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Celebrating England’s cottage gardens

Soak up the colours and scents of the most quintessential of English gardens in this selection of 10 RHS Partner Gardens

Characterised by informal planting and usually connected to a house or cottage, cottage gardens reflect the beauty and heritage of English gardening. We’ve selected 10 dreamy examples from across the country that will inspire you with their design and planting schemes – and, most of all, will lighten your mood.

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Helmsley Walled Garden, Yorkshire

© Colin Dilcock
At Helmsley Walled Garden, richly planted borders weave together perennials, bulbs and self-seeding favourites to create layers of colour, texture and seasonal interest
At Helmsley Walled Garden, an orchard has been transformed into an early summer meadow with an abundance of Leucanthemum vulgare, Anthriscus sylvestris, Rhinanthus minor and native grasses. The buzz from pollinators is almost hypnotising, especially when accompanied by the whisper of a gentle breeze, allowing visitors to enjoy a sense of nostalgia for gardens of a bygone era.

There are many small, intimate areas throughout this five-acre historic garden. Herbaceous borders are overflowing with early summer colour. Roses in full bloom are accompanied by classic cottage garden underplantings of geranium, Nepeta, phlox and Digitalis. At this time of year, fruit is beginning to form on the collection of trained apples and pears – a harbinger of the abundance of the autumn harvest – while the kitchen garden is starting to provide the first crops of produce and bunches of cut flowers.

There’s something for everyone to take away from this timeless space. Like the best cottage gardens, at Helmsley Walled Garden the planting appears effortless, yet is carefully designed to ensure succession throughout the year while providing valuable habitat and nectar for pollinators. The result is a vibrant tapestry of flowers that softens the historic walls and encourages visitors to slow down and explore.

  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: March–December, Wednesday; plus October, daily when open
  • Find out more at Helmsley Walled Garden

Bide-a-Wee Cottage Gardens, Northumberland

© Mark Robson
A vast array of unusual plants thrives at Bide-a-Wee Cottage Gardens
Bide-a-Wee Cottage Gardens combines traditional cottage garden planting with a diverse collection of perennials, grasses and shrubs. Set within a former sandstone quarry, the garden uses informal, naturalistic planting to soften the landscape and create colour, texture and seasonal interest throughout the year.

Houghton Hall and Gardens, Norfolk

© Richard Bloom
Houghton Hall and Gardens blends delicate structure with joyous informality
Stretching for 120 metres, the magnificent double herbaceous border at Houghton Hall’s award-winning walled garden is a colourful celebration of the classic English cottage garden, scaled up to grand proportions. Featuring a romantic abundance of plants, it creates a rich horticultural tapestry that changes continuously from spring through to autumn.

The border features an ingenious layout of shifting colour palettes: at one end, cool shades of blue, crisp white, and pale pink dominate, including cottage favourites like Echinops exaltatus and Phlox paniculata. These transition beautifully into a ‘hot zone’ packed with fiery blocks of Lilium davidii and Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’.

Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ lines the entire length, providing visual harmony while attracting a steady buzz of bees, butterflies and other pollinators to its nectar-rich flowers. Clumps of Achillea and Monarda weave effortlessly between specimens, adding dense layers of colour and helping to suppress weeds. At the back, Macleaya cordata lends height and soft movement as its plumes sway gently in the breeze.

By blending delicate structure with joyous informality, this meticulously planned border ensures a continuous succession of flowers, celebrating traditional cottage charm and biodiversity.

Farringford Estate, Isle of Wight

© Farringford Estate
The walled garden at Farringford Estate reflects its 19th-century abundant planting style
The beautifully restored walled garden at Farringford Estate offers a fascinating insight into the world of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and his family, who lived at the estate from 1853 to 1892. What makes this garden particularly special is that its restoration was guided by Emily Tennyson’s journals and the watercolours of Victorian artist Helen Allingham.

