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Cotswold & cottage gardens


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Designing a Cotswold or cottage garden


We are lucky enough to be based on the edge of The Cotswolds, one of the UK’s designated Areas of Natural Beauty. With its rolling hills, chocolate box villages and houses made of honey-coloured stone, it’s not hard to see why. Anyone visiting a Cotswold village will have been won over by the beautiful gardens.

When we design Cotswolds gardens we are always aware of the impact of the landscape on the design, the two have to be unified. However small the space, a garden should be full of colour and interest, whatever the time of year. It’s an easy effect to recreate in any garden, and here are a few tips to help you do just that. 

Top tips for a Cotswold garden


The main feature of a traditional Cotswold garden is the use of hedges to divide the space into a series of rooms, each with its own theme, feel or style. When designing a Cotswold garden this is perhaps the first thing to consider: what themes do you want to bring into the garden? The Cotswolds was perhaps the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement and you may want to bring some of the simplicity of this into one area of your garden; other rooms could become wildflower meadows, topiary mazes, lawns or colour-themed flowerbeds. There are so many themes and styles to choose and you may find inspiration from some of the famous Cotswold gardens that are open to the public, such as Hidcote Manor, Westonbirt Arboretum or HRH Prince Charles’ home at Highgrove.

Where the traditional Victorian English country garden was a riot of colour, with every corner filled to bursting, the Cotswold garden’s beauty is in its simplicity. In a room with flowers, stick to a simple palette of two or three colours. Purples and pinks create a soft, romantic feel, while a bed in shades of blue and yellow will be more striking.