There is no such thing as a standard cottage garden. Every person’s idea of what one should be has been tempered or enhanced by the experiences of life. Some may have been fortunate enough to have grown up in a cottage with a traditional garden, or maybe in a village where cottage gardens were a [...]
Many gardeners consider broad leaved evergreens to be rather dull. While this might be said about dusty laurels and aucubas in shady town gardens, it is not a very fair assessment of the myriad other species that are available. It is not fair to attribute this unfortunate reputation to laurels or aucubas either, for their [...]
It cannot be said that conifers played a vital role in the cottage gardens of the past, except for perhaps yew and pine. However, that is not to say that they cannot be included now if chosen with care. We must not exclude plants merely because they were not widely cultivated when the cottage garden [...]