In a traditional cottage garden, growing space is limited, and every inch should be planted with pretty flower beds, fruit or crop plants, or scented herbs. Starting with just a single border, cottage gardens require planning and regular care to avoid large gaps. Mix annuals and perennials, and fill garden beds without large gaps with spring bulbs, containers, or ornaments. Cottage gardens often have winding paths for a soft, romantic feel.
To create a charming cottage garden, start with a single border, think about paths and walkways, add pretty garden accessories, and create height. Plant the smallest plants along the edges of the pathway, working outward to create a dramatic effect.
Invest in good soil, position plants carefully, carefully select tough garden plants, cover soil, and use automatic irrigation. Avoid straight lines and embrace circular patterns for rhythm and structure. Create circular beds, spherical beds, or simple layouts with paths and large productive flower beds.
A cottage garden design checklist includes a simple layout with paths and large productive flower beds, traditionally using warmer materials like bricks and clay pavers. Choose colors that fall next to each other on the color wheel for a complementary garden look.
In summary, creating a charming cottage garden requires careful planning, planting, and incorporating various plant varieties to create a romantic and inviting atmosphere.
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What is the average size of a house garden in the UK?
Quickmove Properties’ research reveals that England has 6. 4 billion square meters of residential garden space, divided among 25. 2 million dwellings. The average garden size is 255 square meters, similar to a tennis court. The largest gardens are found in the East of England, with an average size of 335 square meters. The South West and South East follow closely with average garden sizes of 334 and 333 square meters respectively.
How to make my house look like an English country cottage?
To achieve the English cottage look, consider changing the mood with paint, swapping hardware for sturdy bin pulls and wooden knobs, embracing workhorse textiles, rolling out a rag rug, using rich colors on walls and trim, using colorful trim, painting floors, and tracing on a checkerboard pattern. English cottage style is more about creating a mood than about splurging on must-have furniture. Here are 15 ways to revamp and refresh your home’s interiors with paint, vintage finds, and creativity:
- Change the mood with paint: Muted, drab tones like mouse’s back, wheat, and duck-egg green are ideally suited to English cottage style. Try painting kitchen cupboards and trim to match, and paint the walls one shade lighter. This will create a cozy and inviting atmosphere in your home.
What is a typical English garden?
The English garden, a popular form of landscape design, was characterized by a lake, gently rolling lawns, and recreations of classical temples, Gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture. The work of Lancelot “Capability” Brown was particularly influential, and the English garden was imitated by the French landscape garden and even the gardens of Emperor Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. The garden was usually centered on the English country house, and many examples in the United Kingdom are popular visitor attractions today.
The predecessors of the landscape garden in England were the great parks created by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor at Castle Howard, Blenheim Palace, and the Claremont Landscape Garden at Claremont House. These parks featured vast lawns, woods, and pieces of architecture, such as the classical mausoleum. The gardens were designed to impress visitors with their size and grandeur.
The new style of the English garden was invented by landscape designers William Kent and Charles Bridgeman, working for wealthy patrons like Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and banker Henry Hoare. These patrons had large country estates, classical educations, and had taken the Grand Tour to Italy, where they had seen Roman ruins and Italian landscapes in their gardens.
What are the best colors for a cottage garden?
Choose the right color scheme for your cottage garden, focusing on soft pinks and mauves with a touch of purple for drama. Add vintage cream and a neutral backdrop of green for a painterly effect. Mix in pale greys, washed out blues, and silvery foliage for depth and complexity. Start with drifts of mauve lavender, ruffled pink roses, jewel-toned purple, and magenta Verbena bonariensis. This will create a beautiful and cohesive look.
What makes English cottage style?
The English Cottage Style is a popular design style that emphasizes comfort, personalization, and a mix of antique furnishings, color, and pattern. Cottages are typically small houses with cozy nooks, exposed beams, and painted walls. The floors are often ancient brick, stone, or wide planked wood, often covered with wool or rag rugs. Open shelving in the kitchen is common.
Lighting and furnishings in the cottage style favor natural lighting and a soft ambient glow, with lamps used in various shapes, colors, and sizes. Antique furniture is often used in mixed wood finishes, and some painted furniture is also used. The style is known for its casual, practical living that is oblivious to trends.
The color palette and decor interpretations in the cottage style vary greatly, from muted and natural to bright and quirky. The British love of indoor/outdoor lifestyle is evident through their tendency to have flowers on everything, and they enjoy reading and keeping books within easy reach. Art is often used in unexpected spaces like the kitchen, pantry, and bathroom.
