English Cottage Garden Style for July GBBD

An English Cottage Garden Is ...

“... above all things a place of uncontrived beauty, 

easily enjoyed, where labour is well rewarded 

and quiet pleasures satisfied.”

Ethne Clarke and Clay Perry
 English Country Gardens

One of the elements of English cottage-garden style is a profusion of flowers in a variety of colors and textures. The overall effect appears 'uncontrived,' but in reality a great deal of thought goes into the choice and placement of plants. My garden has been six years in the making, and this year (for the first time) I feel I have achieved the effect I have been striving to create. It is quite difficult to define English cottage-garden style without going into its history, but some other elements include planting old-fashioned flowers, adding structures to create 'privacy,' using lots of pots of plants, making informal pathways, and using 'whimsy' to give a sense of enchantment. I went outside with my camera this morning to record what is blooming on this  Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day July 2011 and that's when it struck me that at last I have an English cottage garden. Please take a walk with me to see if those elements are really present ...

1) Plant for profusion

This is my biggest herbaceous border, filled with purple cone flower, liatris, gooseneck loosestrife, shasta dasies, and daylilies - to name a few of the perennials...

 

2) Plant old-fashioned flowers

Lavender Lavendula angustifolia

The roses are not blooming today, but buds are appearing ready for the second 'flush'.

David Austin Rose Rosa 'Lichfield Angel"

Cleome is an annual that readily reseeds itself - often in unexpected places.

Spider Flower Cleome hasslerana

Shasta Daisy Leucanthemum

Lambs' Ears Stachys byzantina

Phlox Paniculata 'Bright Eyes'

Liatris spicata 'Gayfeather'

Campanula 'Cherry Bells'

Purple Cone Flower Echinacea Purpurea

 2) Add structures such as picket fences and arbors.

The picket fence around the kitchen garden has a wonderful clematis draped over it ...

Clematis Jackmanii 'Tie Dye'

There are arbors at the entrance way to three of my gardens.

Bee Balm Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline'

The arbor you can see on the left in the picture above goes between the pond garden and the shade garden.

The cedar fence at the back of the shade garden provides privacy and adds a vertical element to the space.

3) Pots of plants

One of many pots of annuals, below, used to fill a gap in the perennial border.  I will write a post about my numerous planters soon.

Geranium Pelargonium species

4) Informal pathways

This pathway is between a bed of gooseneck loosestrife and the deck which is covered with a clematis and a grape vine.

Gooseneck Loosestrife Lysimachia clethroides

 5) Whimsy to create enchantment

The recently acquired fairy is now holding a basket of snapdragons.

Snapdragon Antirrhinum

I like to hang mirrors on fences ...

Delphiniums and Purple Cone Flowers

In the collage below, some other flowers blooming in my garden on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day are (clockwise from top right) milkweed, hydrangea, coreopsis and perennial geranium, as well as the lavender I showed previously.

In this summer season, one of my joys is the abundance of daylilies in bloom. They do require deadheading every morning, but they are worth it. I use creeping thyme as a ground cover under the daylily below ...

Here are some more of my daylilies ...

 

The pond is looking quite lovely surrounded by my cottage-garden flowers ...

 I hope  you agree my dreams of creating an English cottage garden in Pennsylvania have been realized!

Thank you, Carol, for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on your wonderful blog. On the 15th of each month, I look forward to visiting May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming around the world.

Happy GBBD, everyone!
Pamela x

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