There are many different garden styles but none of them is as effortless and vivacious as English cottage style. Such a garden can be easily recreated in any space if you only include some defining features.
Sustainability
This is one of the main features of any cottage garden, it’s low-maintenance but highly sustainable. Create a meadow, refuse any high-maintenance plants and support biodiversity adding wildlife habitats. A blooming meadow with butterflies and bees – that’s a perfect depiction of an English cottage garden.
Pastel blooms, vines and lush greenery create a secret garden space with a little bit of furniture.
A colorful meadow is a great example of an English cottage garden.
Blooms, greenery, trees create a beautiful English cottage landscape.
Chaotic planting of blooms will create a messy look, the tree adds vertical interest and a bit of shade.
This meadow garden is incredible: there's a tree, some greenery and lots of purple and pink blooms.
This lovely spot shows off different plants and flwoers that create a beautiful landscape with a relaxed cottage feel.
This is a classic English landscape with blooms, greenery and elegant garden furniture. Vines cover not only the wall but also the roof.
This English landscape looks so natural that it's hard to believe that it's created by someone.
Classic Plants
English cottage gardens are known for the abundance of flowers, and you should integrate them 100%. These can be peonies, hollylocks, foxglove, hydrangeas, geranium, beebalms, roses, sweet peas. Consider planting edible herbs in pots: lavender, lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, rosemary, clary sage, chamomile, basil, chives. Add fruit trees for both a beautiful look and some fruits, these can be cherry, apple, peach, pear or plum. There are many different types of hedges, bushes, ferns, and ornamental grasses you can add to your garden: boxwood, privet, yaupon holly, juniper, ferns, spirea, sweet almond, fountain grass, pampas grass and plume grass. Choose plants that can withstand your climate or are even native in your area, it will make them low-maintenance.
Pairing different colors together is a good idea for an English garden, they look effortless.
Layered planting with greenery, dark foliage and simple flowers will help you create your perfect English landscape.
Blooms aren't a must for an English garden, and its modern version can be composed with only lawn, greenery and trees.
Just a bit of blooms, lawn and greenery are a simple and relaxed combo that still looks quite manicured.
This is a very elegant English cottage garden with purple, yellow and white flowers, vines and blooming vines.
Greenery is dotted with some colorful blooms to create a beautiful look.
A gazebo is always a good idea for an English garden, you can cover it with vines. Lush blooms around become a beautiful backdrop for dining.
Layering Flowers And Plants
A cottage garden is usually a space that doesn’t look too manicured and refined and shows off more natural beauty. This beauty is achieved by layering different plants and flowers, hedges and trees. Balance the colors, shapes, and heights found in your yard creating a colorful carpet. Leave your comfort zone and pair up blooms you never visioned together before.
This amazing garden feels like a meadow, though it's not, this relaxed planting creates a necessary look and is low-maintenance.
Bold blooms paired with simple greenery, small trees and a gravel path create that one desired English landscape.
Consider how to attract butterflies to your garden, sustainability is important, besides, butterflies will make your space adorable.
Purple and mustard blooms are a grogeous color combo, grasses and greenery become a lovely backdrop for them.
Forget-me-not blooms are an amazing idea for a cottage landscape, and alliums will add color, too.
A pond is a nice way to support wildlife, bright blooms and vines add color and vertical interest to the space. A vintage blue bench is a perfect fit for an English garden.
This vivacious meadow shows off a big diversity of blooms and greenery and it's a great idea for an English garden.
Cover your walls with blooming or green vines to create a beautiful ambience. A pergola with vines is also a great idea for an English garden.
This is a more sophisticated version of an English cottage garden with greenery, lawn, trees and vases.
A blooming garden with small trees, lavender and greenery feels relaxed and beautiful.
Vertical Interest
Along with volume and texture, add vertical interest with trellises, arches, pergolas, and gazebos, and then plant climbing flowers (like clematis, climbing hydrangeas, or wisteria) and vines alongside them.
Install arches and trellis for vines, choose climbring roses for a gorgeous romantic look.
A bird bath is a great idea for an English cottage garden as it attracts wildlife and supports it.
Pink, mauve, yellow, purple flowers style the space at the fence and vines will cover the trellis hiding it.
Lavender and peonies are a great combo that not only looks amazing but also brings a lot of fragrance.
This beautiful and relaxed garden is styled with lush ornamental grasses and some violet and purple blooms. (via janebrown).
This is a modern and relaxed version of an English garden, with simple blooms like hydrangeas and grasses and topiaries. (via lucywillcoxgardendesign).
This lovely part of the garden shows off chamomiles, lavender and some other flowers, and vertical interest is added with trees. (via mygardeninspo).
Water Features
A bird bath or a pond will be a nice place of attraction for wildlife, and English cottage gardens are about sustainability and biodiversity. Make sure to add one to some spot and you’ll see how lively your garden will be!
The lawn is paired with lush greenery and purple blooms that make the planting eye-catching. (via fashionmumblr).
I adore this lush and vivacious planting with violet, purple, yellow and blush blooms, topiaries and greenery, wow! (via girlwhotravelstheworld).
Blooming vines are a characteristic feature of English cottage gardens, and floral upholstery echoes with them.
This lovely nook is styled with topiaries and blooming vines, and a sitting nook is located under the roof.
This cool space shows off topiaries, trees and some green vines, and the alliums add color.
Trellis roofs with vines are amazing to style an English cottage garden, they will give shade to your terrace.
This adorable space features a whole carpet of fantastic blooms, a lawn and vines covering the wall.
A sloped slot can be also turned into an English cottage garden, plant greenery and flowers that are classic for such a space.
This relaxed cottage garden shows off a green lawn, bright and white blooms and rocks.
These super lush plants, pink and violet blooms compose a gorgeous English cottage garden.