The Right Approach to Cottage Gardening: Invest in Your Outdoor Space

View your garden as another room in your home, and invest in it as generously as you would your kitchen or dining room.

It goes against most people's instincts to spend money outdoors. We imagine nature—which costs nothing—will provide and care for everything. Alas, at least initially, this isn't true. Even a natural wild garden costs money upfront. But with good planning, economies can be made: some plants and trees create problems, while others are obliging and easy.

If you're as financially generous to your garden as you would be to your kitchen, it's comforting to know that a pleasant garden not only improves your property but enhances the whole fabric of your life. There are no electricity, gas, or rate bills for the garden, and hopefully nature will provide sun, wind, and most of the water to keep it flourishing once established.

The hefty expenses from wear and tear inside the house—recovering sofas, making new curtains, redecorating—won't crop up outside once the garden is constructed and planted. While a house deteriorates with time, a garden, especially a low-maintenance one, improves with age. There will be small annual expenses like summer bedding plants for tubs and window boxes, organic fertilizer, and the odd plant replacement. But consider how often you buy plants or flowers for the sitting room, furniture polish, or a vacuum for the house—why shouldn't a garden warrant the same love, maintenance, and treatment?

Taste and style are deeply individual. You or I may not like a bed full of marigolds or pansies, or municipal bedding choices, but that doesn't stop it being a joy to someone else.

So do what you like—you'll have to live with it. If you see a feature or plant scheme that pleases you, try it. Gardening books are there to inform, suggest ideas, shortcuts, and guidance—not to impose taste or style.

Colour

Cottage gardens are enhanced by using as many colored flowers as possible. But for a small town garden, the thought given to color at the planning stage—before buying a single plant—is crucial.

When my London garden was planned, I was disappointed to learn that none of the existing backyard plants could be saved because they wouldn't fit the new color theme.

Before you're initiated into horticulture's wonders, it's easy to imagine any plant, even with just one green leaf or a flower from two autumns ago, must be preserved at all costs. I've since learned it's not worth keeping plants that don't fit the scheme, as all plants in a trouble-free garden must work toward a year-round display.

So plant color, along with the site where they'll grow, should be considered at the planning stage. It's pointless to have plants that won't flourish in a certain position. For instance, if you want a light grey effect and plant lavender and senecio in a damp shady corner, they won't survive—they both prefer full sun. Choose the right plant for the site. There's usually a choice of plants for sun or shade with either dark or light leaves. Hostas, for example, have creamy variegated leaves, love shade, and make a wonderful display to brighten a dark spot from spring to autumn. Though they die back each winter, they're ideal for creating a light effect.

Vibrant colors in a small space can overpower subtle pinks and whites. To achieve a pleasing effect, limit your palette to colors that blend harmoniously.

I selected a pastel theme for my garden and discarded the violent yellow and orange flowers already there. This pastel choice was perfect—subtle light and dark pink, white, and a little blue married beautifully.

Buying Shrubs and Plant Care Cards

Some camellias, roses, or geraniums have lovely gentle pinks; others have strong strident reds. So examine the care card carefully before buying—especially if the flower isn't in bloom—to check if the color fits your garden plans.

On the other hand, it's easy to be tempted by the "pretty picture" on the care card and buy a plant totally unsuitable for your garden. However nice a plant looks, don't buy it without first finding out its color, preferred conditions, mature size, and so on. A low-maintenance garden needs trouble-free perennials and evergreens. Otherwise, you'll forever plant new things to fill gaps left by impulse buys that died because they were annuals or unsuitable for your soil or site.

Care card pictures usually show only the flower, not the whole shrub or plant—this can be very deceptive. Research the whole plant before buying.