You don't have to spend a lot of money on pots, pergolas and pebble ponds. A traditional cottage garden is both beautiful and cheap
The cottage garden - with its profusion of flowers and vegetables, and atmosphere of happy informality - thrives on thriftiness. As soon as it acquires a fancy patio or water feature, it loses its vitality and charm. And, now that the country is being ravaged by the Celtic Tiger, the simple, rustic garden is an endangered species.
Now, I'm not advocating that cottage-dwellers should eschew patios or ponds, so that the rest of us can enjoy the look of their guileless, old-world gardens. But I would like to put an idea into the minds of those who are starting new gardens, or taking over an older one: whether it's in the town or in the country, the cottage garden idea is easy, cheap and always pretty.
Or maybe it's not that easy. For a start, creating the "bones" of such a space can be difficult - simply because we have too much choice. At the garden centre, DIY store and supermarket one is faced with a bedazzling selection of materials. There are dozens of different kinds of planters, pots and pergolas; there are garden seats, tables and umbrellas; wrought-iron candle holders and obelisks; outdoor heaters and barbecues; pebble ponds and fountain kits.
With so much to choose from, where does one start? Well actually, one can start as far away from the above list of items as possible. I don't wish to sound like a party-pooper, but the whole attraction of a cottage garden is that it is delightfully unworldly. Traditionally, such spaces were made on a shoestring budget, with salvaged or found materials used to fabricate the structures - and these were few: a couple of supports for climbers, an arch or two, a sensible seat. These gardens were for growing plants - both edible and decorative - and weren't meant to double as outdoor rooms or meditation spaces.
Making a cottage garden requires forgetting just about everything that has been aimed at us by garden centres, TV and magazines over the last few decades. It is a home-made affair. You want plants? If you're a dyed-in-the-wool cottage gardener, you grow them from seed, propagate them from cuttings, buy them at the parish fete, or exchange seeds, slips and plantlets with like-minded gardeners.
Okay, I know it's not realistic to expect people to garden with such frugality now - especially when being importuned by a multitude of inexpensive plants and outdoor products - but it is this mindset of self-sufficiency and sharing that makes a cottage garden what it is.
Such gloriously abundant and floriferous plots evolve over the years and are populated with bits of plants that were given, swapped, or raised by hand. There's no great attention paid to colour-co-ordination or foliage texture. Flowers are the main event. It's important to have something in bloom for as much of the year as possible, from snowdrops and hellebores in early spring, to the asters, fuchsias and other late bloomers that linger on into the latter part of the year. Planting design is uncomplicated: tall plants and shrubs go at the back, medium-sized ones in the middle, and sprawlers and crawlers go at the front. Climbers, such as clematis or roses, are steered up apple trees (if you have them), or are trained along constructions made from rough wooden poles, which may then act as the dividing walls within the garden.
Food, of course, is essential, because you can't eat flowers (yes, I know, you can really, but there is not much nutriment to be got from a scattering of nasturtium or viola petals on a baby-leaf salad). All manner of vegetables are grown and, if there is space, soft and orchard fruits. Decorative plants and edibles share the same beds and borders. This looks charming, but it is also good husbandry: flowering plants attract bees to pollinate crops. They also distract the pests that are drawn to a monocultural patch of vegetables: an unrelieved block of brassicas is more likely to fall prey to cabbage white butterflies than one that is interspersed with other plants.
I don't know of any true cottage gardens that are open to the public, but there are a couple of larger places that maintain the joyful and higgledy-piggledy ethos of this kind of gardening. At Warble Bank in Newtownmountkennedy, Anne Condell keeps a plot that is pretty, productive and full of spontaneity. And at the rather grand Cashel House Hotel in Connemara, Kay McEvilly has gardened for 40 years with her own homespun kind of horticulture. The way she describes it is the perfect motto for the cottage gardener: "everything all flying into everything else".
• Warble Bank, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, is open tomorrow from 2-6pm; and during September and October by appointment to groups. Admission €5. Telephone: 01-2819298; www.dublingardens.com The garden at Cashel House Hotel, Cashel, Co Galway is open daily 10am-5pm. Admission €5. Telephone: 095-31001; www.cashel-house-hotel.com