Cottage Garden Design Objectives - Your Wish List

So many flowers
- summer

Before you complete your cottage garden wish list, please view the principles of design as applied to cottage gardening. A basic understanding of these principles certainly helped us set our cottage garden design objectives.

What do you and Your Family Want?

We believe that compromise (no two wish lists are the same) and a sense of reality (wanting a tree that'll top 20 meters in height within ten years in a small garden is not realistic) are essential in this process.

We suggest that you use the following list structure as a guide:

• Seating area(s) - one or more, large and/or small. If you often have a lot of guests you'll need to decide whether to host them in the garden or not.
• Privacy requirements - none, only for a relaxation spot or as much as possible. Sunbathing - need private space or not?
• Temporary or permanent - a sand box is usually temporary (children grow up) while a driveway is generally permanent (big job, you don't want to repeat it in a hurry).
• How fast - if you want many flowers from the beginning, you'll have to use a lot more annual plants in the first year or two. More work - have you got the time?
• What we have - don't throw anything away or decide to remove sheds etc. until you finally decide that it cannot be used in the new design.
• Additional features - what about a pond, waterfall, arbor, pergola or rose arch?

Maybe our own wish list will serve as an example to help you decide your own garden desires.

What did we want in our Garden?

This is a tricky one. I was a bachelor when I moved into our cottage so the initial design only took my wishes into account. The list below includes some major changes to the original design. Judy and I married soon after so her wishes (and a few practical things that bachelors tend to forget like a washing line) had to be granted as well.

Our garden measurement sketch shows that the back garden is surrounded by walls on three sides with a wooden fence and hedge behind it on the fourth side. The front garden is open on three sides - the exception is our home.

So what did we want in our dream garden?

• Ponds - in both front and back garden.
• Private seating areas - with pond views where possible.
• Flowers and butterflies - lots and lots of them!
• Fruit - several different types, both trees and shrubs.
• Rose arches - in both the front and back gardens.
• Raised bed - warmer (faster growth) for seedlings, helps prevent backache (no bending down too far)!
• Driveway for a car - though in the beginning I didn't have one.
• Terrace - large enough to host visiting family and friends.