Author(s): Toby Musgrave

Gardening and Self Sufficiency

There is perhaps no style of garden more emotive and evocative than the cottage garden - imbued with a sense of romance, idealised by writers and painters, and so alluring to garden makers all over the world, it has been fashionable for nearly two centuries. But, today we often think of it as outdated, old fashioned, past its sell-by date. Wrong! With the hustle and bustle of today's frantic lifestyle, the cottage garden has never been more appropriate. It is the distillation of the essence of what a garden should be - it is a place of beauty, repose and tranquillity. It enables us to get back in touch with the soil, to enjoy the hugely rewarding, but simple pleasures of sowing seed and taking cuttings, of caring for plants and watching them grow and thrive, of harvesting and eating home grown produce. And when the work is done, we can relax in a beautiful, sweetly scented floral retreat.