Country garden Landscaping - The Landscapers Register

A country cottage garden is the archetypal English garden, where roses ramble and bees feast all summer long. Creating your garden with this image in mind will certainly do no harm to the wildlife, but do not forget to also consider the function of your garden and as well as its location. Will you have time to tend to the plants, cutting them back when they get overgrown? If your garden is located in the middle of an inner city block, a country garden may look a little odd. A country garden looks and thrives at its best when it echoes the backdrop that surrounds it.

Traditional country gardens contained mostly useful plants that could be eaten or used by some other means. Any ornamental plant life was usually just to fill up spare spaces as an afterthought. A modern country garden however can combine any number of each. It can be led by colour order and neat beds, or with a more random, rustic look that is inevitably easier to create. The overall look of a cottage garden is achieved by both ornamental plants and accessories; as well as herbs, vegetables, and fruits that offer a colourful display of sights and smells.

Depending on the formality of your garden, a lawn may play a smaller or bigger role. If you are opting for a more ordered, formal, country garden, a carefully dishevelled lawn may help set the scene, as well as providing some space for you stretch your legs and relax. If the design you intend is to be more traditional and rustic, a cultivated lawn could look mismatched. Instead, use as many flowering plants and ornaments as the space allows.

Herbs

The traditional staple of the country garden, herbs can be planted into the ground or they grow equally well in pots. Herbs tend to appreciate dry and sunny areas, so if your garden is not suitable, find a sunny window sill.

Catmint is a useful herb that cats have a penchant for. It can be planted into your garden to prevent cats nibbling at your other foliage. Catmint also makes a good tea. Plant it as border edging or along a path and watch the blue-purple flowers grow.

Lavender is perhaps the most well known herb and most recognised scent; one that any traditional country garden cannot do without. Lavender is good for hedging, and is mostly blue-purple, (echoing the catmint), or can be white and pinky.

Lovage is an eye-catching tall herb that grows to 6ft, looking great at the back of borders.

Flowers and Plants

A modern cottage garden often contains elements of herbs, climbers, and perennials combined with formal elements of topiary and box hedges. The traditional feel often focuses more on dense plantings. To achieve this full and well established look about your garden, plant in some herbaceous perennials and rapid-growth annuals, but not in straight lines. Particularly if they surround a lawn; your borders should look overflowing with plants.

Create some interest among the plants by using contrasting foliage. Attention grabbing plant displays are a good for drawing for attention to an additional garden feature.

Introducing climbing plants into the garden is a good way of creating that rustic, naturally wild look. Climbing roses particularly are the quintessence of the English country garden; find a tree, fence or some wall space for a scented rose or some honeysuckle.

Wildflowers are the staple of the countryside, and so any self respecting country cottage landscape should reflect this. A cottage garden combines all the natural and quaint appearances of the country life, but with a little tweaking to suit one's own tastes, desired maintenance, and particular location.

Wildflowers in the garden add a natural charm to the landscape and demonstrate a certain freedom within the space. To be completely free, you can either let them self seed wherever they choose, or control it slightly by designating an area to their rebellious blooms.

Cheddar Pink is a wildflower that peaks from May to August and grows up to 6 inches. It likes sunny spots in the garden, unlike Meadow Sweet, which should be planted in partial shade in the dampest part of your garden.

Containers

Pot planting in a country garden need not be restricted to the standard shop bought containers. To achieve that rustic look, utilise other objects that you can find to fulfil the function; buckets and watering cans are a particularly popular choice. It is still necessary to ensure that they have sufficient drainage holes.

Your usual pots will provide a nice point of interest when placed in a group together. Different-sized plant pots in groups of 3, 5 or 7 will create nice visual levels. Having 5 or more pots together will also help convey that lived in, lively look of a country garden.

Herbaceous perennials tend to do well in pots, while seasonal flowers look good potted around the cottage door.

Features and Ornaments

Well chosen ornamentation can add the finishing touches to your country design. The aim is to inspire olde-worlde reminiscence that harks back to the traditional British garden. The kind of artefacts featured in your garden should include things that serve the garden for practical purposes as well as aesthetic. Think garden and farming tools, casks, watering cans and stone troughs.

Garden statues can also be included, but again they should be reminiscent of old native history as opposed to that of Roman gods. Child figures are popular, evoking memories and peaceful reflection. Weathervanes and sundials are an equally traditional feature.

Garden furniture should be relatively unfussy and made from wood. Depending on the size of your garden you can include wood features like a bench, an arbour, or an archway. Pieces like arbours and archways look especially rural wrapped in flowering climbing plants. To make a focal point of your front door, attach some trellis with a width of about 4 ft either side and allow some climbers to grow up. A scented plant like a climbing rose will create a particularly pleasant entrance.

Paths can be another attractive garden feature. If your garden is less formal, a slightly offset, textured path will be suitable. Smaller scented plants positioned alongside the path will release their delicate fragrance whenever someone brushes by. This will help make your cosy country garden a treat for more than just the eyes.