From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 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 stylised 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-bowered 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.

The view from the  arbour  where you look down into a small amphitheatre.

On the topside of amphitheatre is the cottage garden area. We have

only fully put this in July 2015. Before that we were dependent on a weekly

supply of sullage water. Since September  2014  we have put down a bore

to 36 metres and struck abundant water. With a  branching irrigation pipe,

bore water can now  be brought to taps on the topside and bottom  side

of our house.  Sprinkling can be left on different areas for several hours at

a time for minimal cost. Having abundant  water for our garden, has greatly

changed how we do gardening.

Since September  2015  we have put down a bore

to 36 metres and struck abundant water.

Different areas of our cottage garden shown above and below.

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  Specific  Cottage Garden Plants:

Specific  plants  are not named but the photos show the  rich changing colours and

the low growing plants.

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Storm Lilies as part of Cottage Gardens:

For months on end, there were numerous storm lilies planted amongst

the low garden plants. They were whorled grey-green straplike 300 mm

long-limped leaves. It had been many months between heavy rain. A big summer

storm came and in a week the whorled grey-green straplike leaves suddenly

became very erect green straplike leaves. A central flower stalk emerged

with a bulbous flower head. In several more weeks the bulbous flower heads

burst open into the pink trumpet-like flowers shown below. In another

couple of weeks, the flower heads formed into rounded seed pods. A month

later, the seed pods split open and released many flat windborne seeds.

These seeds then produce abundant supply of new storm lilies wherever they fall.

See this website: Images for storm lilies Australia

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See the next post: Post 7: Permaculture Garden Room