THE PRACTICE OF evolution

Think of the classic ‘cottage garden’ and you might picture a squat stone house clothed in rambling roses, its tiny plot crammed full of frothy catmint and alchemilla, foxgloves and hollyhocks, fruit trees and vegetables.

Synonymous with the English countryside – and returning in popularity across Britain – the cottage garden has its roots in medieval history, when self-sufficiency and using every patch of a plot was vital, and gardens were a jumble of plants and even livestock. Those productive gardens evolved to have form as well as function, and by the turn of the 19th century, the cottage garden was a conscious style choice,