The English Country House Style is recognized for its fullness in “stuff”, color and pattern, and emphasis on comfort and personalization. It is more enduring than other styles, such as minimalism or rough luxe, which demand straight-edged perfection or prettiness. The style embraces wear and tear and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
How do you make a cottage look?
Cottage style entails the juxtaposition of cozy pattern pairings, such as florals against stripes or plaid, with the incorporation of additional comfort elements, including fluffy pillows, cheerful artwork, woven accents, and yard flowers. This is exemplified by Bria Hammel in a breakfast nook setting.
What is the difference between cottage garden and English garden?
English cottage gardens are a blend of wild and formal styles, with cottages being more wild and diverse, while English gardens use hedges and vertical evergreen accents to define spaces. Originating in the 1800s, these gardens were forgiving and adaptable, suitable for most climates. They feature foxgloves, hollyhocks, and delphiniums, but some native species like sage, yarrow, fleabane, buckwheat, lavender, and Russian sage thrive in drier, western states. The gardens are forgiving and adaptable, making them suitable for most climates.
How to create an English country garden?
Large, historic country houses require a garden that reflects the patina and age of the building. Traditional topiary gardens or parterres can add symmetry and formality, and can be simple or elaborate. Wide herbaceous borders and a good old-fashioned kitchen garden are also suitable. The surrounding landscape can be as important as the house itself, so consider framing views with an avenue of trees or creating focal points with statuary or a beautiful specimen tree.
Garden designer Xa Tollemache, admired for her work at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, advises understanding the topography, climate, and potential limitations of a site before starting a design. Hard landscaping should be sympathetic to the environment, using local or reclaimed stone or brick, and fencing should be unobtrusive and subtle. Xa takes a tiered approach to planting, starting with trees, then structural plants like clipped shrubs, roses, climbing plants, and fluff plants like perennials, lavender, grasses, bulbs, and annuals. The garden should feel as though it has been there for years, and the skill of a garden designer is to evoke this feeling with a light touch and subtle interventions.
What is a classic French garden?
The classic French garden is characterized by bright lavender, gravel paths, calm pools, and symmetrical planting beds. This style is influenced by Italian landscapes, Moroccan courtyard gardens, Mediterranean gardens, English gardens, and English gardens. French gardens share similar themes of symmetry, cooling elements, and protection from the elements. They often include water features, use classic wood planter boxes or Anduze vases, and incorporate terracotta pottery.
The English gardens, with their exuberance for abundance and flowers, are the inverse of the cooler color palette of French garden design but share a love for native elements. These developments have combined to create the classic French garden, which can be incorporated into your own landscape.
What makes a cottage a cottage UK?
The term “cottage” has evolved to refer to small, cozy dwellings of traditional build, including modern constructions like mock cottages. Cottages can be detached houses or terraced, providing accommodation for farm workers. In England, the term “holiday cottage” now denotes a specialized form of residential let property with tax benefits for the owner. The holiday cottage exists in various cultures under different names, including “cottage” in Canadian and American English, “cabin”, “chalet”, or “camp”.
In Australia, “cabin” is common, with cottage usually referring to a smaller pre-modern dwelling. In Nordics, Baltics, and Russia, the term “cottage” has local synonyms, such as Finnish mökki, Estonian suvila, Latvian vasarnīca, Livonian sõvvõkuodā, Swedish stuga, Norwegian hytte, Czech or Slovak chata or chalupa, and Russian дача (dacha). In places like Canada, “cottage” has no connotations of size.
📹 Cottage Garden Design Masterclass – Structure
How to design a cottage garden from lawn to lush without spending too much. We’ll explore tips and tricks to create a beautiful …
The way you were able to repurpose the concrete landscaping into that winding path was such an improvement, really nice to see someone make the most out of an unfortunate situation. So cool to see someone using the home as a template to showcase and hone their many talents. Brava! And the 3D work is just wow! Whatever software you’re using it’s really impressive.
