Create an amazing garden that has plenty of color, but requires minimal work! While formal gardens thrive on order and well-defined spaces, cottage gardens feature cheerful tangles of flowers that form variety of hue and texture.

Create cottage garden style that is relaxed, colorful and fun with these six tips:

Start Small. Don’t create a garden too big that you don’t have time to feed regularly. Keep your cottage garden small, and most of all, fun. Over time, add plants that you love.

Invest in Soil. Starting with good, rich soil where plants will thrive with a minimum of watering and fertilizing cuts the work from the start. Add organic matter yearly, such as English Gardens Soil Conditioner.

Go Informal. Cottage gardens aren’t meant to look designed. They’re usually free-flowering and sometimes, have an unrestrained look to them. To achieve this informal look, avoid planting in straight lines or defined patterns. Let plants cascade over paths and weave through each other. It adds to their charm. And grow self-seeding plants that will pop up in unexpected placed.

Look for Soft, Romantic Plants. Most cottage gardens have a romantic feel. Part of that feel comes from the flowers. Look for blooms in soft pastel shades. Also look for plants packed with petals, such as peonies and roses. As an added bonus, many of these varieties are also wonderfully fragrant!

                           Consider including spring-flowering bulbs, purple coneflower, wild indigo (Baptisia), daylilies, asters, and perennial sage.
                                                          Also try cosmos, foxglove, snapdragon, pansy, bleeding heart, and hollyhock.

                                  
                                                                    For foliage interest, try lady’s mantle, lambs’ ears, or blue fescue.
                                                                 Try tough, disease-resistant Knock Out shrub roses or a climbing rose.

Use Curving Pathways. Create soft meandering pathways instead of those that follow a straight, structured line. Many paving materials work in cottage gardens, including wood chips, stone, old bricks, and flagstone.

Offer Inviting Furniture. A table and chairs beckon visitors to sit and enjoy your stunning cottage garden. Make your cottage garden into an outdoor living space by adding comfy furniture. Look for wicker or painted metal furniture. The furniture doesn’t have to match, rather it should be an informal and comfortable selection. Also use weathered wood fences, arbors and gates are right at home among a collection of cottage plants.

While all of these elements are commonly found in a cottage garden, planting a garden how you like it will create a delightful cottage garden to suit you!