Cottage garden style owes its origins to the days of self-sufficiency, when gardeners maintained their own supplies of fruit, vegetables and flowers. They kept livestock, too, usually chickens and a goat. The old methods employed crop rotation and liberal doses of (free!) manure.

Cottage garden style has few ground rules and much depends on the preferences and the personality of the owner. So, what makes it different from other garden styles?

1. Organised chaos

A typical cottage garden is an exuberant mixture of plant shapes, sizes and colours. Plants grow into and over each other with little room for weeds. Seedlings are allowed to grow where they choose. Great for birds, bees and butterflies, and a plantaholics paradise, too!

2. Herbaceous domination

Perennial, biennial and annual – all are welcome. Pinks, hollyhocks, lupins, campanulas, phloxes and so on, and of course roses and honeysuckles, preferably covering a timber archway.

3. Essential edibles

A cottage garden would not be without at least one fruit tree and a veg patch, with a handy compost heap for both the weeds and the vegetable trimmings.

4. Flags, bricks, gravel, timber

A traditional cottage garden does not need a lawn. The paths are irregular and made from whatever happens to be to hand - could be old bricks or inexpensive gravel. Climbers, whether roses or runner beans, are supported on ‘rustic’ timber poles, arches and pergolas.

5. Locally in Kent

Early summer is a great time to visit and enjoy some of the private gardens in Kent that open for the National Garden Scheme. Many are inspired by the cottage gardens of the past.