Cottage classics

CREATE A DREAM CHOCOLATE BOX PLOT TO BATHE IN NOSTALGIA

- DIARMUID GAVIN

WHEN times are tough – as during political upheaval, war or when people in general are just finding things challenging – there’s a tendency to regress towards comfort, certainty and tradition.

We may look back wistfully to what we perceive as being simpler days. This may explain the enduring popularity of the simple cottage garden.

There’s a caveat here. The cottage garden as we picture it – roses over the doorway, a winding stone path, and a choir of hollyhocks, delphinium and phlox singing in perfect harmony – didn’t really exist as we imagine.

Cottage gardens evolved in the countryside around humble dwellings where the farmer’s wife might have planted some sprigs of something colourful among the veg. But gardens were primarily a source of food and nutrition.

Whereas the traditional cottage owner would have created walls from whatever materials were immediately available and the path may have been simply hardened mud, the concept became gentrified by such people as Beatrix Potter, Gertrude Jekyll and William Robinson in the Arts and Crafts era.

Pathways started to be beautifully crafted in brick using elegant herringbone designs and the planting became profuse and ornamental.