Planning my English Cottage Garden in Texas

Places I’ve bought seeds in the past few months: Johnny’s Seeds, Botanical Interests, Floret, and Eden Brothers.

When I was a 5th grade teacher, I taught The Secret Garden. I built the literature curriculum so that exactly at this time of year— late winter into early spring— we read and studied Mary’s journey of growth and rebirth in her own secret garden: a hidden place seemingly dead that was waiting to be brought back to life.

Now I have a house with space for a garden, and endless ambition. It’s a daunting task. For reasons completely unknown to my husband and I, the people who previously owned our home poured a deep layer of concrete over most of our backyard, leaving a few random spots for grass and growing potential. We also live in North Texas, where summers can be brutal and many things won’t grow through the heat.

Not nearly as inspiring as Mary’s tucked away English garden in ruin. But there are plenty of spots that can be cultivated, and we’ve found ourselves stretched across a few different projects. While we’re still in the early stages of seeing any sort of definitive progress, I’m turning to English cottage gardens for inspiration, and seeing it as a personal challenge to bring their lush magic to North Texas.

Vintage home and garden books always provide some fresh inspiration.

What is an English cottage garden?

English cottage gardens are freeform, densely planted gardens with lots of room for creativity and whimsy. Slightly wild looking, but made punctuated with vignettes or accents such as a trellis or a bench. As opposed to larger, more formal gardens that may be achievable on a grand and larger scale found on an estate, cottage gardens cater to smaller spaces like our own back yards. They also cater to environmental needs such as creating space for wildlife, incorporating pollinator plants, and replacing a little (or alot) of lawn space.

Adapting a cottage style garden in TX

I’m definitely an amateur gardener, but I’ve experimented a bit with tiny plots of dirt and potted plants in our previous rental homes, which helps. I’ve also done my research about what to grow where we live. My most valuable lesson is to not ignore the facts: don’t plant sun loving plants in shade, and focus mainly on plants that are known to thrive in our growing conditions and zone (we are in Zone 8).

We’re about a year into our gardening efforts. We’re still experimenting and adding things over time for the sake of budget, but these are the main categories I’m focusing on while building our cottage-inspired Texas garden.

All of the Roses

Roses do surprisingly well in Texas (except for the dreaded rosette disease that we live in fear of). We’re purists, so we’ve started building a collection of David Austin Roses- classic Old World English style roses. Last year we purchased two climbers (St. Swithun and Wollerton Old Hall) and this year planted two shrub roses (Lady of Shallot and Roald Dahl). These add structure to the space as well as the obvious romance that make roses irresistible.

Drought Resistant Perennials

Small shrubs, grasses and flowering plants that return year after year are crucial for the shape and structure of a garden. In my opinion, they’re also tricky to figure out— both in terms of spacing them and finding ones that suit our yard. After losing a few fussy plants, we’re determined to plant only perennials that do well in our climate.

There are plenty of drought and heat resistant plants that give a cottage garden feel. My favorite Texas hardy perennial is guara- it produces an airy mass of white blooms on delicate thin stalks. I have the pink variegated variety planted in a corner of the garden, but would love to find a spot to plant them en masse.

Annuals From Seed

So many of the pretty cutting flowers we associate with beautiful English cottage gardens grow from seed. Wonderful news in terms of cost- sowing from seed is much less expensive than buying plants from the nursery. It is also a test of patience— I’m currently waiting on my cool season annuals to bloom which I sowed directly in October.

Last year I planted zinnias from seed- which are a fantastic beginner flower from seed. They grow quickly, there are many beautiful variations available for purchase online, and they’re wonderfully heat tolerant.

This year I have quite a lineup that I’m trying out: bachelors buttons, poppies, larkspur, , chocolate lace flower, cosmos, gomphrena, scabiosa, zinnias and sweet peas. One of my big projects this year is turning our parkway into a cut flower garden, so there will be an updated post once I have some blooms!

A photo of my roses last summer, perfectly sprinkled with rain. Wollerton Old Hall (top left) and St Swithun (bottom right).