Grow Your Own Dreamy English Cottage Garden With Less Than $25 With These Expert Tips

Key Points

Use shared plant divisions and cuttings from neighbors or local groups to save money.

Cottage gardens embrace a natural, imperfect look that feels whimsical and customizable.

Start with affordable seeds, bulbs, and small plants to create a lush garden on a budget.

Cottage gardens are filled with charming, whimsical, and natural elements, creating an enchanted look. With a mixture of flowers, shrubs, and trees, cottage gardens can be as customizable as you want without the pressure of following certain gardening rules.

“These gardens are typically very natural-looking, free-flowing, and almost dreamlike,” Laura Janney, the founder of The Inspired Garden, says. “What I love about cottage gardens is that they are perfectly imperfect; they reflect how nature is not perfect.”

To help you achieve a cottage garden without spending a ton, we tapped pro gardeners to share their best tips to help you get started.

Meet the Experts

Michael Clarke is a landscape architect, horticulturalist, and founder of Yard Work.

Connect With Other Gardeners Credit: The Inspired Garden

Credit: The Inspired Garden

When it comes to finding plants and flowers, it may be worth tapping your local gardening community to see if any fellow neighbors have perennials to share when they divide their plants, Janney says.

Michael Clarke, a landscape architect and founder of Yard Work, agrees and suggests asking neighbors, friends, and Facebook gardening groups for plant divisions or cuttings of lavender, mint, yarrow, daylilies, iris, or lamb’s ear. These are all great cottage garden perennials that will thrive well, Clarke says.

Use Non-Organic Elements

Bring in some chairs, benches, bird baths, and outdoor art to layer throughout your cottage garden, Janney recommends. To avoid breaking the bank, aim to find these pieces at garage sales or even Facebook Marketplace.

Clarke also suggests using old buckets, crates, or broken pots as planters, so you don’t need to buy new vessels. You can also line flower beds with sticks, stones, and bricks to add a rustic touch.

Plant Seeds and Bulbs Credit: The Inspired Garden

Credit: The Inspired Garden

Start your cottage garden by planting some seeds, which often start at one to three dollars per packet, Clarke says.

“You can sow flowers like sweet peas, cosmos, zinnias, hollyhocks, calendula, nasturtium, bachelor’s buttons, and larkspur, which are classic cottage garden flowers, and are easy to direct-sow in spring for a summer of blooms,” Clarke explains.

Janney also recommends adding bulbs since they’re a simple, inexpensive way to get gorgeous flowers in your outdoor space.

“Buy plants that are spreaders,” Janney says. “Look for species that are known for creating volunteers or self-seed, such as bachelor button, black-eyed susan, coreopsis, coneflower, and yarrow.”

Plan Ahead With Layout

To save additional costs, Janney suggests pinpointing a few key spots in your garden and then planting perennial clusters instead of focusing on filling the entire garden bed.

You can also choose smaller plants since they’re cheaper to buy.

“If you have patience, consider buying smaller sizes or even order your perennials in the bare root form, which are significantly smaller than established plants,” Janney says.

Read the original article on The Spruce