The Modern Cottage Garden: A Fresh Approach to a Classic Style

Loades, editor of The Alpine Gardener, inspires with this delightful exploration of the process of creating a “modern cottage garden.” After explaining how he defines this term, as a combination of the traditional English cottage garden and the more naturalistic “New Perennial Movement,” Loades dispenses extensive instructions on assembling attractive arrays of plants for backyards as well as smaller spaces, such as a “selection of mixed containers” on a patio. He then goes through the seasons, telling readers what to expect at every stage, such as that the “cottage garden’s star performers... have a habit of peaking in early summer.” He wraps up with a list of 50 essential plants (including dainty cyclamen coum and the salvia Hot Lips, which “starts flowering in summer and continues through until the first frost”). Gorgeous, full-page color photos of gardens designed using Loades’s approach will propel readers to the nearest plant nursery. Wry aphorisms (“It’s not just death and taxes that are inevitable. A lot of frustrated gardeners would add slugs to this saying too”) charmingly punctuate the how-to. Herbophiles will find it impossible not to get drawn into Loades’s blossoming world. (July)