"Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft." ... Pericles Just about everyone will have heard about " The Cottage Garden " even those who do not garden themselves. It has become an important name for a type of garden that, despite, the best efforts of some, retains its enduring appeal What is a Cottage Garden? I am going to go with my own definition, "an informal group of plants chosen for their colours, shapes and usefulness ". Would be interesting to hear yours. The key word is I think, informal There is a romanticism connected to the Cottage Garden that might be misplaced. One theory is that Cottage Gardens came about as a result of the Black Death in the 14th Century. These gardens surrounded cottages, small buildings with perhaps no back garden as we understand it, simply a front garden. And the romanticism might be tempered by the probability that those living in the Cottage were on low income and downright poor. So for them the luxury of separate beds for vegetables, flowers and fruit bushes and trees was never an option. The Cottage Garden was a reduction of those beds into one area for everything, together, jumbled up Industrialisation, the growth of towns and a relative rise in income meant that by Victorian times increasing numbers were buying rather than growing food and so there was increasing space available to growers but the old necessity to get as many plants into the space as possible also continued too Gentrification and to 20th Century meant that Cottage Gardening became a movement, a style that continues today, right across the globe So, what are the main aspects of a Cottage Garden?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI launched this website on 16th August 2020 to bring together my thoughts on gardening,, its importance for health and wellbeing and two projects running concurrently, a renovation of my own garden on the West Sussex coast at Lancing and a nearby allotment. But also to learn from other gardeners about the inspirations for their plots, about their gardening projects and enjoyment of beautiful plants and gardens Archives
February 2024
Categories |