The Cottage Garden

by Christopher Lloyd, Richard Bird

Traces the development of the cottage garden, offers garden plans and advice on plant selection, and includes recipes for the fruits of the readers' labors

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

About the author

Christopher Hamilton Lloyd, OBE, was a British gardener and author. He was the 20th Century chronicler for the heavily planted, labour-intensive, country garden.[

Reviews

[Calciferocious]

The book isn't badly done, it just wasn't very useful to me. I did not anticipate it would be exclusively from an English perspective, which was maybe a little silly of me. Seasonal variations between that gardening zone and mine mean that the suggestions given are mostly unhelpful and many plants aren't practical where I live. Flower names are tossed out casually without explaining or showing what they look like, which meant time looking away from the book to search for different plants online. I also found it a little rude that the gardener is generally presumed to be male, except in one reference to the lady of the house making potpourri. Hmm. Ultimately it was pleasant enough to flip through but not very helpful. I did enjoy the surprising compendium of recipes in the back for homemade beverages and preserves from one's garden bounty, including an intriguing formula for parsnip wine.

[Julia]

Great book, so much knowledge and ideas given from a gardening legend. There are tons of photos throughout. I will read this again at some point in my life, for now it's full of dog-eared pages and I'll be referencing this book often.

[Mary Catelli]

A look at the classic garden. Definitely an English cottage garden; may need some adjustment for other climates.

[Haley]

Some great ideas for a northern garden. The final 3rd of the book gets a bit repetitive, but the pictures make it all worth it. Gorgeous!

[Emily Yokouchi]

3.5

[Fluffy Flowers]

I had no idea when I picked up The Cottage Garden at the library several years ago that author Christopher Lloyd was THE guy when it comes to horticulture. I just liked to look at the pretty pictures. But I was reading the best gardening book ever written (Mrs. Greenthumbs: How I Turned a Boring Yard into a Glorious Garden and How You Can, Too) and it mentioned Christopher Lloyd. A lot. And the funny thing was, I kept thinking she meant Christopher LOWELL. Um, yeah, that's a totally different guy. Anyway, eventually I figured out my mistake and was happy to be introduced to an amazingly inspirational British gardener.

This time when I sought out this book again at my library I was ready to actually learn from it's pages. After years spent pouring over the beautiful photos in gardening books and wondering how the heck they managed to create such beautiful gardens, I'm finally, slowly learning how to craft my own beautiful gardens. And what I found out is that not only is this book a delight for the visual sense but it's also crammed full of helpful information. Its an excellent overview of the history of cottage gardens and the plants within them. And not just plants and flowers but all the other aspects that make up a cottage garden too: gates & doors, fences, walls, & hedges, ponds, streams, & ditches, pathways, containers, furniture, and outbuildings. Wow!

If you are at all considering establishing a cottage garden at your home I highly encourage you to find this book. And if you have a cottage garden already then you'll love it too. Sadly, Christopher Lloyd is no longer with us. But thankfully he left behind a body of work that can be read and savored for years to come.

[Tatjana]

This is a lovely and terribly practical book covering many aspects of cottage gardening. While this book is clearly geared to those living in climates friendly to English plants, the material is definitely of enough value to be useful for those of us using plants more suited to our finicky regions. Photos and illustrations carefully break down the creation of giant seas of plantings. The emphasis is on planning and learning and creating a habit of gardening, leading one to let it take a life of its own.
I will definitely use various aspects of this work in my garden development.

[Anna]

This book is primarily a picture book, which is why I only gave it three stars. If you like that kind of thing, you'd probably rate it much higher.

I had to do a lot of skimming to find much meat, but the meat itself was fascinating. This is an indigenous gardening form to England, practiced by peasants who had very little time or money but wanted to grow some or most of their food. Back-to-the-landers have a lot to learn. Read my full review of The
Cottage Garden on my blog.

[Sara]

This book is almost as much about an English Cottager way of life as gardening. By the end, you think that everyone has a string of dried apples in the attic and a barrel of parsnip wine in the cellar (ala Tasha Tudor). So should you.

Love the last few pages (with the parsnip wine recipes) where he takes you through winter gardening jobs, spring gardening jobs, summer...

A good one to own!

[Ruric Amhari]

Beautifully illustrated with both photos of cottage gardens and individual plant details. Book split into 5 sections: cottage garden tradition, cottage garden plants, cotage garden features, planting the cottage garden and the working cottage garden.

Again focus mostly on soft landscaping and suitable plants and their uses.

[Cindy]

This is an amazing book,full of interesting information about everything you might want to know about cottage gardens. They are so beautiful but it takes work and time. I admire them more than ever.

[Kay]

The Cottage Garden has so many aspects. First it explains how cottage gardens came to be. Then it shows plants that are favorites of cottage gardens and lastly it tells you how to grow a cottage garden. If only I lived in England I'm sure I could work all of this out perfectly!

[Michelle Kwasney]

Enjoyed rereading a gift from a dear friend, given over 20 years ago. What a lovely way to anticipate the beauty of the warmer weather ahead. A seasoned favorite, with exceptional reference, photographs, and nibbles of English wit.

[Bobbi]

So, if I tore out all my grass and did this...um, but it would take a few years to to all that. And the kids want somewhere to play still. Absolutely beautiful. Makes a gardener's mouth water.

[Jim Krotzman]

A list of plants and plans for landscaping an English cottage garden.

[Trish]

This book has lots of good advice for building your own cottage garden.