How does such a great mixture of order and diversity succeed?? Here are a few helpful tips from the experts for you! Allowed is, what pleases and blooms beautifully. That is the most important thing in the cottage garden. ”Professor Warda is a specialist, he knows an infinite number of systems, theoretically dealt with this type of garden and finally created a garden himself in Ellerhoop in Schleswig-Holstein. “In the past, we only used crops for the kitchen, the medicine cabinet or for the flower arrangements of the village church in the garden. Today it is no longer so important. Everyone plants, what he likes, preferably a colorful mix of ornamental plants, Herbs and vegetables. So that the diversity does not look like wild growth, the beds are bordered with low box hedges. ”Box hedges around the geometrically laid out beds are, besides the splendor of colors, the only musts in the cottage garden. So that this framework is right, you first go to the system with a guideline and (for the middle bed) Schnurzirkel at work. On the lines, which are drawn afterwards, you put the box plants. “With plants from the nursery, such a garden can be expensive. Who has the opportunity, can also cut shoot cuttings and root them in potting soil. The cheaper privet is also suitable ", right Warda.
And he has a few tips for beginners:
• Many of the cottage garden plants such as. B. Stockrosen, tall daisies, Mullein grows very large and does not withstand heavy rain or storms. They are tied to bars, which one already sets, when the plants are still small.
• So that there are no gaps due to what has withered away, you always need annual flowers you have grown yourself, which are then used.
• For biennial flowers such as. B. You have to remember hollyhocks, how they look in the bloodless first year, so that they are not weeded.
• Seeds are collected from particularly beautiful varieties, which are drawn on the windowsill in spring.
Imaginative play with circles and squares
There is a very practical reason for the strict layout of the cottage gardens: Well delimited paths are easier to keep weed-free, Maintain and plant well-arranged beds. This saved the farmers a lot of work and was able to use the available space for as many plants as possible. Today it is less about practical benefits than about beauty. So you can play with the shapes - first on the drawing sheet, then in the garden itself.
Variations on the cottage garden: Depending on the size of the property, the layout of the facility can be developed from a square or rectangle. There does not necessarily have to be a roundabout in the middle, a crossroads is also sufficient, which can also be emphasized, for example with a flower pot.