Imagine stepping into a blooming garden that feels like it sprung from the pages of a fairytale…
A cottage garden offers just that. This charming trend harks back to the cosy abodes of Victorian villagers and their humble gardens. Plants and flowers weave between one another, whimsical features delight the eye, and you can feel a buzz of wildlife in the air.
It's no wonder many keen gardeners are ditching their manicured lawns and modern patios for the wild and wonderful cottage garden style. Whether you’re looking for ways to incorporate a touch of rustic charm in your garden or dreaming of a fairytale makeover, let our ideas inspire you!
What is a cottage garden?
The cottage garden trend is inspired by a common gardening style in the late 19th century. The original English cottage gardens belonged to Victorian peasants, who relied on their densely populated allotments to grow a diverse range of medicinal and edible plants.
The modern cottage garden – featuring overgrown jumbles of flowers, herbs, and edible plants of various colours and heights – speaks to its humble origins.
It rejects the muted tones, clean lines, and minimalism of the Scandinavian garden in favour of bright colours, free-flowing plants, and winding paths. The result is a space that feels beautifully chaotic, welcoming, and teeming with character.
What are the features of a cottage garden?
A cottage garden is designed to appear like an overgrown slice of the wilderness, but a deceiving amount of thought and planning goes into creating this ‘effortless’ look.
A cottage garden typically features:
- Soft lines
- Rustic paving or cobbles
- Winding paths
- Bright colour accents
- An informal planting style that promotes an abundance of wildlife
12 cottage garden design ideas
Now that you know what a cottage garden is and the plants you might find in one, let's explore 12 ideas that will help you recreate this look in your own space.
Create levels
The key to creating that rambunctious cottage garden look is incorporating levels. Grounded flowerbeds and vegetable patches alone will make it trickier to achieve the ‘wow’ factor. Consider these ideas to add height to your garden.
Raised planters
Raised planters are an excellent way to elevate shorter plants and create layers in your garden. They make it easier to navigate your space, tend to your plants, and provide a controlled environment for vegetables and herbs to thrive.
Garden walling can be used to construct vintage, cottage-style raised planters; our rustic walling, tumbled walling, and croft stone walling are great options. Wooden, tiered, and rustic metal planters also work well.
Tall focal points
Obelisks, arches, or pergolas are perfect additions as standalone elements or vessels for your climbing plants. Choose materials like wood or natural stone to complement the timeless design.
Tall trees are another great focal point; a silver birch or weeping willow will add height and variety to your cottage garden.
Add rustic accessories
Rustic accessories are essential for adding character and contrasting the lush, overflowing nature. What’s more vintage furniture can cement the cottage aesthetic while providing practical spaces for sitting and soaking up the beauty of your surroundings.
Picket fence
What could be sweeter and more whimsical than a picket fence? Picket fences can be used to section off a part of a larger garden that you’ve designated as your ‘cottage garden’ or to set a boundary around the entire space.
Weaving your plants over or in your fence can blur the boundaries between nature and people for a fantasy feel. Allow cascading plants to tumble over or climbing plants to thread around it.
Garden furniture
An antique (or vintage-style) table and chair set can create a classic tea party spot in your cottage garden. Opt for white or pastel iron furniture or a faded wooden set for a peaceful dining area in the heart of your cottage retreat.
Likewise, a reclaimed vintage bench offers the perfect perch for sitting back and admiring your handiwork.
Using natural-toned paving to create seating or dining areas can provide a beautiful contrast to the overflowing plant life and offer a practical base for outdoor furniture.
Vintage accessories
Vintage accessories are a charming finishing touch to add personality to your cottage garden. Get down to your local antiques centre and think outside of the box. You could incorporate:
- A rustic arch mirror
- Iron watering cans
- Stone urns
- Unique plant pots
- A metal wheelbarrow
- Birdbaths
Create a winding path
Aside from the natural elements, a winding pathway is perhaps the most defining feature of cottage gardens. A garden path leads the eye through the landscape and provides a way to access your plants; it’s a must for any cottage garden.
Cobblestone pathway
A cobblestone pathway is reminiscent of fairy stories and quintessentially cottage-y. Our antique-look Drivesys Original Cobble is ideal for building a winding pathway which is both whimsical and durable.
Stepping stone pathway
Whether your stones sit on gravel, grass, or even water, this feature is a simple but effective way to add a little magic to your space. Check out our stone walkway ideas for inspiration and our guide on how to lay stepping stones for some practical installation advice.
Tunnel walkway
There’s something enchanting about strolling through a tunnel walkway, especially one that’s shrouded in climbing leaves and bejewelled with overhead flowers. If you want to evoke that DIY spirit of the original cottage garden, you could your own using birch, hazel, or willow to construct an archway. Otherwise, a pergola or trellis will do nicely!
Soften harsh lines
The clean lines of Scandi design have no place in cottage gardens. It’s important to blur hard edges to maintain that natural look. If you’re using edging to line your path, allow flowers to grow over and between the individual stones.
The timeworn aesthetic of our 4 in 1 kerb is great for a cottage garden. Its gaps let plants peek through to obscure the hard lines.
Attract wildlife
As the regenerative garden is among the garden trends for 2024, why not invite in the birds and bees?
