Cottage Style Inspired Gardening Ideas | Garden Home (109)

On this episode of Garden Home, host P. Allen Smith will discuss Cottage Style Inspired Gardening Ideas. From color foliage varieties to projects like a bountiful cornucopia, Allen will give you the best ideas on how to turn your garden home into a cottage style garden.

Topics Include
Color as a Principle of Gardening
Colorful Foliage Plant Varieties
Using Foliage in Garden Borders
Cottage Style Containers
Bountiful Cornucopia
Winter Colorful Gardens
How Time Affects the Garden
Texture, Patterns and Rhythms in the Garden
Cottage Inspired Stone Garden Entry
Chicago Botanical Garden Tour

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P. Allen Smith is a landscape and garden designer, horticulturist, preservationist and television host. His passions span the subjects of community, health, sustainability and history. He has designed the grounds at many of the nation’s most notable estate properties, townhomes, and commercial complexes. And, for over 19 years, he has shared his green knowledge and insight with the public via ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, his own PBS television, and six book titles. Currently, Allen is focused on residential, commercial and community designs that are beautiful, improve our contentedness, and our social and physical health.

To learn more about:
…Allen’s horticultural interests and secrets, sign up for his weekly newsletter: https://pallensmith.com/

…visiting Allen’s Garden Home above the Arkansas River, see https://pallensmith.com/tours/

….Allen’s favorite plants mentioned in his social media, see: To review many of the plants Allen mentions in his posts and that are planted in his own garden, see https://pallensmith.com/gilbert-h-wild-allens-favorites/

….retaining Allen’s Garden and Landscape design firm, see http://www.pallensmithandassociates.com/

…Allen’s Garden Home-inspired intergenerational community in Monroe, LA, see https://www.gardensofsomerset.com/
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How to get the look of a cottage garden in a small City space right after this over the past 20 years as a garden designer I’ve enjoyed helping homeowners create private sanctuaries full of beauty and wonder I find each garden to be a fresh opportunity to explore ways to create

Uniquely personal spaces these are just a few of the gardens I’ve helped to transform into garden hose Hi I’m Allen Smith welcome to the garden home where you’ll find practical ideas beautiful landscapes and much much more to help inspire you to push the boundaries of your home right out into the garden to the edges of your property now today’s show we’re going to explore the cottage

Garden and how this style can fit in any size space even small city spaces now the whole idea behind the cottage garden is to pack a variety of materials all beautiful into one small area now springboarding off this idea throughout the show I’ll be showing you how to create a

Beautiful cornucopia that you can fill with the harvest that you’ll take from your own garden when I design a garden whether its large or small always fall back on my 12 principles of design it’s kind of a garden designers checklist if you will so we don’t have time to cover

All 12 of those principles in today’s show but we’ll focus on a few that will allow you to take a small space and make it feel larger and more expansive the first principle we’ll cover is color now what I like about color is it gives us

An opportunity to have some fun in the garden I approach it as a painter wood applying paint on a canvas that’s what I keep in mind as I walk through a garden center or nursery full of bright vivid blooms but sometimes the sight of all these plants can be a little overwhelming

You wonder which ones to buy and how many to get so by the end of today’s show I hope that you’ll be able to walk through a nursery with confidence and pick out plants that will be just right for your cottage garden another principle which is made up of three

Ideas I sort of lumped together texture pattern and rhythm works hand in hand with color you see visual rhythm in a garden is just as important as the rhythm that we hear in music let me give you an example of rhythm here’s a series of containers that are just lined up

That’s important to understand that you have to have at least three of the same elements to get the beat going now on to texture and pattern you see when these elements are used effectively in the garden they can create the look of tapestries or richly patterned quilts see how this

Drift of blooms and foliage weaves a beautiful design now the last principle we’ll talk about is time and what I mean by that is the age or the implied age of an object in a garden or even a garden itself here’s a good example when you look at this home you naturally assume

