How to create a cottage garden

Creating a cottage garden for the first time (or the 10^th) can seem a bit intimidating. There are so many different plants to choose from, with different requirements in terms of sun/shade and type of soil. Where do you even start? It turns out that it’s fairly easy to create your very first garden and have it look amazing.

My mother is English, and British people are born with two innate skills: How to make a good cup of tea, and how to create a beautiful garden, all while saying “Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing at all!” Uh huh, right Mom.

My mother's cottage garden in the western mountains of Maine. — This is part of my mother’s garden in the Western Mountains of Maine. Notice the curve of the garden bed, the mix of different heights, colors, and textures of both the flowers and the leaves, and the repetition of plants, colors, and textures throughout.

When I first moved into my home nearly 20 years ago, I created a garden that was way too big for me to actually maintain. Most of it fell into ruin and I’ve been working on getting it back into shape bit by bit ever since. So, hot tip: Start small and take into account how much time you are able to, and want to, work in your garden.

Two years ago, I reclaimed the front garden area that was mostly weeds and grass at that point. I created a cottage-style garden with perennials, shrubs, and annuals and it has proven to be an easy to maintain and eye-catching garden. I wish I had done it this way from the beginning!

So, based on my years of floundering in the garden, and many consultations with mom, here are my top tips for creating your very first (successful) cottage garden.

Research what cottage garden plants will grow in your area
Choose the site for your cottage garden
Mark and dig up your cottage garden spot
Buy those beautiful perennial flowers!
Plant your cottage garden
Add mulch.
When you’re ready, add something more permanent, like shrubs, stepping stones, and statuary
Add annuals to fill out your cottage garden
Look at how your cottage garden grows
Adjust your garden as needed
- Right plant, wrong place
- Too many plants of the same height

Research what cottage garden plants will grow in your area

First, you need to know what plants will grow in your area. These are called plant hardiness zones. In the US, we use the USDA hardiness zones. You can find your zone here by plugging your zip code into the interactive map. Other regions of the world have similar plant zoning guides that you can information about find here.

If you go to your local garden center, they should just sell things that will grow well in your area, but that’s not always the case (particularly if you go to somewhere like Home Depot, or if you’re on the border of a zone (or have to drive a long way to a store). In Midcoast Maine, we are in a Zone 5b. In Northern Virginia, we were in Zone 7a. It’s based on temperature, so in Zone 7a, you can grow things that really like heat, but here in Zone 5b, we have to be careful to buy plants that can survive the winter. South Florida is a Zone 10a, where tropical plants will thrive, but it will be too hot for many plants we grow up here in the North.

When I first moved to Maine from Virginia, I bought a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus Florida) for my front yard, because that’s what we had in the front yard in Virginia! HomeDepot willingly sold it to me despite that fact that it really shouldn’t be hardy here in Midcoast Maine. But I planted it (somewhat crookedly), and although it took seven years to bloom, it’s still going strong! So miracles do happen. But try to get plants for the zone you’re in.

Flowering dogwood in bloom. This is the background to my cottage garden. — A Kousa dogwood would have been a better choice (and just as beautiful) for my Midocast Maine garden, but this Flowering Dogwood has done great, despite not really being suitable. I got lucky here, but it’s a much better idea to buy plants for your zone.

Choose the site for your cottage garden

Second, choose your spot. It’s easiest to grow things in full sun, but if all you have is a shady spot, you can totally make that work. You’ll just need to buy plants that are made for shade. Stake out the area loosely and then observe it to see how much sun/shade it gets. Obviously, that will change as spring turns into summer into fall, but probably not enough to matter too much. Think about how you will enter and exit the garden, thinking through how the garden will look from each angle – driving up to your house, walking up to your door, the view from the lawn, etc.

For my new cottage garden, I chose a very visible spot in my garden – the area where you pull up to the house and that you have to walk by to get to the front door. At one time, I had periwinkle planted under the dogwood and it was fairly neat and tidy. But eventually, the weeds and grass took over and I was left with this mess:

This is the spot I chose for my new cottage garden. — Before: I had a clematis growing on a post and a few daffodils planted, but the rest is just grass and weeds. Not making a very good first impression! That’s my miracle dogwood behind the clematis and on the right is a magnificent climbing hydrangea.

