We have all seen it. The romantic image of the English country cottage garden filled with vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. Birds nest in small fruit trees, bees and butterflies flit from flower to flower and dragonflies hover over small garden ponds.
I fell in love with this romantic image when I first saw it, on the top of a box of chocolates when I was a little girl. And when I grew up, I recreated this image in my own garden.
I planted foxgloves and hollyhocks, lady’s mantle and pansies in crowded beds, that burst with soft colors and swayed in the breeze. But, when I started to create a habitat garden, all those English flowers had to go away.
They weren’t native. And if I wanted to attractive butterflies to lay eggs and grow up to fly around in my garden, I had to plant native plants. And I had to give up my dream of a cottage garden, so I thought.
It took me a couple years to replace non-native plants, with those from my local ecosystem. In my garden, I planted coneflowers, goldenrods, asters, bleeding hearts and columbines. I added elements such as birdbaths, bird feeders and a garden seat. I had created a lovely place to be.
And my garden beds began to look cottage-y again. How did that happen?
Then it dawned on me, the original gardeners who made small, beautiful cottage gardens, were simple working people. They didn’t have money to spend on exotic plants and fruits. They transplanted flowers and shrubs into their gardens from the fields and woodlands close to home. And these native plants attracted native animals.
What to Plant
Cottage gardening is a style that does not demand specific plants. The plants that look best in these gardens are unpretentious and carefree. These words describe most native plants perfectly. This means that the cottage garden style can be re-created just about anywhere using the area’s local native plants.
In choosing want to add to a cottage garden, it is important to choose plants that provide nectar, pollen, fruit, seeds or serve as host plants for local insects and other animals.
North American flowers such as goldenrods, milkweeds, asters, bleeding hearts, coneflowers, and columbines are good examples of easy-to-grow, carefree plants that fit well in the cottage garden style.
Species of serviceberries, blueberries, grapes, and white mulberries draw fruit-eating birds like mockingbirds, robins and waxwings.
Nut trees such as acorns, hickories and hazelnuts attract Blue Jays, Red-bellied woodpeckers and squirrels. Oaks are host plants for hundreds of species of butterflies and moths.
Contact your local extension service or National Audubon Society chapter to find the plants that will work well in your garden.
Support Your Local Ecosystem
Cottage gardens can be wildlife gardens. But, no matter what your garden style, the addition of native plants, boosts the health of the local ecosystem.
You can support local nurseries and nature centers by buying locally grown native plants at their sales. And leave the plants in the wild for the animals that need them.
I am a writer and naturalist living in the beautiful Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania. I write about natural history topics. I’m very grateful to be human and to have a beautiful abundant world to live in. I work, volunteer, write and blog, to call attention to those everyday joys and wonders, that make living here on planet Earth so good. By being mindful of what we do, we are not saving the Earth, we are saving life on Earth, including ourselves. Follow @donnallong on Twitter
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About Donna L. Long
I love my cottage garden which has more and more natives every year…I do have some non-natives too but more natives and adding more for the critters…the pond helps a lot…thx for letting people know you can have a gorgeous garden with natives…it is what I am trying to show people as well…you say natives and they think weeds..sigh
Donna recently posted..Rainbow of Irises
Donna, A delightful post and proof positive that we can create gardens that are delightful to the senses, attract wildlife and are beautiful! gail PS Welcome to Beautiful Wildlife.
Gail recently posted..Go Bare In Your Garden
Great post, you’ve really captured the essence and value of native plants! I’d just like to add that an even better place than your extention services to seek help and information is your local native plant society. There is one in nearly every state and you can find links to them at http://www.fnps.org/pages/links/links_nps.php
Loret recently posted..Swallows Passing Through
Thank you for the positive comments. This is what is so great about a blog. You connect with others with similar thoughts and interests. And these encouragements keep us going.
Hopefully, we can show that other gardens styles can be designed with native plants and in doing so protect our ecosystems.
Donna L. Long recently posted..Cottage Gardening with Native Plants
I too am very fond of the cottage garden style. I read in a book that English cottage gardens acquired many of their classic flowers from the woods and meadows of England. So in a sense, if you live in England and have a classic cottage garden; you have a native plant garden. Of course they also burrowed many ornamentals which I think is a good thing. I try to plant mostly native but I do throw in some foxgloves and fuchsias here and there. An interesting thing about my California native cottage garden is that many of the natives such as Ceanothus, clarkia, and others are classics in english gardens!
Hi, Joseph
Thank you for the feedback.
Sometimes when I look at photos of English cottage gardens, like to pick out all the North American native plants in the photos. Even a classic book such as The Cottage Garden by the famous English gardener Christopher Lloyd, has many native North American plants.
I hope more and more North Americans, realize how valued our native plants are in gardens all over the world.
Donna L. Long recently posted..Cottage Gardening with Native Plants
Hi Joseph, I too am enjoying gardening in No. Cal. and am working on a backyard cottage to use
as a playroom, or guest room or just reading and watching birds. I love native plants and enjoyed reading your post. Hope to hear more….
Melissa
Nice post, showing natives can be use in cottage gardens… nice to share love of the ecosystem, as well.
Kathy recently posted..NowhereVille
Loret, thanks for posting this helpful link: http://www.fnps.org/pages/links/links_nps.php for native plants..
Kathy recently posted..NowhereVille
Nice post. I follow and enjoy Donna’s own blog, even though I live in a NYC high-rise. So no cottage garden for me right now – but I love knowing what’s possible, using mostly native species.
Out walking the dog recently posted..Esau’s Beard- Blowin’ in the NYC Wind
What a great post. I now place high importance on whether or not a plant is native before placing it in my garden. There are so many beautiful native wild flowers that I don’t feel restricted in choosing plants at all. It is now part of the joy of my garden to see what new insects and birds appear as well as the flowers blooming and plants growing themselves.
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Thank you for such an insightful and lovely post. I, too, created cottage gardens around my home with foxgloves, lady’s mantle, peonies and many other “classic” english garden style varieties. But I am slowly converting my gardens to at least a mostly native respite for the butterflies, birds and bees. Reading your post and all the comments help spur me on to continue the quest for a true native habitat and garden for myself and my clients.
Never plant white mulberry – it is a noxious introduction. Red mulberry is native as is black cherry, two excellent trees for fruit-loving birds.