James Whitcombe
The Charm of a Cottage Border
A cottage garden is not a tidy garden. That is rather the point of it. The look we admire in front of old brick and flint cottages comes from plants packed in shoulder to shoulder, allowed to flop, lean and wander where they please. Perennials are the backbone of that style, because they return year after year, filling the border with more substance than annuals alone and needing less replanting every spring.
The trick is to plan a rough framework, then stand back and let the plants do some of the designing themselves. A border made up of tall spires at the back, bushy plants in the middle and low, scented cushions at the front will look right from May through to the first frosts, and it will feed the bees and butterflies while it is at it.
Start with the Tall Spires at the Back
Give the back of the border to the plants that carry the height. Hollyhocks and delphiniums are the classic pairing, and nothing else quite matches them for vertical drama against a wall or fence.
- Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) will reach two metres or more in a decent soil. They are short-lived perennials, often treated as biennials, so let a few flower spikes shed seed and you will never be without them.
- Delphiniums prefer a rich, moisture-retentive soil and a spot out of strong wind. Stake them early with discreet canes, and cut the first flush back after flowering for a second show in late summer.
- Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) will seed themselves into any gap, and the bees adore them.
- Verbena bonariensis brings airy, see-through stems that stop the back of the border looking like a solid wall.
Plant them in generous groups rather than odd singles. Three hollyhocks together read as a feature; one on its own just looks lost.
Fill the Middle with Colour and Bulk
The middle layer is where the border earns its keep. Aim for plants roughly 45 to 75 centimetres tall that will knit together and smother the weeds.
Catmint (Nepeta) is worth its place for the grey-green foliage and the haze of blue that lasts for weeks if you shear it back after the first flush. Hardy geraniums, particularly the long-flowering Geranium 'Rozanne', will scramble about and weave everything together. Lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is another generous self-seeder, and its froth of lime-green flowers looks well with almost anything.
Add a few plants with contrasting leaf shapes so the border does not become a mass of green. The dark, almost black foliage of a hardy geranium such as 'Midnight Reiter' or the silver leaves of Lychnis coronaria will give the eye somewhere to rest.
Lavender and Low Plants at the Front
The front of the border should be low, scented, and generous enough to spill slightly over the path. Lavender is the obvious choice, and for good reason.
- Choose a hardy English lavender such as 'Hidcote' or 'Munstead', which cope better with our damp winters than the tender French types.
- Plant it in full sun, on the lean side, and clip it lightly after flowering to keep it bushy. Never cut back into old, bare wood.
- Underplant with low geraniums, Thymus, or alpine pinks for scent that releases when you brush past.
Leave a little bare earth between these front plants. It looks untidy for a fortnight and then gives your self-seeders somewhere to land.
Let Self-Seeding Do the Work
This is the secret of a genuinely relaxed cottage border. Once a few reliable plants are established, allow some of them to set seed and drop it where it falls.
Leave the seed heads on hollyhocks, foxgloves, aquilegias, lady's mantle and Knautia through the autumn. Do not deadhead everything, and do not be too quick with the hoe in March. You will get seedlings appearing in the gravel path, in the cracks of paving, and among the perennials themselves.
Then edit rather than tidy. Lift the seedlings you want to keep and move them to a better spot, and pull out the ones in the wrong place. You are steering the border rather than controlling it, and the result looks far more natural than anything you could have planned on paper.
A Border That Feeds the Wildlife
A cottage garden is one of the best habitats you can offer in a small space. Single, open flowers are far more useful than double ones, because the bees and butterflies can actually reach the nectar.
- Lavender, catmint and geraniums provide weeks of nectar in summer.
- Foxgloves and hollyhocks are favoured by bumblebees.
- Verbena and Knautia keep butterflies fed well into September.
- Left standing over winter, hollow stems shelter insects and seed heads feed the birds.
Practical Points Before You Plant
Prepare the ground properly and the rest follows. Dig in plenty of well-rotted garden compost or manure, because cottage plants are greedy feeders and most of them resent drying out.
Work out your heights roughly before you buy, and put the tallest two-thirds of the way back. Space plants closer than you would in a modern scheme, around 30 to 45 centimetres apart for the middle layer, so the border fills quickly.
Water well through the first summer, mulch in spring, and divide clumps of geraniums, catmint and delphiniums every three or four years to keep them vigorous. After that, the honest truth is that the garden will do most of the work, and it will do it better than you would.
