Jana. what a lovely idea. My granny had a real Victorian style garden although she was born in the 1880s. As far as I remember it had a lot of fruit bushes like rasps and blackcurrants and she used these for jam. It had sweet william and stock and wallflowers - these I remember because I loves the scents. She had lavender by the ton which she made into wee sachets for the airing cupboard to scent the sheets. And she had a big veg plot but I'm afraid I wasn't interested in that so I don't know what was in it - apart from the dreaded (still!) kale which she seemed to throw into everything! But I'm sure there would be leeks and onions, as everybody in Scotland grew them for soup. I look forward to more replies on this, very interesting idea
The idea of the victorian cottage garden has been very idealised over the years. The romantic image is of a thatched cottage with an agricultural labourer pottering about tending his roses in the sunshine. The reality was more likely to be a vermin infested semi-derelict hovel & an exhausted worker trying to grow potatoes and other staple veg after a 14 hour shift at work.
However, I'm sure there were some pretty plots and Geoff Hamilton tried to recreate these at Barnsdale in the cottage gardens.
Suggest Jana tries to find a copy of his book or DVD "Cottage Gardens". The section on "The Artisans Cottage Garden" gives many ideas for growing fruit & veg together with ornamentals in an attractive way and for construction and growing on a budget.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Think you were lucky Yvie but if anyone is really looking to browse a copy try your local library they will if at all possible get one transferred from another local library. Looking on line London's libraries have quite a few branches with copies where as there is only one in Dorset strange that.
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Jana. what a lovely idea. My granny had a real Victorian style garden although she was born in the 1880s. As far as I remember it had a lot of fruit bushes like rasps and blackcurrants and she used these for jam. It had sweet william and stock and wallflowers - these I remember because I loves the scents. She had lavender by the ton which she made into wee sachets for the airing cupboard to scent the sheets. And she had a big veg plot but I'm afraid I wasn't interested in that so I don't know what was in it - apart from the dreaded (still!) kale which she seemed to throw into everything! But I'm sure there would be leeks and onions, as everybody in Scotland grew them for soup. I look forward to more replies on this, very interesting idea
The idea of the victorian cottage garden has been very idealised over the years. The romantic image is of a thatched cottage with an agricultural labourer pottering about tending his roses in the sunshine. The reality was more likely to be a vermin infested semi-derelict hovel & an exhausted worker trying to grow potatoes and other staple veg after a 14 hour shift at work.
However, I'm sure there were some pretty plots and Geoff Hamilton tried to recreate these at Barnsdale in the cottage gardens.
Suggest Jana tries to find a copy of his book or DVD "Cottage Gardens". The section on "The Artisans Cottage Garden" gives many ideas for growing fruit & veg together with ornamentals in an attractive way and for construction and growing on a budget.
I've got that book Topbird, it's lovely. Got it off Amazon for a couple of quid secondhand.
Think you were lucky Yvie
but if anyone is really looking to browse a copy try your local library they will if at all possible get one transferred from another local library. Looking on line London's libraries have quite a few branches with copies
where as there is only one in Dorset 
strange that.