English Cottage Garden
by Ms Judi
Title
English Cottage Garden
Artist
Ms Judi
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to working-class cottages go back several centuries, but their reinvention in stylized versions grew in 1870s England, in reaction to the more structured and rigorously maintained English estate gardens that used formal designs and mass plantings of brilliant greenhouse annuals.
The earliest cottage gardens were more practical than their modern descendants — with an emphasis on vegetables and herbs, along with some fruit trees, perhaps a beehive, and even livestock. Flowers were used to fill any spaces in between. Over time, flowers became more dominant. The traditional cottage garden was usually enclosed, perhaps with a rose-towered gateway. Flowers common to early cottage gardens included traditional florist's flowers, such as primroses and violets, along with flowers chosen for household use, such as calendula and various herbs. Others were the old-fashioned roses that bloomed once a year with rich scents, simple flowers like daisies, and flowering herbs. Over time, even large estate gardens had sections they called "cottage gardens".
Modern-day cottage gardens include countless regional and personal variations of the more traditional English cottage garden, and embrace plant materials, such as ornamental grasses or native plants, that were never seen in the rural gardens of cottagers. Traditional roses, with their full fragrance and lush foliage, continue to be a cottage garden mainstay — along with modern disease-resistant varieties that keep the traditional attributes. Informal climbing plants, whether traditional or modern hybrids, are also a common cottage garden plant. Self-sowing annuals and freely spreading perennials continue to find a place in the modern cottage garden, just as they did in the traditional cottager's garden.
Uploaded
August 27th, 2013
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Viewed 1,340 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/25/2024 at 11:48 AM
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Comments (27)
HH Photography
English gardens are some of the prettiest. Beautiful cottage and a colorful, cheerful landscape. v16/f
Angela Stanton
What a lovely cottage! I can see me living in there on a moment's notice! Great capture! v/f
Ms Judi
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment and promotion! Your comment means a lot to me and I really appreciate your opinion. Have a great evening Jim. =)
Ms Judi
Thank you so much Patti for your wonderful comment and promotion, I really appreciate your opinion. Have a great day/evening. =)
Ms Judi
Thank you so much Erica, Zulfiya, Teresa, Michele, and Kathleen for all the beautiful comments, fav, and votes! =) =) =) =) =)
Ms Judi
I am so glad you enjoyed this capture Hazel, Thank you so much for the comment,fav. and vote! =)