Cottage Garden Design Elements! | How-to Design a Cottage Garden!

Transform your backyard into a charming cottage garden with these key design elements! See several different Design Elements with How-to’s and TIPS you can use and add to create a fabulous cottage garden space! See an adorable Cottage Garden DIY mini-greenhouse you can build!! 🌸💚🏡#Michelleshomeandgarden #cottagegarden
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Whether you’re new to gardening or you’re an experienced gardener, this video is sure to help you expand your cottage garden horizons!

*In this video, full credit is given to the original authors of the images used, appreciating their talent and granting them the recognition they deserve.

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Hi everyone it’s Michelle in Illinois and garden zone 5 welcome so do you have a new Garden space that you’re planning out and you’re needing design tips and maybe some structure design layout elements to add to your Cottage Garden or maybe you already have an existing um

Garden but you’re thinking hm I would like to add some something more to it this season and I’m looking for some creative ideas well you’re in the right place cuz that’s what we’re going to be talking about today not only Design Elements for your Cottage Garden but

Also some um layouts tips ideas whatever you want to call them I’m going to give you some suggestions that you can Implement into your Cottage Garden today so let’s get going Oh and before I forget um how many of us have wanted a greenhouse maybe you already are lucky

Enough to have a greenhous but maybe you really would like a greenhouse and for whatever reason it just hasn’t happened yet well when I was researching for this video I came across a DIY that I’m going to show you later on that I think probably about anybody could do and

Probably could find the materials to do it relatively inexpensively and it would look super fabulous in a Cottage Garden space so let’s get going today now there are many variations to the English cottage Garden there’s also the American version the French version the modern version of a cottage garden and probably

Other versions of The Cottage Garden So today we’re going to be talking about the Standard English cottage garden design elements and structures but you get to pick what you like and it could be an Eclectic mix of all of these Styles or some additional Styles added in you’re the designer here it’s not

What I like it’s not what somebody else likes it’s what you like some of these ideas today you may like and they may really resonate with you and you’re like I got got to put that in my garden or I have to do that and some of them you may

Think no that’s just not my thing or no that won’t fit in my garden space well that’s fine also so some of these you may tweak a little bit to make them work for your garden space or it may just give you inspiration to Spring off on to

Take it a different direction and still make it work in your space so let’s get creative together the first thing that we’re going to talk about that I’m going to give you an overview is what do I mean when I mean design structures um okay so we’re talking about large

Structures we’re talking about a walled in Garden we’re talking about focal points seating layout flower bed designs and just an array of stuff so let’s break these categories down before we do that though if you are enjoying this please like share and subscribe I appreciate it thank you so the first

Thing if you have a new Garden space that you are creating this year what you need to do and you can even do this now is go take a look at your ideal space and see what is the sun allocation throughout the day how much sun does

Your space get how much shade does it get is it part shade and you get some sun you need to know that when you’re planting out your flower bed that’s going to be the most important thing because Cottage Garden flowers normally take full sun so that would be 6 to8

Hours of Sun daily now I’m not saying that if you have more shade you can’t have a Cottage Garden but then you’re going to have to make some concessions what you’ll need to do in your shade areas is you can either plant Shady type perennials annuals that love that type

Of environment or that may be an ideal um space for seating or a focal point or maybe even a design element in a structure that you want to put in that shady location so don’t discount the shady area just keep in mind that that’s probably not where you’re going to put

The Cottage Garden flowers that need that full sun we need to find a a Sunny Spot for those then next what you’re going to do pick that one flower bed and you may have a long-term design in mind maybe it’s quite expansive well I would highly recommend that you pick one one

Area to start with this season and do that one area and let me give you an example from my own garden so my back Garden is fenced in it really was a yard it was just a fenced in area with lots of grass uh there was a large tree there

Was a couple of shrubs but you wouldn’t call it a garden I would call it more Landscaping um so wanting to add a garden I had to decide what I wanted to pick first to do I couldn’t do all of it in one season it would have been way too

Overwhelming and it also would have been a budget Buster to do the whole entire yard so what I decided was to pick what the priority is so that’s what I would suggest that you do pick your one priority this season is there one certain area in your garden or in your