I’ve been searching for years to find a garden and gardener to help me with Information and ideas specifically for a cottage garden. I bought my small cottage in the valley near mountains 6 years ago and then got sick. I finally began working in earnest last summer and have a three year plan. I was searching the UK for help, but now I’ve found you! I hope it’s not too late in my life to do this as I’m a newly retired single woman. Wish me luck, garden on all 💜
I am an artist and gardener. I love all of your articles for sure. I live in a mobile home park and have created quite the oasis here. Everyone loves it! I am able to thin out some of my plants and share with others which I love doing. I love what you have done with your homes and I get so many ideas from you. Thanks you for sharing your ideas and experience 🙂
You said “thank you so much for perusal this article”. I say “thank you so much for making this article”. I have the regular lawn with planting around the perimeter, but the cottage I live in is 350 years old. I don’t like my garden in its current form but have not known really how to change it. My garden means so much to me (I have been gardening for 50 years) and this is the first time I have wanted to follow somebody else’s ideas. My very grateful thanks to you from an old thatched cottage in England.
Hi! I’m actually a concept artist who’s been working the past 10 weeks on my final year project and despite it being about designing a real life garden this is by far one of the best references I’ve had for HOW to design a garden space and how to keep things rustic and pleasant, thank you so much for this!
I was so transported into my own “dreamland” by this article. My brothers are artists, and everything they touch, even a chair with coffee, and books, is soul touching. Like them, you are both an artist, and a craftsman, “par excellance”. I don’t hope to garner enough talent, or vision to match your gardens, but the fact that they seem to just erupt out of God-given small spaces and corners is inspiring….Man loving, and cooperating with Creation is the most wonderful part of life!❤️
This is the article I have been waiting for! I’m still a novice gardener, and designing for aesthetic is where I struggle the most. I will definitely be applying these principles in future garden projects. I can’t wait for the next article! Also, every time you have shots of the inside of your house, I am in awe. You could have stand-alone house renovation/interior design episodes and I would totally watch them.
I found myself feeling discouraged about my ability to one day have a homestead. I’m very inexperienced but I love the idea of having a garden that I live off of. This idea of a suburban homestead is right up my alley and everything that I hope to have one day. Thank you so much for your website and for the attention to detail that you put in your articles. I have shared this article with at least five people who would also take interest in some thing like this. I feel inspired and like my dreams can one day become a reality. As an artist myself, I think it’s really important as well that you talked about the elements of design. So many people don’t realize how important that is to have a beautiful space. Thank you again and I wish you all the best.
I’m so glad I discovered your articles! I’m recovering from Covid and I was feeling really depressed and uninspired. Over the course of the day I watched lots of your articles and I am planning to implement some of what I’ve learned in the springtime. Thank you for your beautiful aesthetic sensibility and great practical advice. I love that your ways are frugal, but the quality you achieve is exceptional. Thank you!
I’m so happy I found your article. It giving me so much courage not to giving up for the first few years of my gardening journey. I am a new gardener and over the years I spent a lot of money from plants from the nursery and deer will eat it or they don’t make it. It’s so sad because I just bought my new house and I am on the budget. Your article teach me that I can still have a beautiful cottage garden without have to spend a lot of money to buy plants from the nursery. I’d like to thanks you for sharing and happy new year.
Fantastic article. I’m a professional gardener and found your presentation really detailed and thought provoking. I recently moved to half an acre (previously in a tiny townhouse). You have motivated me to continue to DIY a space into a characterful and beautiful space. Thanks for taking the time to educate everyone 💚🌼🐝
I will forever remember April 6! The day I found your website!! This is my passion and you are like the most crazy talented cottage garden artist ever. I am hoping someday you teach a class. For now I will go and watch everything you have made and look forward to your posts!!! Thank you for sharing your art with all of us. ✨
Thank you Siloe for this beautiful look at cottage garden design. This is the look I have been struggling to achieve. I keep forgetting about the focal point of certain areas of my gardens. Then I lose my focus for what I want to do. Your garden has changed sooo much since your last article! It’s just beautiful. Thank you so much.
One of the best gardening articles I’ve seen. I can see why everybody loves this. The choice of “slides” to demonstrate elements of garden design was better than anything I’ve seen on any major production garden show and it didn’t always focus on gardens but places and styles. This was definitely the best way to relay these concepts. The “final” cottage garden was a little too casual for my taste but of course this is just a matter one’s own personal style.
I am also an artist/gardener. I appreciate the architectural elements of your articles. I will be adapting both your bed topper design and your vine trellis in my garden. I have a productive permaculture garden that helps to feed me and my family of 6. I also love the historical background and the overall design elements that I see in your home decor, garden, and even your fashion sense. It’s almost like hearing gardening advice from a modern-day Mark Twain. Thank you for posting your articles. They make me smile.
