Why Herbs Belong in the Cottage Garden

The cottage garden has always been a working garden. Long before it became a style to be copied, it was a patch of ground where flowers and useful plants grew side by side because there was nowhere else to put them. Herbs sat right at the heart of that mix, usually within arm's reach of the back door, so a handful of parsley or a sprig of thyme could be gathered mid-cooking without a trip down the garden.

That is the spirit worth reviving. Herbs bring scent, texture and movement, and many of them flower generously enough to hold their own among roses and foxgloves. Better still, they are forgiving plants. Most prefer lean soil and plenty of sun, which suits the informal, slightly crowded planting that defines the cottage look. Combine the two and you get a border that feeds you and looks as though it has always been there.

Choosing Herbs That Suit Informal Planting

Start with the dependable woody herbs, which give the border its bones. Rosemary, thyme, sage, winter savory and lavender all provide structure, evergreen presence and flowers that bees adore. Plant them in groups of three or five rather than singly, and let them billow rather than clip them into tidy balls.

Then add the soft, floppy herbs that create the cottage garden's characteristic relaxed tumble:

• Chives – neat clumps of pink pom-pom flowers in late spring, perfect for edging a path.
• Oregano and marjoram – low mounds that spill over gravel and stone.
• Parsley – flat-leaved and lush, though it needs rich soil and a little shade.
• Fennel and dill – tall, feathery and brilliant for hovering insects.
• Borage – brilliant blue flowers all summer, and it self-seeds freely.
• Lovage – a substantial plant for the back of the border, tasting strongly of celery.
• Salad burnet – neat, cucumber-flavoured foliage for the front edge.

Mint deserves its own paragraph. Left to its own devices, it will run through a border and never look back. Sink a large pot to the rim in the soil, or grow it in a container on the path, and you will keep the flavour without losing the plot.

Designing the Planting Scheme

A cottage border works on repetition. Rather than dotting one of everything about, choose four or five key herbs and repeat them in loose drifts two or three metres apart. The eye reads it as deliberate informality rather than chaos.

Structure the planting in three layers. At the back, use fennel, lovage, rosemary and bay, the last of which can be clipped lightly into a loose dome. In the middle, put sage, oregano, tarragon and the taller thymes. At the front, chives, salad burnet, creeping thyme and parsley.

Allow self-seeders to do some of the work. Borage, calendula, dill, chervil and coriander will all scatter themselves about, and the resulting seedlings are exactly the sort of happy accident a cottage garden thrives on. Learn to recognise the seedlings, and simply pull out the ones that land where you don't want them.

Planting Combinations That Earn Their Keep

Pair herbs with classic cottage flowers so the border works hard in every sense. Purple sage against deep pink roses is a combination worth the space; the grey-green foliage sets off the blooms and the flowers attract pollinators. Chives underplanted with alpine strawberries make a lovely, low, productive edge beside a path.

Try lavender with hardy geraniums and pinks for a dry, sunny stretch. Team fennel, with its bronze or green feathery tops, behind white cosmos and verbena. Catmint, not strictly a culinary herb but a close relative, looks superb spilling over the edge of a herb bed and will flower for months if cut back after the first flush.

Include a few edible flowers among them: nasturtium, calendula and borage petals all lift a summer salad, and they cost nothing but a little space.

Practical Care Through the Year

Most herbs want the opposite of what the rest of the garden wants. Overfeeding produces leafy, flavourless growth, so keep the soil lean and add grit or horticultural sand if it is heavy clay. Drainage matters more than richness, particularly for rosemary, thyme and lavender, which sulk in wet winters.

Cut soft herbs regularly to keep them bushy. Pinch out the tips of basil and parsley, and shear chives after flowering to encourage fresh leaves. Woody herbs should be trimmed lightly in spring, never cut back into old, bare wood, as most will not regrow from it.

• Water newly planted herbs well through their first summer, then leave them largely to it.
• Mulch with gravel around Mediterranean herbs to keep foliage dry and rots at bay.
• Divide chives and mint every couple of years to keep clumps vigorous.
• Lift and pot tender herbs such as basil and tarragon before the first frost.

Harvesting for the Kitchen and the Vase

Pick herbs in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun gets strong, when the oils are at their most concentrated. Regular picking is not a chore here; it is the pruning the plants need.

Freeze soft herbs such as parsley, chives and dill in ice-cube trays with a little water, or chop them into butter. Dry woody herbs in bunches somewhere warm and airy. And don't confine them to the kitchen: sprigs of rosemary, sage and lavender in a jug on the table are as much a part of the cottage garden as the border they came from.