Space that you want to turn into a garden start with that area and I would complete that area if possible in my situation we took the back of the yard and turn that into the garden first so that was a long row in between our house and our neighbor’s house that we wanted

Privacy so we decided to put in front of our 4-foot privacy fence a living hedge of arbores to start growing and filling in there and then in front of those Arbor vites I planted four rose bushes the first year we mulched that whole area in along the back of the fence and

Created did that flower bed per se and that’s all we did the first season it was completed though if I had never added anything else on it looked finished so that’s what I’m saying is that um it’s just when you walk out into your garden this year you don’t want it

To be uncomplete and think oh I’ve got more work to do every time you look at it or you want it to be an enjoyable space that when you go out you’re like oh I’m so glad that I’m here oh this is just so enjoyable I just love being out

Here so if you can complete one space and then add on in sections every season or as time allows or budget allows it’s going to give you um I just think a better feeling of not having that undone oh I’ve got more work to do so the next

Design element we’re going to talk about is the Cottage Garden walled in room feel so how can you achieve that look well there are different ways way you can use fencing you can use a living hedge taking trees shrubs bushes you can use structures such as your home your

Garage your garden shed they would all make up part they can makeup part of your Walden feel so there’s a different um array of items that you can use to create a wal in feel now this is really going to depend on how much Garden space

You have um if you in our case with our backyard we have a combination of quite a few things uh the back of our house and garage is one wall of our our fencon area of our garden then we have actual wooden fence we have some living arbs

The living fence at the back of the garden I also have a garden shed on one side of the garden that forms um some of that fence and then um I did plant some trees that will eventually get bigger and they’ll help also be part part of

That fenced in uh blocked area of the garden so like I said it may not be just one element that you use to create your walls with you may use a variety of elements to make that Wallen feel and your garden may be very large and you

Don’t wall in the whole thing but instead you may make little rooms inside of the garden by using either plant material or or um different fencing buildings any of those type of options to give the Cottage Garden more of that closed in cottagey feel on a design tip

If you are planning on adding any type of garden shed type structure this year I would highly recommend that you use your home as a compass when you’re thinking about your design for your garden shed and what do you what do I mean by that um in our case our home is

A ranch style home so when I started looking for garden sheds I knew that I wanted something that would be cohesive and flow with our home I wanted the garden shed to look like it should always have been there I wanted it to go I wanted it to look like it should be

Part of the home and I accomplished that by doing a similar structure in the back garden and then to give it more of that Cottage Garden feel I added the pain windows I added added window boxes and then I also added the arch pane door the

Glass and the front doors so that gives it the cottagey feel but the structure is still more rectangular like a ranch style home so it does look like it fits into our garden and it is cohesive and flows so you go from one building our home out into our back Garden where the

Garden shed is and um they coordinate and look well together so that would be my design design tip one of my design tips for you today is if you are thinking of adding some sort of structure to your garden um I would make sure that I would add something that

Would flow with your present home now let’s talk about flower beds and the flower bed layout a Cottage Garden normally has curves in the flower beds it’s free flowing it’s um just more of a relaxed feel now we’re not thinking of like a formal Garden that has more of

That straight formal harsher Edge to it you’re thinking of those graceful sweeping lines now this can be accomplished very easily and I will explain how I did it and if you’re getting ready to plan out a garden bed or add a new garden bed I find the

Easiest way to do this is get a long piece of rope or a garden hose an long extension cord anything that you can use that’s bendable that you can lay out on the ground where you’re going to plan that garden bed and you can use that as

Your shape to design your garden bed now like I mentioned our back Garden is fenced in so it’s a long rectangle with the fence so I do have more of those straight lines with the fencing but when I put the beds in on the front of the

Beds as I pulled them out I designed them with long sweeping Curves in them so we laid out rope and um I found this to be very helpful last year when I was uh having the new Paving the edgers put in on in all the garden beds in the back

Garden um I could lay the Rope out I could stand back and take a look at it did I like how it looked if not it’s an easy fix I could go back in rearrange the roping to a different design of how I like the bed and then it’s very easy

To take your shovel and cut in right along that line where you’ve drawn out your bed with the rope and use that as your guideline so um I would recommend when you’re designing your garden beds to go ahead and grab you like I said rope a garden hose and extension cord

