and hedgehogs and, of particular interest if you have a pond, pages about dragonflies, frogs, fish and newts.