It’s old and that’s exactly what the owner set out to accomplish when they built this house they wanted an authentic looking New England salt box and they truly achieved it not only as the homes exterior authentically reproduced but also the gardens surrounding the home are full of plants

That may have been found in 18th century gardens it’s a beautiful cottage garden that’s set off by home that truly evokes the feeling of time and place time isn’t limited to just structures it can also refer to plants and the way they change over the seasons a mossy path that

Evokes a feeling of age even garden ornament when you combine color pattern texture and rhythm and time along with my other 12 principles of design you’re guaranteed success now throughout the show I’m going to refer to several terms one is garden home and the others garden room and they all work together

You see I discovered this idea of the garden home and I was a student of garden history and design in England I went to these wonderful gardens many of them quiet grant but what they had in common was a series of garden rooms that often surrounded the house the

Collection of rooms made up a garden home now this concept really stuck with me and when I came home I created a garden home for myself now the idea really is very practical because for me dividing spaces into more manageable areas just makes a lot of sense and you

Can also develop each space in ways that reflect different personalities or styles of course the greatest thing about a garden home is that you have all this expanded living space now let’s take a look at color When I said color I’m sure that immediately a picture like this probably came to mind a field packed full of beautiful blooms these are ranunculus flowers at the flower fields in Carlsbad California each one of these plants is slightly different even within the same color you see some have peony shaped blooms while

Others are more Daisy like but all equally beautiful when I visit sites like this I’m always reminded that nature is quite an amazing artist constantly creating masterpieces large and small but you know color in our Gardens doesn’t have to come from flowers alone for the past several years I’ve become increasingly interested in

The foliage of plants here’s an old-fashioned favorite that’s experiencing a resurgence in popularity coleus each spring when I begin to add that extra splash of color with annuals in my garden I always try to think beyond the bloom of a plant and really concentrate on its foliage you see

There’s a whole world of color that you can find in the leaves of a plant take this coleus for example each leaf is a work of art just look at its deep maroon color its ruffled edges almost make it look like velvet you know I’m amazed by the variety of coleus

Available to us today they offer such a kaleidoscope of color you know I use them in containers and also in my flowerbeds those that get partial Sun as well as full Sun what I like about using these dark rich colors is that it adds a lot of depth to my flower borders last

Year I planted a coleus that was similar in color and it added visual interest in these flowerbeds right up until the first hard Frost now don’t be deceived by these small plants once the summer heat rolls in they’ll really take off I recently discovered a series of coleus varieties

That I think are knockouts in the garden it’s the stained glass works you see you’re looking at one called Fright Night isn’t that a great name for such a colorful plant and look at those interesting leaves now here’s one of my favorites tilt-a-whirl the fam like leaves make it

Look like something other than a coleus and just look at the rich colors ranging from pink to salmon these look great planted with globe amaranth and if you’re looking for a really deep richly coloured coleus you should try trailing Rhodes it nearly took over the corner of

My front garden this summer for more on creating a colorful garden that takes advantage of foliage plants I visited with Cathy poof all of beds and borders in Laurel New York Cathy’s regarded as a color expert and she’s put together some beautiful display gardens let’s take a

Look Cathy it’s the flower the bloom that really dazzles us but it’s the foliage of the plants that really help hold the garden together I think so I design with foliage first when I do a container or the border I think there’s as much interest in

Foliage as there is in flowers you have different colors different shapes I find that the foliage holds the border together even when the flowers come in and out of bloom well this is like a big laboratory or our studio for a painter where you’re creating different color combinations and experimenting all the

Time absolutely and it also gives us an opportunity to show our customers and any of the public that comes to visit us with the mature size of these plants are they they don’t often look like so much and a 4 inch pot and they bloom long

Into the fall and we have a beautiful season with these flowering plants that can just be in color the whole season and accent perhaps a perennial border I don’t know that it’s practical for a home gardener to plant annuals this densely but they can certainly take a segment of a combination that they