I miss having a train near me. Keep up the great work. My friend and I watched your articles every time they came out over dinner and we loved them. He died last February and since then I have not been back to the garden. Now that I can do it again, perusal your articles gives me inspiration. Your aesthetic is so beautiful. BTW, the animations are new, right? They’re amazing and add a new and interesting dimension.
my mum is moving house, she is going to me happier separating with my dad as they are not happy. she found an amazing house after 1 year of searching, and she is a plant lover! i will most defiantly send her this article and i hope that this article will inspire her into making a lovely garden she always wished to have! (and yes, ill of course help her!)
Amazing article! I’ve seen so many “look at my cottage garden” articles that inspire me, but never one that breaks down HOW to work it out. I live in one of those liminal suburban homes, and in an HOA so the front yard is kind locked to what I can do. But the backyard…the backyard is my canvas! Thank you so much for this!
this article is absolutely well made. 18 mins didnt feel so long because im truly immersed listening to your explanation while perusal the beautiful visual. the motion graphics are flawless and your explanation is really throughout while still keeping it simple for people to understand. i really love with the way you build this vid !! everything is the perfect amount & the process is arranged nicely. amazing job!! your garden looks beautiful, im in awe. totally enjoying this series, gonna subscribe for more contents in the future!
Some gardeners like artists have the ability to see the big picture and an end result in their minds eye. I love to see something that others might think looks like it’s ready for the junk pile and in my mind I create a whole new look for it. I do a lot of mental creating when I shop at garden centers or go to auctions and view “barn finds” that wording on an auction bill gets my creative juices going.
Phenomenal! I really enjoy how you explain the thought process behind what you do and not just the physical process. This allows us a frame of reference to help express our gardens in our own way using solid principles from an artistic standpoint. Here in South Dakota a lot of pollinator gardens look like someone just quit mowing their lawn. I am trying this style to compliment my vegetable garden. Thank you for your work.
razilian too, we live in Lousiana since 2003. We have a coffee plantarion on Brazil and I love to garden and cultivate here, because I do not go to our farm as much as I wanted to. Your garden inspired me so much, I spend a lot of money on plants but I have never thought how wasteful was not planning, I should have a perfect garden after so long I’m going to rewatch your series on Cottage garden and try to adapt it here in my place in the bayou! Thanks so much for your articles!
I’m so happy to have stumble upon your website. I really enjoyed the content of this article. I loved hearing your discussion of garden design and how you applied these principles into your own garden. And then I took a minute to realize how high quality the article and editing is too! I’m looking forward to perusal more. Thank you!
This is a stunningly beautiful garden, worked out with careful thought and attention to detail, and brought to life by the talented hand of an artist. I love the way you have broken everything down into ‘doable’ chunks, and the way you explain the elements which make for successful design. This is so inspiring. Thanks so much: I will be sure to continue following you from here in France.
Perfect website with sensible foundations explained and presented with clarity. It’s all art and math and flow. Finally other people are talking about technique versus endless feelings and chaos. Design is not based on some kind of personal alternate reality: it’s art form…and that does have a foundation. Too many other websites of nonsense or people getting way too personal obscuring the projects. Or worse bounded by trends despite the space in which they work. Not here however. It’s all sane. Thank you 🙏!
Happy New Year Siloe! Out of all the gardening YouTubers your gardening/garden design style is the closest to mine and I’m so glad you made this article, it perfectly summed up everything that I dreamt about for my own garden. I also like to use the materials that are already available to me. Have you thought about the wattle fence for the perimeter of your garden? I know it’s a lot of work and probably not the most elegant but completely natural structure. I used it before I could afford buying materials for more solid structure and still use it in some areas more as a decoration. As always – good to see another one of your articles – I’m already looking forward to the next one!
Fantastic article. I’m a professional gardener and found your presentation really detailed and thought provoking. I recently moved to half an acre (previously in a tiny townhouse). You have motivated me to continue to DIY a space into a characterful and beautiful space. Thanks for taking the time to educate everyone
I just found your website today and I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a treasure trove of information! I’m from the UK but live in Florida and I spend many, many hours trying to create a cottage garden similar to what I’d find at home. Your cottage garden is beautiful! I’m especially impressed with the obelisks you created and might just try constructing my own! Thanks for the inspiration.