The walled garden, where Alfred and Emily Tennyson spent much of their time, has been restored as closely as possible to its original layout. The planting has a wonderfully relaxed, cottage-garden feel, reflecting a garden once described by Tennyson as ‘carelessly ordered’. Old-fashioned roses, salvias, Alcea, delphiniums, sweet peas, Ammi majus and everlasting flowers mingle with fruit and vegetables, creating a space that feels both productive and full of character. Throughout the seasons, bees and butterflies thrive among the abundant planting.

As visitors wander through the garden, historic detail, romantic planting and seasonal interest combine to create a welcoming atmosphere, while views across the surrounding countryside can be enjoyed from Emily Tennyson’s arbour at the top of the garden. The result is a beautiful example of how careful historical research and thoughtful gardening can bring a place’s story vividly back to life.

  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: April–October, Wednesday and Thursday when open
  • Find out more at Farringford Estate

Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria

At Hutton-in-the-Forest, the planting combines cottage garden charm with summer abundance
Hutton-in-the-Forest’s historic walled garden is a beautiful flower garden. It’s filled with bulbs, herbaceous plants, annuals and roses set against a backdrop of old pear and apple trees, creating colourful borders that evolve throughout the year. Framed by historic walls and yew hedges, the garden offers a relaxed and timeless setting where ornamental and productive planting sit comfortably side by side. Its blend of flowers, fruit trees and heritage character makes it a particularly appealing example of English country garden planting.

The Dorothy Clive Garden, Shropshire

© Olivia Wolf Photography
The Dorothy Clive Garden offers visitors seasonal garden design in a unique hillside setting
The Dorothy Clive Garden’s seasonal borders, herbaceous plantings and Rose Walk capture many of the qualities associated with traditional English cottage gardens. Throughout the summer months, roses and flowering perennials bring colour, texture and fragrance to the hillside garden, creating displays that evolve as the season progresses.

The garden’s informal character encourages visitors to explore its network of paths, discovering colourful borders and plant combinations along the way. Later in the season, the herbaceous borders come into their own, providing a rich tapestry of flowers that complement collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and woodland plants. Together, these plantings contribute to the intimate and inspiring atmosphere for which The Dorothy Clive Garden is known.

  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: January–March and July–December, when open
  • Find out more at The Dorothy Clive Garden

Furzey Gardens, Hampshire

The cottage garden at Furzey Gardens captures the essence of a classic cottage garden
The cottage garden at Furzey Gardens, in the heart of the New Forest, is especially picturesque in July and August, when the potager-style beds brim with a colourful mix of flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit including sweet peas, artichokes, nasturtiums, raspberries and onions. Thatched 16th-century Furzey Cottage makes the perfect backdrop.
  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: February–December, when open (excluding school holidays)
  • Find out more at Furzey Gardens

Wyken Hall, Suffolk

Stylish and well maintained, Wyken Hall is one of the best modern private gardens in England
Lupins, hollyhocks, delphiniums and geraniums all jostle for space in the charming, loosely planted cottage garden at Wyken Hall in Suffolk. Even the bespoke gate featuring hoes and shovels – created by Norfolk garden designer George Carter – is charming. Visitors will find that the Rose Garden also has a cottage feel.

  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: When open (excluding Charity days)
  • Find out more at Wyken Hall

Kelmarsh Hall & Gardens, Northamptonshire

Nestled in the Northamptonshire countryside, Kelmarsh Hall is a Palladian house built in 1732
The billowing 40m double border at Kelmarsh Hall was designed in a grand, yet cottagey style by socialite and garden designer Norah Lindsay in the late 1920s. As summer progresses, one feels enveloped by this garden. The plants are observed more closely, their scents are trapped within the narrow space and one can easily reach out and feel the different textures of leaves and petals.

  • Free days out for RHS Members in 2026: March–October, Tuesday–Thursday when open
  • Find out more at Kelmarsh Hall & Gardens

​East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Somerset

East Lambrook Manor Gardens features winding paths and themed garden rooms
East Lambrook Manor Gardens was created by 20th-century plantswoman Margery Fish, a voracious plant collector and champion of the English cottage garden style. Her iconic Grade I-listed garden is the quintessential English cottage garden: stone paths wend their way around generously planted island beds, where border plants mingle with self-seeders and wildflowers to charming effect.

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