The essential ingredients
Fortunately, you don't need a thatched cottage. You can create a cottage garden in any environment - in a narrow strip of garden behind a Victorian terrace, in the small plot of a modern house, even in a tiny patio garden.

The real key to this look are the borders. They should be wide, large and full to bursting with a mixture of herbaceous perennials, annuals, old roses, shrubs and even vegetables.

Essential perennials include delphiniums, hollyhocks, phlox, pulmonaria, achillea, acanthus, alchemilla, cranesbill, geraniums and violas. Once planted, annuals like foxgloves will self-seed indefinitely; others, like cosmos, will need to be grown from seed every year.

For more details of products and gardening advice please see Agriframes, David Austin Roses, Cottage Garden Plants, Vida Verde and Matthew Eden.