Really like and use that in their own perennial border – yeah enhance summer color right pick your favorite color theme and here you have a beautiful combination to work from Kathy do you find that visitors to beds and borders this time of year particularly are amazed at the amount of color you can

You can have in your garden oh absolutely and that’s our motivation for putting these Gardens in is to show people how much color we can have even in August I find that so many home gardens are really deprived of color in August and there’s no need for that with the proper plant selection

Fertilization and watering the garden can look beautiful certainly for us until mid-november well I mean these displays are a real testament to the use of texture and foliage color along with bloom absolutely because the foliage can hold the garden together even when flowers are coming in and out of bloom

As you can see Kathy combines color in a masterful way now the color choices that you make often reflect the style of the garden you’re creating more formal or sophisticated garden schemes may require more coordinated color palettes like a monochromatic color scheme for instance Cottage Gardens on the other hand by

Their very nature can be just a mixture of colors anything goes many of the plants that we just saw at Kathy’s can apply in the flower garden or in containers let’s take a look at a container that combines both flower and foliage beautifully and is perfect for full Sun It all starts with a simple recipe that’s something tall and spiky in the center around in full element in the middle of the container and to finish it off some cascading plants that will spill over the edge since this containers designed for full Sun I’m focusing on contrasting colors

Purples and yellows for the tall and spiky element I’ve used a foliage plant called dracaena or it’s often called a spike now remember that if a container is going to be placed against a wall this tall spiky element should be planted toward the back if it’s going to

Be viewed from all sides just place it in the middle of the container they’re seen as ideal for a composition that will be viewed from all sides because of its pointed leaves in symmetrical shape now the round in full plants include bold leaf Persian shield straw flowers

Called golden buttons and hella cry some dwarf silver cascading plants have a way of relaxing a composition and add so much to soften the container here I’ve used petunias blue storm to bridge the gap between round and full and cascading plants a Lantana called new gold and Scavullo Sapphira completes a

Composition no matter the size of your garden there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be full of life and color particularly given the myriad of plants we have to choose from today right now I’m putting together a cornucopia to fill with autumns bounty this is a really simple project let me show you

How to put one together I’ve used a two foot by two foot piece of chicken wire one inch mesh and rolled it into a cone and I’m just gonna fasten it together by bending the tines over like this next I just rolled back the mouth of the cornucopia to create

Somewhat of a collar or a lip and then at the other end I begin to twist the cone and give it a slight curl for that classic cornucopia shape all right now with the frame complete I’m ready to apply the sheet moss now this can be bought at your local florist or hobby

Store and I apply it with some hot glue just by putting it on the backside of the Moss like so and then I start up here at the mouth of the cornucopia and work myself back toward the tail if you will now when you’re finished it will look like this

You can see I’ve taken some grapevine and twisted it around to follow the shape of the cornucopia this also helps keep the moss in place now in just a little bit I’m gonna fill this horn of plenty with autumns bounty but first let’s take a look at some great examples

Of how the winter garden can be filled with color with a visit to the New York Botanical Garden Now you might expect New York and December to be bleak but a walk around the Botanical Garden reveals some sights you might not expect in the midst of winter Todd Forrest who specializes in trees at the garden shows us around most of us usually don’t think of visiting a

Botanical garden in the winter but it’s actually one of the best times to see see plants it’s actually my favorite time of year here in the garden because there are so many things that you don’t think of as beautiful that are really at their best the plants with berries Pines

With the great bark there’s actually a lot of color there’s the winter great great color bear berry plants in particular Hollies and viburnum and Nandina another plants the wonderful bark well I was knocked out by that deciduous Holly at the entry coming in today it’s got fantastic

Bright red berries and it really just takes off in the winter it looks great of course the color of berries just doesn’t stop with Rader they’re purple and yellow berries as well one of the most spectacular purple buried plants is beautyberry a calla carpa and it has a very unnatural almost electric color

Purple and this time of year really just glows and then of course there are barks we have some of my favorite plants are really grown for their barbs or at least our most spectacular when their bark is prominent as it is in the winter including paper bark maple can Yoshio

