Better Homes And Gardens Cottage Garden Plan

Create a Classic Look in Your Landscape with This Summer Cottage Garden Plan

Colorful perennials such a stately delphiniums, elegant bellflowers, and reliable yarrows form the backbone of this flower-filled design.

Add plenty of color and texture to your yard with this eye-catching, summer-blooming cottage garden plan. It relies on classic perennials such as bellflower, lamb's ear, cranesbill, and delphinium, just to name a few of the showstoppers in this free design. It's perfect for a sunny border along a lawn or walkway. Most of the plants in this design do best in moist, well-drained soil so adding a generous amount of compost to your soil before planting will help ensure that this beautiful cottage garden will flourish for you. Get the full plant list below, along with the detailed layout diagram as a downloadable PDF.

lush summer cottage garden

Plants for Creating the Summer Cottage Garden Plan

3 Boxwood (Buxus spp.): Zones 5-9, depending on species
3 Dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis): Zones 4-9
1 Lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina): Zones 4-8
4 Cranesbill (Geranium x oxonianum): Zones 4-8
1 Penstemon 'Sour Grapes': Zones 7-10
2 White peach-leaved bellflower (Campanula persicifolia 'Alba'): Zones 3-8
4 Leopard's bane (Doronicum cordatum): Zones 4-8
2 Yarrow (Achillea 'Coronation Gold'): Zones 3-9
2 Larkspur (Consolida ajacis): Annual
3 Delphinium Pacific Giants: Zones 4-7
1 Sedum 'Autumn Joy': Zones 3-10

If you aren't able to find the exact cultivars listed above, substitute with others that have similar colors, shapes, and sizes. And because some plants can become overly aggressive and spread out of control in certain climates, always check which species are considered invasive in your area before planting. For example, dame's rocket vigorously reseeds itself and has been reported to invade natural areas in various states around the country; you may want to replace it with a shorter garden phlox variety such as 'Jeana' to achieve a similar look in this plan.

Summer Cottage Garden Plan

Credit: Illustration by Mavis Augustine Torke

Get the Free Summer Cottage Garden Plan

Our free Garden Plan for this design includes an illustrated version of the planted garden, a detailed layout diagram, a list of plants for the garden as shown, and complete instructions for installing the garden. Free, one-time registration allows unlimited access to all garden plans, available as printable PDFs.

Download This Plan