This is a spot that gets good sun. I really loved the idea of the first thing people would see being a really colorful garden.

Mark and dig up your cottage garden spot

Now, create your garden. You COULD it make it rectangular or square, but I personally think angles and curves make a garden much more natural looking and attractive. Even if you have a rectangle in mind, use a hose and lay it out on the ground and add some curves to that dang rectangle.

Once you have a shape that is pleasing, you can mark it out with chalk or paint that is made specifically for that purpose. If you have bare dirt (like if you just built your house), that’s easy. Or if you have grass, weeds, or something else in that spot, you’ll need to dig it out until you have bare dirt. If you plan ahead a bit, an easy way to clear out grass and weeds is to lay black trash bags over the area and weigh them down with rocks. Without air and sunlight, you’ll kill everything underneath, though it might be a bit unsightly during the process, and it does take a month or so. Then, just mark out your borders and loosen up the dirt.

Next, you’ll need to add better dirt to your garden. Get some compost, either by the bag from your garden center or delivered in bulk (or if you have a truck, you can have them load it into your truck by the cubic yard. They can help you figure out how much you need. Work the compost into the existing soil until it’s loose and rich looking.

Buy those beautiful perennial flowers!

Now, for the fun part – plant buying! Perennials are a great place to start. Perennials will die back in the winter but will come right back up next spring, making them a good buy. After a few years, you can even divide them to make more! Thinking of your spot and whether there is sun, shade, or a mix, go to your garden center and see what you like that fits those requirements. For an eye-pleasing design, you’ll want to have a mix of:

Different colors, but colors that go together. I have a lot of white, purple, blues, and yellows. But you could also do oranges, reds, purples. Or all pastels. As you’re gathering plants, lay the pots next to each other and just see how the colors look together. Do what you think looks good and you’ll be fine. Note: Not all of your flowers will bloom at the same time, even if they are all blooming together at the garden center. Most perennials are grown in the South and then shipped North, so don’t rely on how they look when you buy them regarding flowering.
You’ll also want to have a mix of plants that grow low and plants that grow tall. You can put the low ones in the front of your bed and the tall ones in the back.
Consider fragrance. Ok, I love the smell of lavender so freaking much. I planted two different varieties in my new garden. Obviously, roses smell wonderful, as do peonies. A garden should be a delight for all senses, so don’t neglect those fantasic fragrances.
Finally, you want a mix of textures. Notice how some plants have large broad leaves and some have feathery leaves. Having a mix will look really nice.
Buy more than one of (almost) every plant. It can be tempting to buy one of every interesting perennial you see, but your garden will look more cohesive if you have 3 of a lot of the plants (or 5 or 7 – odd numbers work best in most gardens).
Don’t ignore the foilage (the leaves) of the plants. If you repeat certain colors and textures throughout the garden, this will add to the cohesive feel. So, for instance, if you buy one plant that has red leaves, think about getting 2 more of the same plant or other plants that have a similar color leaf.
Allow room for growth. Perennials get larger over the years, so you don’t need to totally cram your garden full the first year. Give it time to grow together. Many perennials also spread. Your garden is a growing organism – so let it do its thing. In other words: Don’t buy too many plants!
Get flowers for free. You don’t have to buy all (or any of) your plants. You can move things from other areas of your garden, or see if your gardening friends are planning on dividing any of their perennials. I often have plants just plant themselves out of nowhere! You can also dig up wildflowers like black eye susan, lupines, etc. from your local area, but be aware they may get aggresive and spread!

Plant your cottage garden

First, before you even dig a hole, lay out your plants in your garden area in a way that you think will look nice. Then, walk away from the garden a bit and take a look. Pretend you’re just entering the garden area from various angles and see how the plants look from each angle. Is a tall plant blocking a short one? Are colors clashing? Keep moving them around until they look perfect. Remember: Straight lines don’t exist in nature, so they look weird in a garden. Make sure they are staggered and look natural and flowing.

Follow the instructions on the plant tag regarding how deep to plant the plant and how far to space it from other plants.Once planted, give them a good water.