Pine and lace bark pine all wonderful bark plants and then the maples themselves offer a wide range of bark color and texture exactly there is sangu kaku which is a cultivar of Japanese maple has a sort of coral color horn it’s one of my favorite spectacular

And and it’s they really brighten up a great day they’re almost best to be seeing when a sort of overcast and chilly and then of course the the red twig and yellow twig dogwood again those are sort of some of our hardest-working horticultural plants they’re they’re great both in formal gardens and in

Naturalistic plantings now if you’re inspired to add some winter color to your garden you might consider trying hellebore us winter jasmine or the fragrant winter honeysuckle well for warmer parts of the country you might try camellias or Mahoney a– sometimes known as gray poly they’re great additions to the garden during the cold

Bleak month seeing gardens in winter reminds me of yet another element of design and that’s time earlier in the show I use as an example this beautiful 18th century style New England salt box well it’s relatively new it has the look and feel of an old home my garden was designed to

Reflect the time from when the house was constructed which was around the turn of the century the arbors in the fountain garden reflect the style of the front porch and I’ve even planted roses that reflect the same period of the house which is around the turn of the century

This is Frau Karl drew ski which was introduced around 1901 and she blooms from Spring until fall I mentioned that time also applies to plants and how they change throughout the seasons let’s take a look at another example from my garden One of the most exciting times of the year for me in my garden is the spring it’s a time of year when all the flowers begin to unfold and it’s a time I can appreciate all of the hard work and planning I’ve put into my gardens design

You see it’s important for me to get the timing and varieties of plants right so I have a continuous sequence of bloom for instance my tulips are just finishing up but these crabapples are in full glorious bloom I can’t imagine my garden without these beautiful small ornamental trees each season they

Provide so much beauty in the spring they’re covered in these white blossoms and in the summer well they have beautiful shiny green leaves for the fall they’re a wash and golden foliage and in the winter they’re covered with these tiny crabapples which serve as food for the birds 20 years ago I would

Have never dreamed of planting a crabapple tree in my garden you see they had developed such a reputation justifiably of being messy and prone to disease that you never would want one around but thanks to work being done by places like the National Arboretum new introductions of crabapples are now

Available to us improved cultivars of crabapple such as this one called Narragansett don’t have the problems the old varieties had I love contrasting foliage forms to show texture in the garden a broadleaf plant like hosta cross a regal next to the fine feathery texture of ferns such as Japanese painted ferns just one example I create patterns in the garden by planting drifts of color beds of tulips

In the same color or color family grab the eye if you think about it this is what’s so attractive about seeing fields of flowers grown commercially there are rows upon rows of flowers repeated over and over creating a pattern that the eye can follow texture and pattern can also

Be expressed through stonework or architecture at the Chicago Botanic Garden this courtyard houses a japanese-inspired stream made from different sized stones even though the rocks are stationary you feel as though you’re looking at movement which leads us to rhythm in the garden you see rhythm can be established quite

Simply by using plants like box woods or trees planted in interesting patterns often I think that rhythm affects us in a subtle way almost on an unconscious level let me give you an example these are pleats lime trees at Chatsworth house in England the long lines of trees one after another creates

A pattern or rhythm that leads the eye up to the house it’s a hedge on stilts you might say in my own garden I’ve created a sense of rhythm with four beds surrounding the grassy oval in my rondell garden the clip boxwoods complete the circuit around

This garden and also serve as a backdrop for plants growing in the flower beds another example is containers placed in a series or a row these urns at a nice architectural element to help punctuate the magnificent view of the Chicago skyline beyond you know there are so

Many opportunities for us to use texture pattern and rhythm in the garden while I’ve used it here at this entry into my side garden that this project involved using some River rock flat stones and brick I know it looks complicated but it really is a simple project let me take

You through the steps and demystified the process I started by digging an area for this entry I made it about four feet wide and about six inches deep then I used to buy for lumber around the edges this will hold the concrete in place once you have the concrete in

