Contemporary Cottage Garden

The Contemporary Cottage Garden combines conventional garden design with edible forest gardening, ecological design and the historical, utilitarian uses of cottage gardens. A partially edible garden, the Contemporary Cottage Garden was designed to produce harvests of fruit and vegetables, herbs and cut flowers, in-keeping with the historical connotations of a cottage garden.

The garden is also highly beneficial to pollinators, with many of the implemented flowers accredited by the RHS as 'Perfect for Pollinators', with long flowering seasons and a range of both native and exotic flowers. The combined utilitarian benefits for both humans and wildlife alike were inspired by the concept of nature based solutions and the designer attempted to create a garden ecosystem, whereby humans act as the stewards, maintaining an organic system. The garden produces harvests from perennial crops, which eliminates the need for the garden to be dug over and re-sown annually like a market garden. This reduces maintenance but also helps to preserve microbial life in the soil and improves the potential for the garden to sequester carbon.

A meandering path with several off-sets was designed and built to allow the clients access to the range of fruit and vegetables for ease of harvesting. Granite tiles were smashed and re-laid which helped to keep the overall appearance of the garden more rustic and quaint.

The garden also contains bold forms of several exotic, tropical-looking species, helping to provide a more contemporary, exotic ambiance to the more traditional aesthetic of a cottage garden. The evergreen forms also help to provide structure in the winter months. Densely planted and with implemented groundcovers, the Contemporary Cottage Garden is a low maintenance garden as the implemented plants help to out-compete pioneer weeds.