Creating a wildlife-friendly garden will help to animate your space and turn your cottage garden into a retreat both for you and local creatures!
Pollinating plants
Not only do plants like lavender look and smell great, but their pollen richness attracts bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Better yet, pollinators pay back the favour, they encourage plants to reproduce and help your garden thrive.
Wildlife feeders
Consider adding feeders such as birdbaths and birdboxes to your garden to achieve a cutesy cottage aesthetic whilst attracting wildlife to your space.
Squirrel snack boxes, butterfly houses, and bee hotels are excellent for a buzzing garden, particularly in urban areas where wildlife is more sparse.
Pond
A small pond or water feature can become a pretty focal point in your garden, attracting frogs, newts, and a variety of insects to increase the biodiversity of your retreat.
Top tips for creating a cottage garden
Despite its effortless and natural appearance, creating a cottage garden requires careful planning and hours of labour. With this in mind, we’ve put together some top tips that should simplify the process.
- Start small: It’s tempting to go wild on the planting to get your cottage garden going, but starting small and gradually expanding is the best approach. Planting too many species at once will make maintaining your garden impossible when they begin to bloom. What’s more, taking it slow will help you to figure out what plants work, which look the best, and which you like most before you commit to a forest of them.
- Embrace imperfection: Cottage gardens are supposed to look wild and unkempt. Don’t worry, too, if your plants are growing beyond their boundaries or if you don’t have time for pruning.
- Opt for low-maintenance plants: As cottage gardens include many species of plants, maintaining them all can be a challenge. Fill your garden with easy-to-tend plants and include a only few attention seekers. Then, as your garden grows, you can start to experiment with those trickier species.
- Create a cottage garden zone: If you love the cottage garden aesthetic but aren’t quite ready to give up all your modern features, why not create zones in your garden and use one as a cottage-style corner?
Create your dream cottage garden using materials from Marshalls
Although cottage gardens are all about soft lines and naturalness, carefully selected hard landscaping elements can enhance the structure and functionality of your cottage garden while preserving its informal, romantic charm.
Here’s how to integrate hard landscaping into your cottage garden design:
- Pathways are a cottage garden essential. Whether you opt for a paved, stepping stone, or tunnel pathway, Marshall’s cobblestone is both practical and timeless.
- Paving can create patios, pathways, and seating areas for furniture like benches or dining tables and chairs, offering a neat contrast to the wildness of your plants.
- Walling is ideal for creating raised planters or for separating different plants to ensure easy maintenance and thriving plant life. It's also great for adding height variety to your garden and can act as a base for your climbing plants to crawl up.
- Kerbing and edging are useful for subtly defining edges, preventing plants from spilling onto pathways while maintaining the garden’s informal aesthetic.
Our top tip for incorporating hard landscaping into this soft setting is to prioritise natural colours and textures. Porcelain paving has no place in a fairytale cottage, but cobblestone, granite, and tumbled styles can fit seamlessly into your design.
The team here at Marshalls are ready to help you create a cottage garden that you can enjoy with friends and family for years to come. Contact us today!
FAQs about cottage gardens
Is the cottage garden trend suitable for small gardens?
Absolutely! The style originated in small spaces, where villagers maximised every inch of land by densely planting a mix of flowers, herbs, and vegetables. A small cottage garden is easier to fill, so it won’t take long to achieve that overgrown look.
Check out our small back garden ideas for more inspiration.
How can I start a cottage garden from scratch?
- Plan your space: Begin by sketching out your garden layout and deciding where paths, seating areas, and planting beds will go
- Choose your plants: Opt for a mix of flowers, herbs, and edibles that are mostly easy to maintain and will thrive in your local climate
- Incorporate hard landscaping: Use pathways, kerbs and edging, and walling to make the space more functional and create raised beds
- Keep growing: A cottage garden is ever-changing and never quite finished, keep adding and switching plants and accessories to keep it fresh
- Be patient: Cottage gardens take time, so start small and let your garden evolve slowly and naturally
What are the colours of a cottage garden?
A variety of colours, often mixed together in a seemingly random way, is part of what gives a cottage garden its charm. A good starting point is a background of luscious greenery. Contrast this with pastels and softer hues, and add a few bright and bold splashes as accents. However, there is no defined colour palette for a cottage garden, it can be as bold or as subtle as you like.
How can I create a cottage garden on a budget?
A cottage garden is achievable even on a budget, it just requires a little patience and some planning ahead.
- Plant seeds: Seeds are cheaper than plants, so buy seeds and grow your flowers from scratch
- Do-It-Yourself: Upcycle old furniture for garden use and restyle objects like old buckets, baths, and watering cans to create planters
- Prioritise perennials: Invest in perennials which will come back every year to save money on planting new flowers
- Plant productively: Edible plants like herbs, fruit trees, berry bushes, and vegetables can help you save money on produce in the long term
Is a cottage garden high maintenance?
A cottage garden can be time-consuming owing to the amount of plants in the space. Some tasks, like deadheading flowers to encourage more blooms and keeping climbing plants in check, may require regular attention. However, if perennials and low-maintenance plants make up the bulk of your garden, this will make it far easier to maintain.
