The Cottage Garden Book Review – Gardens of Festive, Flourishing, Abundant Beauty

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Category: Books

Published on Thursday, 16 May 2024 12:47

Written by Janet Walker

The Cottage Garden, from Quarto Publishing and Danish garden celebrity Claus Dalby, takes readers on an inspirational journey traveling across Europe and the United States introducing the principles of creating a quintessential cottage garden anywhere.

Filled with more than 700 images, The Cottage Garden allows readers to leisurely stroll through the pages of these vibrant gardens, filled with a variety of flowers, herbs, and in some, the combination of both wild blooming flowers and manicured rows of tended vegetables, at their own pace.

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Dalby introduces readers to the historical value of the European cottage garden, with many of the more famous and traditional aristocracy cottage gardens, that seemed to accompany every home of nobility and has been equally portrayed in films where English manors are central to the theme.

The earliest cottage gardens were determined to signify class, and very few images of the rural poor exist save the paintings of Helen Allingham, who captured the idyllic and peaceful images, and through her artistry painted pictures that surprise even in contemporary society, as the homes and accompanying gardens, which are quant cottages decorated with lush, overgrown displays of beautiful, festive flowers, are considered those of the poor.

The Cottage Garden walks through the history that became a tradition, not only throughout Europe but wherever horticulturalists thrived and delighted when the soil gave birth to the tilled efforts. As readers thumb through the pages, it becomes clearer that cottage gardens are an art form, and not simply a haphazard design developed by tossing seeds in different directions and hoping for the best.

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To design a cottage garden, which many will falsely believe enormous space is necessary. However, as we read in Dalby's book, we see that a cottage garden can be created alongside a traditional garden or even combining the two types of gardening.

Many think cottage gardens are wild weeds freely growing without having a landscaper available to tend the overgrowth. A cottage garden has a combination so spaces, some plots are squared off areas with designated plants or flowers, others run together with tall growing flowers, like Iris' towering above the small ankle high baby's breath and some Cottage Gardens even include fresh herbs.

What is special about Dalby's trek through Cottage Gardens is that no two are alike and are as different in design as the owners. Some prefer the traditional style, a square plot (small or large) surrounded by a well-manicured green lawn, while others prefer to have each side of the front walk alive with blossoming plants of every variety.

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Each of these displays of gardening seem to have unique and inviting names, "The Mother-Daughter Garden," "Chocolate Box Cottage," "Really Wild," and "A New England Garden."

Dauby explains that many of the garden treasures that made the cut and ended up featured on the pages of this book were found through research and online conversations with likeminded souls, far and wide. When he finally made it to America he visited an author, who created a quintessential cottage garden, with an American twist.

Across "A New England Garden," chapter readers begin to understand a Cottage Garden is whatever the individual wants it to be. Squared plots, with walking paths separating the blooms, potted plants liming a rustic wall, herbs growing freely or tended.

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In the final chapter, "Pure Cottage Style," Dauby introduces readers to a growing and planting season, and the many flowers that can be planted to create the festive, eye-catching, inspiring designs that feed the soul and sooth the mind. He also includes, for those who need a garden arch, arbor, trellis, or fences, that will support and send blankets of bouquets skyward, ideas for design, construction.

The Cottage Garden is a delightful walk through the world's most noted cottage gardens by Europe's foremost expert on the subject. Containing more than 700 images, The Cottage Garden has designs and ideas for every level of gardener providing the causal gardener with hope and encouraging the expert horticulturalist to expand and create more.

The Cottage Garden presents festive, flourishing, abundant beauty. It is a must have for gardeners everywhere.

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Title: The Cottage Garden.

Author: Claus Dalby.

Language: English.

Release Date: January 2024.

Publisher: Quarto Publishing.

Front Cover Image: Claus Dalby.

Photography: Claus Dalby (unless noted).

Length: 332 pages.

ISBN13: 978-0-7603-7971-4.

MSRP: $40.00 (U.S.), £28.00 (UK), $53.00 (CAN.).