I love the cottage garden look but I came to realise some years ago that I also like a garden to look structured.
For this reason I have very tidy edges to the borders and some closely clipped very low hedges around borders containing very loose and blowsy planting. That hedging was originally box hedging but a combination of blight and box caterpillar put paid to most of that. I now use lonicera nitida around the soft fruit patch, some yew and some strategically placed large box balls (fingers crossed they're ok).
With some formal obelisks this gives the garden a tidy look at first glance but the borders are a real mix of loose, informal planting.
I fnd the tidiness and symmetry of that first glance more soothing but the jumble of plants falling over one another in the borders puts me in touch with my love all things natural.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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For this reason I have very tidy edges to the borders and some closely clipped very low hedges around borders containing very loose and blowsy planting. That hedging was originally box hedging but a combination of blight and box caterpillar put paid to most of that. I now use lonicera nitida around the soft fruit patch, some yew and some strategically placed large box balls (fingers crossed they're ok).
With some formal obelisks this gives the garden a tidy look at first glance but the borders are a real mix of loose, informal planting.
I fnd the tidiness and symmetry of that first glance more soothing but the jumble of plants falling over one another in the borders puts me in touch with my love all things natural.