My goodness, this article truly is a masterclass! You explain everything so well and the way your mind and imagination work is incredible! I love cottage gardens and tried to recreate one but failed because of my Mediterranean climate (obviously); now, I’m going for a dry garden of succulents and cacti but had no clue on how to do it… Your tips and teachings really helped, thank you ❤
amazing! it’s really beautiful to see someone care this much about the beauty of their home in a way that is so personal and fulfilling! I’m so used to seeing people simply use their home as a status symbol, but this article really gets to a more wholesome beautiful way of caring about your garden. Gorgeous!!! Not only gardening talents but the ability to share it through an also beautifully shot and edited article!! amazing amazing, I live in an old schoolhouse/shed in my parents back yard and this has given me so many ideas! I don’t know if I’ll ever be a home owner but you gave me so many ideas for my little garden thank yoU!
What a beautiful website, this being the first article from it that I have watched! Congratulations. It’s your attention to detail and artisanal and artistic approach to everything, combined with your knowing yourself well enough to envision in detail, and then carry through to fruition, all your projects (at least in the 3 articles I’ve watched tonight). Subscribed and looking forward to perusal all the previous uploads. This was beautiful. Thank you.
I was inspired to try a cottage garden from seed at a new house this year. I used some of your design principles on a new front bed. Not all flowers have bloomed yet. Some were winners (zinnias) some were flops (poppies) — There is a mix of annuals and perennials. This garden is along a Main Street in a small town that still sports a lot of foot traffic—and the complements have been non-stop! Hats off to you! Your design principles are solid, beautiful and creative! You have brought a lot of joy to the neighborhood! Thank you!
I love the combo of science and art. I need to redo my whole yard because it is surrounded by trees that have grown tall and are now blocking the light. This article helps me realize I should start one room at a time. By the way, I received your beautiful painting and I love it very much. I’ve even put it on my “set” on the YouTube shows I take part in. It is so cheery!
Aeeeee Siloe!!! Parabéns pelos 100k!!!!! A virada foi hoje 15/01/2022 próximo das 4 horas da manhã horário do Brasil! Parabéns pelo lindo vídeo!!! Amei tudo, principalmente essa ideia de quebrar as placas de concreto pra fazer um caminho mais curvo. Top demais brother!! Que Deus te abençoe!!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙏🤗
I am absolutely in love with the effort that you put into your articles. It is so clear to see how much thought goes into what you do: your garden, your aesthetics, your choice of words, your diagrams. It is also just as clear how natural and effortless these thought processes are to you. I am absolutely floored with the quality of your artworks and explanations for them!
I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this article. I have been designing garden rooms in my own small garden for years but never quite knew what it was that made them so pleasing to my eye and others. I was doing it by instinct but in this article you explained all the components of design so well – I now understand what I was doing if that makes sense😂 You also set my creative juices on fire – I plan on heading outside right now to reimagine some spaces. Thank you for such wonderful content!!!
I love your articles. The amount of time you spent on such a “short” article is unheard-of. I also really love how you not only teach how to design spaces, but you also put it into practice wich makes it easier to understand and remember. I plan on attending art school net year and this will certainly come in handy. Thank you 🙂
I am so glad the YouTube algorithm brought me to this article! You remind me a lot of Bob Ross. This is more than a garden design masterclass—it’s a very approachable introduction to visual design as a whole. I live in an apartment with only a balcony for outdoor space, but I still feel like I learned a lot here that I can apply to turn that little space into something cool.
Dude, I really enjoy your articles. Brilliant. Keep sharing your creativity and knowledge with us. I really appreciate that you EDIT. It’s not just you talking for 20 minutes in front of a garden at one stage, but you splice together article, showing your entire process over several months, from inception to results. That editing takes skill and care. Thanks for the hard work.
Thank you so much for your article with beautiful instructional content. I was so inspired as a landscaper to use more natural materials as I have always loved to do. I admire your artwork as well and your Copper Kettle peace that you did remind me that my tea pot and kettle copper collection we’ll make great artwork. I love your gorgeous structural cages for animal proof areas to grow greens. I wish I was as handy as you are. You make it look so easy I have to try. May God bless you and all your endeavors and thank you again for sharing.😊
What a pleasure to just lay back and watch the beautiful articles that you put together. I love the mix of beauty, with the history/science details that you layer over!! It’s your artistry that makes these small documentaries so enjoyable. You just take me on a journey! Even though I’m an experienced gardener, I always learn something, or are reminded of something…because you present it in such a lovely way. It’s such a relaxing and inspiring gift to us, who are looking forward to a new gardening season. Thank you!!