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Cottage gardening
A cottage garden is an informal and increasingly popular style of gardening that mixes traditional design with a mix of ornamental and edible plants. Our gardens flow from historic cottage gardens

The Enclosure Acts deprived ordinary country people of legal access to many of their traditional sources of food. Places where they could hunt, farm, fish, graze their livestock, or gather firewood were shut off to them. Those lucky enough to have a patch of ground next to their cottage had to make the most of it and cottage gardening became widespread – a way to survive.

Some landowners gave their tenants patches of ground near their cottages and some others established model villages on their estates for their workers. Cottage gardens grew fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers maximising space, encouraging pollinators and favouring hardy, reliable and self seeding, easily propagated, or perennial plants. Flowers including traditional flowers like primroses, daisies and flowering herbs gradually came to the fore.

Humble cottage gardens inspired a picturesque movement in greater gardens, and led both to our modern cottage gardens and to a modern cottage gardening style employed in a wider range of gardens. Old-fashioned roses that bloomed once a year with rich scents, now vie with modern varieties, climbers, and shrubs providing colour and enjoyment through much of the year.

The Cottage Garden Society Cotswold Group
Our regional group has over 30 members in Gloucestershire currently. Members and visitors share great enjoyment of their gardens and gardening. We attend talks on a wide range of gardening topics, enjoy garden visits, and plant sales, and have excellent links with other gardening organisations thanks to our membership of the Gloucestershire Federation of Gardening Societies.

Members receive monthly newsletters and regular updates from our secretary detailing open gardens, plant shows, and meetings.

The Cottage Garden Society  www.thecgs.org.uk

The Cottage Garden Society (CGS) is an informal and friendly society, founded in 1982 to celebrate and protect the cottage garden style and plants.  It brings together amateurs and professionals who share an enthusiasm for this type of gardening.  The National CGS produces a magazine 4 times a year with information and gardening articles for members.  There are over 35 affiliated regional groups, including the Cotswold Group.        

Members receive an A5 magazine quarterly with articles written by members for the benefit and enjoyment of all our members. To join us or enquire please contact: membership@cotswoldcgs.org.uk or click here to see the membership page.