What is cottage garden style - and how to achieve it

We have a cottage style garden and I would like to make it a bit more contemporary. Maybe because it now looks old and dull.
Are there any tips that you can give us to amend this please?
By changing the paths, perhaps, to a different material? If so, which one?

Would a picture of our cottage style bridge help, to see if you or others can suggest we can make it less cottage style?

Thank you

tut nmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tur mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Loved this video and your accent! Love when you say "herbs" with the "H"! I think I'll do that - even in the USA!

Un grand merci pour la traduction en Français 🙂

Watching this wonderful video and all the while having an obsession with yellows oranges and reds. I feel a rebellious cottage garden coming on

Most informative. I never knew exactly what the elements of a cottage garden were to explain it to someone else. Although I’ve seen them before. One was at Dove Cottage in the Lake District. Here in Upstate South Carolina I’ll have to go for a subtropical cottage garden with daffodils and dutch irises followed by bearded irises, tiger flowers, and dianthus. Daylilies, echinacea, artimesia, daisies, ornamental red okra, Elephant Ear, American asters and goldenrod.

Without doubt, one of the finest videos about Cottage Gardens . . . . thank you so very much!

Lovely to watch this. I'm starting growing some little fruit shrubs/trees in my garden. I picked up raspberry and blackberry. Also adding some Hebes to my eventual front hedge. My back garden which is middle sized is a South aspect. While my front garden is a north aspect and is rather small. My goal with the north garden is to provide as much privacy as possible. My goal with the back is to support wildlife first and foremost. I have two ponds and I saw your advice on allowing shallower and deeper parts of the pond, so I'm going to rectify that situation with a piece of lumber dipped in so wildlife can crawl out if it needs to. I'll do that on both ponds

What is the tall spiky plant against the house by the window at around the 2.30 time on the video. Well , i guess it shows up in several parts of the vid. I think it is very nice!

What is the SUPER tall kind of spiky plant in front of one of the windows?? So interesting!

I have to say how refreshing it is to watch this informal and abundant approach to cottage gardens.
It has grown a little tiresome to be told of the rules, style and the plants that are an absolute must which totally misses the point of a cottage garden.
Thank you

My favourite gardener... thank you for sharing

Must be the fourth time I've watched this and love and learn so much. Fennel and angelica is a must this year, I agree.

This is wonderful, encouraging :)

I'm starting a cottage garden at my new farm of 12 acres.
I do have grass but only because it was there and I have no perrenial or shrubbery just yet.
As I get more and more perrenials,bulbs and shrubs I will cut the beds larger and finally remove the lawn..
I have many wild and airy annuals planted from seed that can re seed themselves. Daucus carota , cosmos , zinnia, forgetr me not. Etc, etc
Thank you so much for this wonderful video. It is very inspiring but intimidating as well !

A beautiful video. I love a shabby cottage garden, it's my favourite style, nothing too manicured or regimented, but more natural, slightly wild and romantic. ❤

What about spacing? Or you just cram everything together. I would love to achieve this look

I love your videos so much! They are a feast for the eyes and ears, and chock full of useful information! Thank you! 👏❤

Beautiful! Thank you.
What I would like to know is how all these plants can grow so close to each other and yet, there is no sign of disease? If I plant anything without space, my plants get powdery and downy mildew, regardless of sale tag proclaiming of plant to be disease resistant.

Thanks so much for sharing 🙏
I love the cottage style and in fact I designed my garden four years ago in just this design. I have a channel on here that shows a video compilation on what it looked like last summer. I used orange and yellow with purple and pink in places to contrast and to draw the eye through the border. You are correct, it is good to plant trees to add height to the border and I intend to grow climbing roses such as madam Alfred carrierre up through my black boy peaches in the orchard cottage garden. Being in New Zealand, we still have a draw to the mother land and when I was a child I always looked through gardening books with gorgeous and romantic cottage gardens, which was the inspiration for my very own garden.
I would love to see more on cottage gardens from you, and thanks again 👌😃

Thank you for this I’m thinking of redesigning my garden and really appreciate the tips x

That was a great summery of what a cottage garden is with many beautiful example photos and clips 👍 Such a joy to watch 🌸💕

Does anyone know what that ridiculously tall spiky flower is?

