Cottage gardens evolved from Victorian kitchen gardens. “Cottage” meant a small, informal home on a small lot. These were homes of workers, not nobility. Working class folks had little leisure time for complicated pruning, lawncare, or rows of plants transferred from a hothouse. Their garden plots were originally used for food cultivation. Over time, food gave way to flowers or a combination of food and flora.

Cottage gardens share main elements. A white picket fence, stone walls, or clipped evergreen hedges (boxwood or privet) often define the perimeter. Informal paths of woodchips, gravel, bricks, or stepping stones lead the visitor through the garden. Any concrete paths are softened by allowing flowers to billow over the edges. Trellises, sundials, birdbaths, benches or planters are focal features, while the plantings themselves are a combination of shrubs, annuals and perennials, with emphasis on flowers of many colors and shapes These may be planted in graduated heights with taller plants at back, or sited in a patchwork arrangement, with tall specimens at front, back and throughout, living shoulder to shoulder with shorter companions. To accommodate the contrasting heights, borders are typically deep and grass lawns are limited in size. Sometimes turf only appears as a mowed walking strip between flower beds. Seen from a distance, the cottage garden is a riot of color. Plants are meant to spread and lean into one another, with little or no visible spaces between.

Roses, coneflowers, daisies, Nicotiana, and foxgloves are traditional favorites for the cottage garden. Sweet peas are also a traditional choice but they are short-lived in southeastern heat. Likewise, I have attempted to grow Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla) and killed it each attempt, so have moved onto plants that are more tolerant of heat and neglect. Some of my friends in cooler zones report their Lady’s Mantle is so prolific it borders on invasive. I am envious.

Herbs such as rosemary or thyme offer fragrance in cottage beds, and lamb’s ears, dusty miller or Artemesia are commonly used to provide a sensory element. Flowering vines such as jasmine, honeysuckle or Clematis can be grown on a trellis or tuteur to introduce a vertical element. Small flowering trees can do the same. Redbud, dogwood, crabapple or flowering cherry add both color and height.

The goal is to have flowers in bloom through the entire growing season. My favorite long-flowering perennials are tall Phlox, dwarf butterfly bush (Buddleia), Lantana, Bee Balm (Monarda), and coneflower (Echinacea). My favorite annuals are Melampodium, Four O’ Clocks (Mirabilis), Spider flower (Cleome), and Cosmos, all of which reseed readily, withstand heat, tolerate a wide range of soils, and need little maintenance other than deadheading. For cool season flowers, Johnny Jump Ups (Viola) are outstanding and they reseed readily.