Place just grade it out until it’s level for this six inch deep area I only poured about three inches of concrete to form the foundation now once this dries it leaves room for the stones rocks and bricks to sit flush with the ground once the pad is complete after I allowed the

Concrete to sit overnight place the stones in a pattern and used a special grout mix to secure them into place next to follow are the bricks here I grouted them into place now I’m going to let these elements sit overnight before adding the river rocks from here I just

Filled in the remaining space with River rocks and grouted them in with that special grout mix and let them set up to dry this design always draws a lot of attention from visitors to my garden but if you want to put in something like this you need to make sure you have

Plenty of time this project takes about three days so it’s perfect for a long weekend Now back to this idea of the cottage garden one of the finest examples of this style I have seen in America is in the English walled garden at the Chicago Botanical Garden they’ve devoted a whole section of this garden to teaching people how to bring elements of a

Cottage garden into their own homes john Beaudry with the Chicago Botanical Garden shows us how this garden is laid out John this garden is so beautiful it has to be one of the most popular gardens here at the Chicago Botanic Garden people seem to be able to relate to this

Garden really why do you think so well it’s small and intimate spaces provide a way for people to interact with it as they would in their own gardens well you know John over the years I’ve had an opportunity to spend quite a bit of time in English gardens and I have to say

This one really hits the mark the whole garden is a series of walls and rooms that are broken up by different spaces but throughout you have a sense of that there’s something beyond and it draws one through the garden and into the next space yes a little mystery yeah helps a

Lot doesn’t it now what where are we going here you were coming into the beginning of the cottage garden and this is where you’ll find one of the more unique features of the garden here that the paths begin to shift and one is slowed down as they

Move through the garden and you’re able to have a little closer inspection of the plants the plants are completely informally planted and it’s kind of a hodgepodge of all kinds of things from fruits and vegetables to flowers of all sorts especially aromatic and fragrant ones a lot of herbs people had little

Amount of space and they needed to grow everything that they could and people often lived out of their gardens in those days well John tell me a little bit more about this garden this garden the concept concept of it is to mimic a traditional cottage garden and as you

Can see it’s already billowing over the edges and when the plants that we’ve planted we’ve planted literally hundreds in here today with the volunteers and when they come up this is just going to be overflowing the crisp lines of the walkways in here which are part of the

Structure of the garden are completely obliterated by the plants which is really the concept of this of the garden overall it’s truly a potpourri yeah and it’s a focus on nature and a focus on the plants and the structure is is is here to an chance those plantings

Since the cottage garden is all about mixing everything up vegetables herbs and flowers and with great bounty I thought we’d go ahead and finish this cornucopia now this is going to be a door hanging and since it’s an all terminal theme I’m going to fill it with all sorts of things like mums

Wheat pumpkins and gourds cabbage and kale as well as anything dried that might have come out of the garden now when it comes to live plants what I do in order to reduce the weight and save space is just take the plants out of a container like this and slip them into a

Plastic bag then you can just tuck them in the cornucopia earlier I place some floral foam into the cornucopia you see I used this to help secure the pumpkins and squash I just Pierce them with a floral stake and then secure them into the phone fill

It up with dried flowers and there you go what I enjoy the most about this project is that it really echoes the spirit of the season full of so much bounty color and beauty there’s no better way when this is finished to greet guests coming to your front door

Well we’ve covered a lot of territory in today’s show everything from color to time to pattern texture and rhythm all of these elements play a role in the cottage style garden and if you decide you want to create this style for yourself I hope you’ll put some of these

Ideas to work from the garden home I’m allen Smith more information about today’s topic and other topics covered in this series can be found at PL and smith.com on an upcoming episode of PL on Smith’s garden home hi I’m Allen Smith can you ever have too much in the

Garden well you won’t think so after you see this show on abundance will visit wildflower fields in Texas see North American natives blooming in a Dutch garden see how historical gardens were influenced by European style and how American designers are creating a style all their own You