Love very much

Beautiful garden

That white astilbe was gorgeous! My Japanese astilbe is glorious this year, my cottage garden has English thyme and gorgeous sage that is flowering abundantly. However my Dame’s rocket isn’t doing well this year due to a late frost in our area.

so is there no planting in patterns? Still slightly confused. I have cornflowers, aqualias, floxgloves and laupins ready to go. Do I plant them together in clumps, or just mix them about the garden individually? thanks

Love the birds in the background lololololol sweeeet ❤❤❤❤❤❤

I’m with you Judy lololol😂

Love the theory and practice; but have to adjust the species for survivors of long hot humid summers here in SE USA

Hi Alexandra, Thanks for your video. I appreciate the visuals along with your voice narration. It's much easier for a mediocre gardener to follow along.

What a fun garden!

I'm 24. My cottage garden I laziness disguised as opulence. I throw dozens of plants into a small area. Annuals mostly, and some native "weeds" like forget me not, columbine and Welsh poppy which I never planted. I try anything and keep what both thrives, and looks good. Throw everything in chaoticly, and order will arise. Organised chaos, and eccentricity is the key to a good, unique, 21st century cottage garden.

You can't go wrong with cosmos, tobacco, and a sweet pea wigwam. That's my basis for a cottage garden, but even without those 3, so long as it looks wild and chaotic and colourful you're doing something right. It should look colourful, yet wild.

I love Perovskia (Russian sage)!

This is a wonderful video. Thanks, Alexandra!

Love it

Thank you very much for this video

I love Yarrow in my garden, it is so pretty and comes in so many lovely colours. Very informative.

I love the cottage garden style, my cottage style involves just ramming as many different plants in as I can, i love the chaos 😅

I'm 20, and I started my first garden this year. This channel helps me so much with the big picture.

My main plants must have an old folk name. Fox glove, daffy-down-dillies, forget-me-not, sweet William, Brown-eyed Susan, love-in-a-mist, snow-in-summer, baby's breath, bachelor's buttons, day's eyes, etc. Then, roses, of course.planning for spring, summer and autumn is important to me as well. It is SUCH a pleasure.

Your video was a pleasure to watch. Cottage gardens look so beautiful but now after understanding their practicality and ease I appreciate them all the more.

Do you plant that stay green in the winter. I can see my whole little back yard from my living room, and I want to have interest in winter as well.

That really made me smile. Im quite good at failing and my garden really wants to be for wildlife. It was part of a farmers field once.

I decouver your videos very recently and it’s perfect bbecause I start this year my first real cottage garden.thnak hou so much!

I been watching these for 3 years while i build my garden. My garden has evolved into a Japanese rose garden. Its filled with japanese pines tress and all varieties of roses. to me it beautiful. I like the midzide garden host because she doesnt tell you what to do or plant just inspires me to play

I never liked hollyhocks until I grew the wild single flowered variety and now I can't get enough of them. I grew the black ones and my they are so stunning in full sun where the red and purple tones come out. They are so bold and stunning. I've been trying to get seed for the basic pink ones and can't find it anywhere this year. Only the doubles which I don't enjoy at all. I love umbellifer flowers as their beautiful umbrells are so essential to that wild cottage look but actually have moved away from the classics like Queen Annes lace and started growing herbs with that type of flower instead. Carraway is a favourite of mine as is growing coriander in hot weather so it bolts to flower, it's beautiful.

I also love hops grown as an ornamental vine. When you don't grow it up a 50ft pole like the hops farms do, it is actually a very attractive, bushy rampant vine with the most stunning green flowers. I lost my hops vine, it went with a house I sold will have to find another supplier. Even if you don't brew, the flowers can be used for tea that helps with sleep - passionflower, hops and lavender. For years I've struggled to grow lavenders we have high humidity and heavy clay soils. But I've just discovered cat mint which creates a similar look and is easily grown from seed.