Customer Reviews

Cottage Garden (DK Living)

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This book covers many topics related to the traditional English cottage garden without alienating the modern gardener. There are a great many color photographs which include overall garden shots and pictures of individual traditional cottage garden favorites, many of which are easily available in the U.S. There are also many color drawings with various cottage garden designs (aerial views) including the traditional cottage garden with primarily vegetables, a garden with fruits and vegetables and flowers, and flowers only and flowers and vines.

The book is well organized and is both charming and useful. If you are very visual you won't be disappointed with the combination of pictures and drawings.

The end of the book contains information on what garden tasks can and should be completed during the four seasons, and how to accomplish them, including a brief section on pruning. There is also a section included in this part of the book which gives traditional recipes and ideas about how to use the bounty from your garden, including dandelion wine, and mead. This book is a good read and there is plenty to return to again and again.

I love cottage gardens, real cottage garden, not those perfect ones you see in some books and magazines that claim to be cottage gardens. I've read a lot of books about this topic and I found this to be one of the best, both in content and in photos and drawings. I found myself getting this book from the library so often that I finally bought myself a copy. I'm constantly looking through it when I'm wanting inspiration for my gardens, or when I need something to help get me through a long winter's evening. It's truly a charming book.

If you like cottage gardens and like growing vegetables you'll be delighted by the garden plans and all the information, plant suggestions and photos in this book. The drawings of various cottage garden layouts in the back are really fantastic, as are the photos throughout the book.

After reading through this book, you'll definitely find yourself dreaming of a small cottage surrounded by a riotous mass of herbs and flowers out front with a few hedges and a bountiful vegetable garden out back, and perhaps a few chicken running around.