Cottage gardens have a timeless appeal, and even more so in 2025 with the trend towards an informal, lived-in look. Here’s how to move away from pristine, clipped gardens to more romantic ones
Traditionally, cottage gardens are known for their colourful and happy mix of flowers, as well as herbs and vegetables, which also provide a bounty of pollen and nectar for birds, butterflies and bees.
Garden size doesn’t matter. Cottage garden style can apply to tiny townhouse gardens or large rambling ones. Design-wise there is no right or wrong, and contemporary cottage gardens can include features like creeper covered archways as garden room dividers and ‘hang out’ spaces for entertaining or just to sit and regroup.
There is a nostalgic aspect to it too. The heirloom plants that make up such a garden come down through generations of gardeners. They are the flowers that granny, even great granny used to love. It evokes a time when life was slower, simpler and yet more satisfying.
Getting started
For the gardener on a tight budget growing from seed is an affordable option. Mixes like the Kirchhoffs Scatter Packs and Colour Patches (tall or dwarf) for sun or shade contain several varieties in one packet. They take the guesswork out of making your own mixes, and flower at different times ensuring that the garden is always full of flowers.
Other easy to grow plants like like alyssum, asters, cosmos, forget-me-not, lavatera, marigolds, phlox, verbena and zinnias that can all be scatter sown.
Cottage colour palette
Cottage gardens often use soft pastel colours like pinks (Lavatera), lemon yellow (California poppies), lavender, mauve (cosmos and asters), pale blue (Forget-me-not), and white (Alyssum), which coincidentally are the colours that attract pollinators.
- Lavatera “Mont Blanc” or “Silver Cup” are modern varieties of an old cottage garden plant, very hardy and fast-growing. They grow 65cm high, do not need staking, and do best in full sun and well-drained soil. They have a long flowering period.
- Balsam ‘Tom Thumb’ mix has vivid pink, white, red, purple or rose coloured flowers that resemble double impatiens blooms, but don’t suffer from downy mildew. They grow well in both sun and shade but need protection from afternoon sun.
Beautiful spires
The tall spires of foxgloves, delphinium, larkspurs, penstemon and snapdragons add height to a cottage garden and were treasured picking flowers by older generations. They are just as rewarding today as flowers for the vase and most varieties are only available in seed packets .
- Delphinium ‘Giant Pacific Mix’ produce tall spikes, up to 1.5m high of semi-double flowers in all shades of blue as well as purple, pink and white. Chill seeds in the refrigerator for five days before sowing.
- Foxglove ‘Excelsior Mixed’ is an easy to grow perennial for partial shade. Plants grow up to 1m high and should be spaced 25cm apart. Be aware, however, that all parts of the plants are very poisonous to dogs, cats, and even young children.
- Snapdragons (Antirrhinum) ‘Fancy Show Mix’ are tall cut flowers in a mix of yellow, red, bronze, rose, pink and cream. They blend beautifully with most other garden plants. Start seed in seed trays and transplant when large enough to handle
Good companions
Leafy veggies like lettuce, Swiss chard, beetroot, cabbage, chives and carrots look good with flowers like alyssum, dianthus, marigolds, mini chrysanthemum, snapdragons, verbena and zinnias.
Most veggies and flowers enjoy the same growing conditions: full sun, well-drained soil, and regular watering.
Climbing or twining veggies and flowers like runner bean ‘Lazy Housewife,’ ‘Sugar Snap’ climbing peas, sweet pea ‘Mammoth Tall Mixed’ and Thunbergia ‘Black Eyed Susan’ can be trained up obelisks as a feature in the centre of a mixed flower and vegetable bed. For heirloom seeds visit Kirchhoffs.
Article and images supplied by Alice Coetzee
