Farm garden: Ideas for beginners & professionals
What is a cottage garden?
The "classic" farm garden, contrary to what one might first assume, has originally that much to do with farming. A farm garden is far removed from small-scale farming reality. Rather, it is a garden design that came rather from a romantic, idealized imagination.
Creating a cottage garden: Plants, structure and layout
Although the cottage garden is much about aesthetics, the main purpose is still the cultivation of vegetables and medicinal plants. The structure is usually square or rectangular with a cross. Here is usually a fountain, a terrace or a spiral of herbs. The beds are usually separated from each other by hedges or flowers.
Farm garden design: Step by step
- Plant vegetable beds: Plan mixed crops of vegetable plants and a green manure of your choice - Plant bed borders: A box hedge, stone wall, wood wall, or flowering strip is a good separation for your beds - Plant shrubs and trees at the north edge of your garden: Plant edible shrubs or bird-friendly hedges and/or fruit trees as permanent crops - Herbs and flowers: You can either grow herbs in your vegetable beds or in separate herb beds (e.g. herb spiral).E.g., herb spiral). Flowers can be found in a cottage garden partly in the beds and in colorful flowering strips
Your planting plan
To give you an idea of how your cottage garden could be structured, we have created a digital bed plan as a template. We have chosen crops that are particularly easy to care for and well suited for beginners. The layout is quite classic: four beds with an element in the middle, where the paths cross. The four beds are cultivated in a four-unit crop rotation. Therefore, there is one bed each for weak growers, medium growers and strong growers. On the fourth bed is a green manure to maintain soil fertility. You can also find the planting plan in the templates under 'Your farm garden planting plan'.
Herbs, berries & flowers for your cottage garden
- Berries: Gooseberries and currants grow on the northern edge. Next to the house grow strawberries and garlic. - Herbs: In the crossroads there is a spiral of herbs with rosemary, thyme, sage, mountain savory, lavender, oregano, tarragon and lemon balm. - Flowers: In the flowering strip grow, among others, dahlias, asters, zinnias, borage, clover or cornflowers.
Vegetables and green manure
- Weak growers: winter hedge bulbs, lettuces, edible flowers and herbs - Medium growers: carrots, leeks, spicy tagetes - Strong growers: potatoes, broccoli, marigolds - Green manures such as 'Landsberger Gemenge' with raygrass, winter vetch and incarnate clover