How to Create a Cottage Garden Oasis

Select a location for the garden bed. Traditionally, this area surrounds the home, but if this is not possible in your location, consider planting around an outbuilding or a large tree. There should be some physical structure that serves as a central focal point around which you design your garden.

Select the plants that you intend to use. Remember that a cottage garden mixes herbs, vegetables, fruits and flowering plants. Plants commonly found in a cottage garden include lilies, hollyhocks, roses, irises, beans, yams, squash, rosemary, thyme, basil and lavender, among others.

Draw out a design for your garden on paper. There are five growth levels in a cottage garden: ground cover, short, medium, tall and climbing. Climbing vines belong at the back of the cottage garden, closest to the central structure. They can ascend a trellis or the walls of the home. Arrange other varieties and sizes of plants so that they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and so that all the plants benefit from the arrangement. For example, place shorter plants that need shade underneath tall plants that have a long stem but very little foliage at ground level.

Build a personal oasis into your design. You can incorporate garden benches, a small goldfish pond, an arbor or a pergola with a garden swing into the cottage garden design. Select a design feature that suits you and will provide a personal getaway. Vining plants can attach to most structures, so consider placing these around benches and arbors. If you choose to incorporate a pond, add water plants to your design.

Prepare the soil around your home for planting. Have a soil test completed by your local university extension office, and follow the recommendations to improve your soil's health. Till the soil for your beds, and add organic mater or topsoil to raise the soil level inside the edging, if you are creating raised beds.

Plant flowers, herbs and other edibles, according to your design.

Provide for the needs of local wildlife. Put out bird feeders and baths, and incorporate a few additional flowers, like honeysuckle, to draw butterflies and bees. Attracting these pollinators to your garden is important for fertilization of your plants.

Perform basic maintenance on your garden, weeding, watering and fertilizing as needed. Your garden's specific fertilization and water needs are directly related to your soil type and local rainfall. Contact your local university extension office for specific soil improvement and watering practices suited to your area. Monitor herbs, vegetables and fruits for maturity. Harvest plants as they become ripe.