How to Create the Romantic Cottage Backyard

Plant plant varieties that encourage romance. Roses are often the cornerstone of a romantic backyard garden and a must in any cottage garden. Train them to climb on a trellis, against a white picket fence or over an arbor. Opt for wisteria and allow it to trail gracefully from a pergola or wind itself around a gazebo's columns. Create privacy with a hedge of sweet lilacs or hydrangeas.

Position untamed flowerbeds around your yard. Plant banks of day lilies, daisies, columbine and black-eyed Susans behind borders of dianthus, lavender and impatiens layered with groundcovers like English ivy and creeping thyme.

Create a couple's retreat with a gazebo fitted with lace curtains or cotton sheers that blow romantically in the breeze while still providing privacy. Add a hammock to accommodate afternoon naps for two or outfit the structure with a hot tub for late night dips.

Convert a garden shed into a backyard cottage hideaway. Freshen it up with a coat of paint in a dreamy pastel or soft white and hang gauzy curtains at the windows. Furnish your retreat with wicker chaise lounges featuring overstuffed cushions covered in floral fabric or a graceful vintage iron bed piled high with pillows. Hang a chandelier. If there is no electricity, search out one that illuminates with candles. Throw a lace tablecloth over a rustic wooden table and center it with candles in silver holders flanking a pottery pitcher filled with roses or hydrangeas. Warm the floor with rag rugs.

Arrange a table and two wicker chairs under the boughs of a favorite trees, such as a weeping willow or cherry tree. Make time to meet your significant other there to talk, catch up and take a break from everyday stress. Wrap the tree's trunk with white twinkle lights to provide romantic ambiance once the sun goes down.