And use that and and it’s very it helped me because visually I needed to see step back and see do I like how this looks okay now I’m going to talk about some of the different design elements that you can add to your garden bed and I also

Have pictures I’ll show you of these different um elements just to give you some ideas um maybe a jumping off point so to say of I like that idea how could I tweak that idea how could I make that work in my garden so the first thing

We’re going to talk about is large structures and when we’re talking about large structures we’re not only talking about your home and your garage those are large structures but also if you have an existing deck or patio that you’re working with or if you have a

Gard shed or going to plan on adding a garden shed or a greenhouse those would be all large structures and not only large in size but large in price point too so um those are things that you want to take in consideration and plan those out if you’re planning on adding those

But you don’t have those elements yet if you haven’t added that Garden um shed but you know that that’s on the agenda either for this season or next season when you’re designing your garden bed just keep that in mind of how big are you going to make that garden shed and

Have your space defined because maybe that’s going to be one of your walls to your walled in area that you’re going to use so um just keep that in mind as you’re laying out your beds the next one I’m going to show you some additional pictures on is fencing and Arbors and

Pergolas and walls and shrubs different things you can use to give you that more cottagey Garden walled in feel now here’s some different op options for your garden and then Cottage Gardens are known for paths they have a lot of paths in them paths to lead you down the

Flower garden paths to lead you to seating or that beautiful folco point so what are you going to use to make those paths you can use wood chips you can use pea gravel or landscape rocks pavers um you can also use flagstone Cobblestone bricks whatever you um like a

Aesthetically or maybe you already have on hand to make those paths um and then also there is concrete and you go concrete concrete’s not Cottage Cardon well they are making concrete more and more where you can have it stamped to look like it stone or brick even though

It is really concrete and they add a color to it to give it that whatever color you would like to coordinate with your garden um the other thing is if you already have those existing in the space that you’re using maybe like like mine I already have a sidewalk in my back

Garden that has a nice curve in it and I can soften that by putting plant material you know have some plants that fall over the sides of it or have just the grass maybe that’s where I want the grass to grow and have that grass there whatever you like whatever is

Aesthetically pleasing to you um I say work with what you have and make it work for your garden and then a Cottage Garden Of course needs seating now this could be benches it could be um Bistro sets it could be a patio set wicker chairs uh it could be even just taking

Lumber that you have on hand and making a bench to go out in your put out in your flower bed somewhere where you can sit down and relax or even put a beautiful potted plant on to give more visual interest to your garden keep your options open for seating um but seating

Can be pricey if you’re buying it new so that’s something to budget for or um thrifting is a great place to look for seating Facebook marketplaces flea markets those type of places or something that you find that you can repurpose for seating out in your garden your options are endless when it comes

To seating but you do need to add some sort of beautiful seating to your garden then next we have focal points now what’s a focal point Point think of your art pieces so this could be statuary this could be fountains Sund dials could be a blisks or trellises it’s going to

Be anything that gives your Cottage Garden um just that extra little spark it’s going to give it that design element that when you’re walking through those paths in your garden it gives you something else to look at and just add it it’s the icing on the cake so to say

So be looking for those things and again those a lot of the stuff I have out in the garden a lot of my statuary has been Thrift finds so you do want to keep your eyes open when you’re out thrifting or antiquing because you may come across something that would look really nice

Out in your garden that you do want to add one last focal point we’re going to talk about is what I mentioned at the beginning of the video so you want a greenhouse but for whatever reason you don’t have a greenhouse what do you do well while I was researching I came

Across this idea now is this the neatest idea and I think you wouldn’t have to have a lot of skill uh to be able to DIY this so they have taken an a old end table and then some old wood windows and created a mini Greenhouse now would this

Not look wonderful out on say a patio in your Cottage Garden but I just thought this would be a great accent to add out to your Cottage Garden it it wouldn’t be real pricey if you thrifted all of those materials and it looks like it would be

Fairly easy to put together and get creative with it today we looked at a lot of design inspiration I hope that sparked the designer and you to get you thinking about what you want to add to your Cottage Garden this year or what you’re even going to create maybe it’s a

Brand new era you’re starting with how exciting if you’re looking for more Garden inspiration you’re going to want to check out these videos next