The Cottage Garden

by Claus Dalby

Overview

Through over 700 exquisite photographs and evocative text written by Danish gardening celebrity Claus Dalby, explore the history and development of the beloved cottage garden design style.

In the pages of The Cottage Garden, you’ll first draw inspiration from the stories and landscapes of generations of famous cottage gardeners, including Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West, William Robinson, Margery Fish, and Tasha Tudor. Then, meet modern cottage gardeners from around the globe who combine billowing masses of flowers such as poppies, delphinium, lupines, foxgloves, peonies, roses, lilies, and many more to create dreamy landscapes infused with the romance and wildness of cottage-style gardening.

You’ll find no formal lines, rigid rules, or perfect spacing in the cottage garden. Instead, the form is organic and purposefully unstructured. Plants self-sow here and there, bulbs pop up and spread unrestricted, and everything appears casual; though as you’ll come to learn through Dalby’s words, it is all done with great intent.

Overflowing with textures and colors, the cottage gardens featured throughout this book in hundreds of full-color photographs are found in places as diverse as Germany, Sweden, Denmark, England, and the United States. The accompanying text is derived from Dalby’s personal visits to these gardens, along with his intimate interviews with the resident gardeners.

Dalby provides useful details about the design, development, and continued evolution of cottage gardens. He shares the stories of these breathtaking modern cottage gardens in a way that allows you to glean inspiration you can use to create a cottage garden of your own, whether large or small. 

The gardens profiled in these pages exhibit the essential foundational elements and principals of well-designed cottage gardens. Whether home is in the countryside or a suburban subdivision, the profiled gardens will serve as both muse and motivation for the creation of a classic backyard cottage garden in your own space. This gorgeous tome is sure to become the bible of this much-adored classic garden design style.

Also by Claus Dalby:Containers in the Garden

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760379714
Publisher:	Cool Springs Press
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	81,210
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 11.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Claus Dalby has been called “the Scandinavian Martha Stewart.” He is a designer, florist, and Danish gardener who has amassed a huge fan base in Scandinavia, the US, and around the world. He is also a successful publisher, television personality, and designer of glass vases for Holmegaard. His signature style of gardening uses densely packed plants and changing seasonal displays, often in monochromatic color palettes. Claus also runs an online garden club with monthly subscribers from around the world.

Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword
Danish Garden History
The English Cottage Garden
Helen Allingham
William Robinson
Gertrude Jekyll
Vita Sackville-West
Margery Fish
Tasha Tudor
Cottage Garden Inspiration
The People’s Gardener
The Real Thing
Really Wild
A Clear Favorite
Just Like in England
A New England Garden
Anita’s Country Cottage
Childhood Memories
The Mother-Daughter Garden
Chocolate Box Cottage
More German Idyll
The Quintessential Cottage
A Beautiful Garden in Southern Sweden
A Special Harmony
Pure Cottage Style
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2023

This sumptuous coffee-table book by gardener Dalby (Containers in the Garden) showcases some of the choicest cottage gardens in the U.S. and Europe. Praising the “uncultivated aesthetic and picturesque charm” of English cottage gardens, Dalby expounds on the plots kept by English authors Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), who “was famous for the way she mixed plants and focused on their shapes and colors,” and Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962), who maintained a “sea of flowers with winding passages” around her home. Dalby’s focus expands across the globe as he moves into the present day. Images of the area around interior designer Bunny Williams’s Connecticut abode show amaranth and black-eyed Susans in plots surrounded by gravel pathways, and scenes from a small-town German garden include purple tulips and bleeding hearts hemmed in by boxwood hedges. Other highlights include a Danish kitchen garden planted in terraces carved out of a hill; an idyllic Bournville, England, cottage bordered by pilgrim and white cloud roses; and a Dorset estate that mixes trimmed shrubs with unkempt wild foliage. Dalby’s tendency to take closeup photos of specific features of the gardens can sometimes make it difficult to get a sense of their overall layout, but the vibrant foliage pictured nonetheless makes an impression. Garden lovers will be enchanted. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Gardening is a wonderful form of self-expression and I love getting a glimpse into the spaces that other people create. In The Cottage Garden, Claus offers a peek inside some of the most charming gardens around the world and profiles the gardeners who tend them. Readers are sure to find inspiration in its pages.”—Erin Benzakein, Floret Flower Farm

“This is a book to treasure!  An in-depth look into the history of the Cottage Garden and those who played important roles in the development of this romantic idyl beloved by so many. Claus tells us of his visits to gardens all over the world – some favorites and others unknown – richly illustrated with his own  beautiful photographs. Packed with ideas for all gardening enthusiasts, The Cottage Garden is an essential addition to our libraries.”—Jenny Rose-Innes, interior and garden designer, author of Australian Designers at Home

“With his unerring eye for color, texture and composition, the ‘king of containers’ turns his camera and pen to the beauty and romance of cottage gardens around the globe.”—Clive Nichols, garden and flower photographer

"With its pastoral inspiration, excellent plant selections, and sage advice, The Cottage Garden beautifully captures the pleasures of imperfect gardening. Both armchair gardeners and hands-on cultivators will find inspiration in Dalby’s relaxed approach and sumptuous photographs. This book encourages gardeners to embrace nature’s beauty and create their own unique cottage garden oasis."—Splash Magazines

"This sumptuous coffee-table book by gardener Dalby (Containers in the Garden) showcases some of the choicest cottage gardens in the U.S. and Europe. Garden lovers will be enchanted."—Publishers Weekly

"Reading this book makes it seem like you are sitting with Dalby in those gardens, listening to him describe what makes
each one a cottage garden. We soon understand why he says that we love cottage gardens “because they have a soul.” Dalby
helps us visualize the souls of these gardens."—Carol Michel, The American Gardener

"Sumptuously illustrated, this book is a real treat."
 —Gardens Illustrated

"Each garden has a short description, plus extended captions of the images - more than 700 beautiful images taken by Darby himself."—Daily Mail

"...gloriously photographed...will inspire those aiming to create chocolate-box beauty in their own patch."—The Sunday Times

"In a way, this book feels like a tour throughout Europe and the United. While there is some information on plant care, some shows how you can create a landscape with a mix of romance and wilderness." —Susan Bewley, Budget Earth

From the Publisher