It’s the sheer exuberance of cottage gardens that appeals to me – plants spilling over pathways, opportunistic self-seeders colonising walls and softening paving and the unexpectedly delightful colour combinations when a purple aquilegia pops up among the lime-green euphorbia, as happened in my plot last year. Then there’s the element of make do and mend: giving an old tin bath new life as a planter or using whatever spare timber you’ve got to hand to fashion a raised bed or simple rustic arch. The current vogue for “edimentals” – plants that are both ornamental and edible – fits right into cottage-garden style, too: globe artichokes towering above the borders, and crimson-f lowered broad beans and ruby-stemmed Swiss chard mixed in with the snapdragons and clove-scented pinks. There are no hard and fast rules for making a cottage garden, so pick and choose the elements from our suggestions that work for you – and enjoy using your imagination.
