The Modern Cottage Garden The Modern Cottage Garden A FRESH APPROACH TO A CLASSIC STYLE GREG LOADES with photography by Neil Hepworth Timber Press Portland, Oregon Frontispiece: Romance and drama combine to create a vibrant summer scene at Churt Lea Cottage, Surrey, UK. Copyright © 2020 by Greg Loades. All rights reserved. Photographs © 2020 by Neil Hepworth unless otherwise indicated in the photography credits on page 217. Published in 2020 by Timber Press, Inc. The Haseltine Building 133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450 Portland, Oregon 97204-3527 timberpress.com Printed in China Printed in China Cover design by Stacy Wakefield Forte Text design by Sarah Crumb ISBN 978-1-60469-908-1 Catlog records for this book are available from the Library of Congress and the British Library. To Malachi, born in the year this book was written 6 Contents Preface: What Is the Modern Cottage Garden? 9 Roots 15 The Traditional Cottage Garden 17 The New Perennial Garden 31 How to Create a Modern Cottage Garden 43 Planting a Gardener’s Garden 46 In Small Spaces 65 In Containers 83 A Year in the Modern Cottage Garden: Growing and Looking After the Garden Season by Season 115 Spring 119 Summer 133 Autumn 157 Winter 171 Fifty Essential Plants: A to Z 185 Resources 214 Acknowledgements 215 Photography Credits 217 Index 218 8 PREFACE What Is the Modern Cottage Garden? It is difficult to stick to one style in the garden, isn’t it? Maybe this is because plants are alive, and as they grow, we get attached to them. So we can’t let go of the plant that has survived three house moves. Or the large shrub that started life from a cutting taken from a friend’s garden. Or the plant that you were sure you couldn’t grow until you moved to a garden with different soil conditions to the previous one. Even if plants are not in keeping with the style of the rest of the garden or are out of proportion with the surroundings, it can be hard to let go of them. Plants are memories. Plants can make us feel proud. Plants tell stories. And who can resist choosing new plants for the garden when they see them in flower in a nursery, even if they don’t know where they will go or whether they are in keeping with what is there? Let’s be honest: who Growing good old-fashioned dahlias and asters among echinaceas, gaura, and perovskia (Russian sage) brings added boldness and charm to a display of contemporary perennials.