My cottage garden in the first year. — Doesn’t look like much yet, does it? I’ve just planted most of my plants and added compost from my compost pile. But not to worry, by the next year, the plants had grown and filled in some spots and I remulched it in the spring to make it all look neat and tidy. Notice how I didn’t plant the plants right on top of each other – give them room to grow.

Add mulch.

Now it’s time to mulch. To make your job easier, and to make your garden look neat and tidy, get some shredded hardwood mulch, pine mulch, or compost to lay around the garden area, even where there are no plants. Lay it 2 to 3 inches deep. This will help stop weeds from growing in your garden, and it will define your garden area, and keep your plants from drying out.

When you’re ready, add something more permanent, like shrubs, stepping stones, and statuary

As you’re ready, you can add shrubs and annuals to the mix. You could totally make a garden with just perennials and it will look amazing. But you may want to consider adding some shrubs such as boxwood or birds nest spruces. Having these in your garden will give it some interest come winter time and add some structure to the garden.

Another year of my first year cottage garden. — In addition to perennials, my garden includes three boxwood shrubs (god I love that smell!) to give it some structure all year long, an iron post for my clematis to grow up (and to hang a cute bunny sign on), and concrete stepping stones that lead to my screened in porch. This picture is year one.

If you like, add some statuary or hardscaping, like bird baths, a stepping stone path, or a trellis for a vine like a clematis to climb up.

Add annuals to fill out your cottage garden

Annuals like impatients, marigolds, petunias, etc. won’t come back each year (unless you’re in a high zone) but you can use them to add new colors and fill in spaces during the heat of the summer

Look at how your cottage garden grows

Enjoy! A garden is an ever evolving thing, so if it’s not perfect right away, give it time. You can always move plants around as needed, add plants, or move them elsewhere. Some plants will die, and some will want to take things over. Remember, you’re in charge! I, personally, like to let nature take over a bit, but you can be as strict as a school marm if that’s your style.

My cottage garden in the second year. — Here’s my cottage garden in its second year. I planted some periwinkle as a ground cover and it’s started to spread. The lambs ear planted itself, believe it or not, but it looks so gorgeous that I let it be. The lavender and echinacea are settling in and staretd to get bigger.

As the season goes on, pay attention to your garden throughout the spring, summer, fall, and even winter. This will help you understand what plants flower at the same time (it might not be the same time the plant was flowering at the garden center), and how they look at different stages of the seasons. You can cut your perennials down to the ground before the winter if you like, or you can leave them for the winter (giving critters a place to hide) and cut them back in the spring before new growth starts. Take lots of photos for reference next year and marvel at how your garden grows.

Adjust your garden as needed

The most beautiful thing about a garden is that you can change it all the time. Nothing is set in stone (though trees and large shrubs are hard to move). Here are some examples of how I’ll be adjusting my garden this summer….juuusstt as soon as all this gross rain and humidity goes away.

Right plant, wrong place

I experimented with this roman chamomile in the front of the bed that I grew it in my Aerogarden and transplanted it, and boy has it spread! I thought this would be a pretty ground cover and I could also harvest it for tea! Right now it’s in full bloom and very healthy. However, it is “messier” and taller growing than I thought and is kind of overwhelming the space. So no worries! As soon as I harvest and dry the flowers, this puppy will be dug up and moved to another spot where it can be as messy as it wants to be.

Too many plants of the same height

This section here has too many spreading tall plants. They’re all gorgeous but they each need some space. The lamb’s ear spreads like crazy, as does the Bee Balm. This poor whie plant (I believe it is Achillea ptarmica… save your tags!) is being totally overtaken. I’m going to clear out some of the lambs ear and bee balm by digging up the sections that intruding and either plant them elsewhere or put them in my compost pile.

bee balm and lamb's ear have crowded out my achillea — Where the black arrow is there is a beautiful plant that nobody can see. The bee balm and lamb’s ear have crowded it out. Here, I planted too many tall plants next to each other. I should have spaced them out with a low growing plant in between. For now, I’m just going to thin out the bee balm and lamb’s ear so the pretty white plant can be seen.

Gardening can be so gratifying, because it’s like creating an ever-evolving piece of art. I hope this inspires you to give it a try! Drop any questions below and I’m happy to answer what I can.

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