A cottage garden can be a real dream if you lay it out properly and choose the right plants. Find out how best to proceed here.
It invites you to dream, is romantic, wild and simply beautiful - the cottage garden makes the heart of most garden lovers beat faster. Above all, the mixture of ornamental and useful plants that grow close together, as well as the interaction between the different plants characterize the cottage garden. But the natural layout without rigid topiary and English lawns also ensures that the cottage garden is so popular. Here we will show you which plants are best suited for the cottage garden and how to proceed when planting them.
Cottage Garden: The Best Plants
Anyone who creates a cottage garden is faced with an almost endless selection of plants. In addition to the typical types of vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cabbage or lettuce, fruit trees and the classic herb bed, numerous ornamental plants also make up the diversity of the cottage garden. Here you can find out which ten plants should definitely not be missing.
10. Bluebells
Every year the bellflower (Campanula) provides a veritable sea of blossoms. A multitude of small bell-shaped flowers that shine in colors from white to intense blue make the plant an enchanting eye-catcher. But not only people are enthusiastic about the bellflower - it is also one of the bee-friendly plants and attracts all kinds of beneficial insects.
Tip: With an insect-friendly seed mix like the Plantura Beneficial Magnet, you offer numerous beneficial insects a habitat and food.
9. Lady's Coat
Empty beds and bare soil are not desirable in any garden. Luckily, there are ground covers that not only create beautiful, green beds, but also suppress weeds, saving the gardener a lot of work. The lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is also an excellent ground cover. With its uncomplicated and robust nature, thePlant perfect for the cottage garden. At the same time, the plant also impresses visually with its dense, green foliage and light yellow flowers.
8. Peonies
Long-lasting, robust and simply beautiful - the peony (Paeonia lactiflora) has everything a plant for the cottage garden needs. Its large, radiant flowers and wonderfully intense fragrance make the plant so popular. But the plant is not only a great eye-catcher when it is in bloom in May and June, because the plant also impresses with a great play of colors in autumn: from an orange-red to almost violet leaf colour, the peony remains a great eye-catcher here too.
7. Jewelry Basket
The cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), also known as a cosmos, lives up to its name: With its filigree foliage and dahlia-shaped flowers, the plant is a real gem that cannot be found in any cottage garden may be missing. With its tireless blooms in white and various shades of pink, the cosmos ensures radiantly beautiful beds from May to September and is one of the summer bloomers par excellence.
6. Sweet pea
The annual sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is probably one of the most beautiful flowers that find their place in the cottage garden. With its delicate flowers and delicious scent, the plant enchants young and old. As a climbing plant, the sweet pea is ideal for greening the fence of the cottage garden, but it also cuts a fine figure as a cut flower in the vase.
5. Hollyhock
They are a must for every cottage garden: Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) provide an extravagant eye-catcher in every bed. The pretty plants stretch up to 2.5 meters in height and are densely covered with beautiful flowers. The hollyhock turns out to be a tireless permanent bloomer, which shows itself in all its bloom until September.
4. Lupins
With its large flower clusters, the lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) is always an eye-catcher in the bed. The perennial shrub is particularly popular in cottage gardenspopular because it exudes rural charm. The plant is also extremely popular as a cut plant for tall vases. But the lupine is not only beautiful, it is also extremely useful as a foundation plant.
3. Marigold
The marigold (Tagetes) has always provided color in the cottage garden. With a bright orange or golden yellow and its round flowers, the beautiful flower can be seen from afar and beautifies every garden. But it is not only its beauty that has made the marigold so popular: the marigold is also very easy to care for and exudes a great scent that repels annoying pests.
Cottage gardens are traditionally fenced
The beds are also bordered in the cottage garden. Up until a few years ago, the box tree hedge was an absolute favorite, but due to the box tree moth, it is becoming less and less important. Natural stone and wooden planks, on the other hand, are on the rise, and small walls made of bricks or woven pasture fences are also long-running favourites. In contrast, the paths in the cottage garden remain unsealed in order to preserve the natural flair: lawn and gravel paths offer a cost-effective solution here, bark mulch is practical and reliably suppresses weeds. If you want a particularly beautiful and rustic ambience, you can also use natural stones - these also exude their very own charm as a path.
Summary for planning your cottage garden:
- Rectangular floor plan with two crossing paths
- Rondell as a focal point accented by a fountain, tree or rose bed
- A fence made of slats or hedges keeps unwanted guests away
- Edge the beds with low hedges, natural stone, wooden planks or pasture fences
- Do not seal paths, use gravel, bark mulch or natural stone
If you also want to turn your garden into a real bee paradise, we have compiled the most bee-friendly plants here.