Fiona Cumberpatch

Can you grow a cottage garden in containers? The answer is yes! You don’t need a quaint country house, pots of money, acres of land or even a rural setting to get that lovely wild, layered look, full of scent and colour. The key to a container cottage garden is letting your plants meet and mingle. Twining, spilling and threading together. Wigwams and plant supports will hold the very vigorous ones. Encourage self seeders - valerian is everywhere in my garden and I’ve never planted it! If a buttercup pops up, I’m delighted to see it. In my spring cottage garden now, the magic is starting to happen. The containers are beginning to merge so you can’t see where one ends and the other begins. Edges are softened, lines erased, plants are starting to brush my legs as I walk past - and that’s the ultimate aim. Total immersion. I have been studying a new book Beauty And Abundance #BeautyAndAbundance @quadrillebooks by Clare Foggett, editor of @theenglishgardenmagazine with beautiful photos by @jonathanbuckleyphotography It includes some huge gardens, some of the best you’ll see, but the scale doesn’t matter. If you’re short on space (and ££) like me, you can pinch ideas, cherrypick plant combinations and absorb the uniquely unruly atmosphere that makes British cottage garden style so special and unique. *The book was a free review copy but I have not been paid or asked to write about it.

I thought I’d join in with #transformationtuesday, with another round up of garden changes. We had a lovely family gathering here over the weekend for two birthdays and it made me so happy to see everyone enjoying the space in the sunshine. It makes the hard work worthwhile - and spurs me on to do more! . . . #transformationtuesday #gardenreno #backyardreno #yarden #edwardianterrace #kitchenextension #singlestoreyextension #bifolddoors #reclaimedbrickpath #salvagedgarden #diygarden #sittingspot #easygardendesign #moderngardens #floweryard

AD/Gifted We all know how beneficial gardening can be to wellbeing, both physical and mental. My parents are living proof: now in their nineties, they still look after their cottage garden with no outside help, apart from an occasional hand from family. They’re outside most days in spring and summer. When I was sent a pair of @stihlgb ASA 20.0 pruning shears to try, I thought my dad would be the ideal person to test them. We made this little film the other day. It shows how the right tool can make an arduous task so much easier, especially if you have stiff joints or limited mobility (regardless of age). The shears are operated by rechargeable battery (which is compatible with other Stihl tools, so you only buy it once). We weren’t paid to do this but the shears were a gift. Dad was very happy to take part and I think he’s great in front of the camera! Easy gardening. Gardening over 80. Garden tools. Limited mobility gardening

A tour of my container cottage garden in mid May. It’s still filling out and I have a few more pots to put together and all my dahlias to plant out. But I love the lush feel after last night’s rain. Lots of height coming from foxgloves, salvias and sweet peas. Lower growing colour from sweet Williams, nepeta and hardy geraniums. Always grasses for width and texture, filling the gaps. I’ll be cutting the top off the nepeta later, just to ensure that I have thicker, more flowery plants later down the line. I’m looking forward to getting lots of inspiration from #rhschelseaflowershow on Monday, when I’ll be at the press day. I’ll post highlights and a blog on Tuesday next week. Wonder if I’ll be packing my umbrella? 🤔 Container cottage garden. Container garden. Small garden ideas. Create a lush garden.

A weekend at home and away. Cambridge with family and best friends on Saturday, starting with a floral painting workshop at @kettlesyard This was a drop in session, very informal, and free to attend. Inspired by the current exhibition of floral paintings, I was in heaven! Coffee and carrot cake in the deckchairs outside in sunshine, then off to @cubotanicgarden - another favourite. There are glasshouses, peaceful paths to wander and a lovely cafe for healthy lunches. It’s a great place to escape Cambridge’s busy streets. Finished the day walking over Midsummer Common to my youngest’s new flat. Cows roam over the pasture with cowbells ringing. On the nearby River Cam, the university rowing club has its training base, so there’s lots going on. Today I’ve been pottering. Planted up my pelargoniums and tumbling toms in a wall container, potted on some seedlings and paid a quick visit to a little garden and home market on the water meadows. Another year older - and feeling very grateful. Container garden. Cambridge day out. Botanical gardens. Potting bench. Small garden life.

If there’s a distinct lack of colour in your garden at the moment, you’re not alone. Tulips are almost done but the alliums aren’t quite out yet. I’ve started planting out pelargoniums and cosmos, but I’m still cautious as nights have been cold here. There are some seasonal stars for early May. Geums are my no.1. Self seeders such as red or pink valerian make strong splashes too, so I let them pop up unannounced. Propping a woven willow obelisk among the pots adds some interim interest (see @thatcotswoldlife for a lovely homemade version!). And I remind myself that this is just a very brief pause before summer’s carnival of colour! Have a lovely weekend. It’s a birthday one for me, and I’m off for a special day out in Cambridge tomorrow. Small garden ideas. Container garden. Tiny garden. Courtyard garden ideas.

It’s been a chilled Bank Holiday here, but I have been busy in the garden, potting on, planting out and continuing to move tender plants outside. I like to try out a new annual each year and for 2026 it’s Ms Mars, a small sunflower with lovely tawny-gold coloured petals. My cosmos were slow to start but I’ve changed compost and the seedlings seem a bit happier now. Zinnias are coming on, too. I bought vintage books, embroidered linens and studio pottery at the car boot sale yesterday, and today we went on a beautiful cycle ride. In fact, I was so delighted by every buttercup, cow parsley stalk and clover leaf that I had to stop and photograph them. Eventually, my husband left me to it 😅 I wafted my way home alone with my bike basket filled with May froth, like an elderly Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Tonight’s tea will be a gorgeous new roast chicken dish, recipe from @indiaknight book #Home. It is stuffed with feta cheese, tomatoes and oregano, and cooked in one pan with orzo. Followed by rhubarb crumble, thanks to my lovely neighbours for the crop! I hope you had a lovely weekend. Small garden. Courtyard garden ideas. Cottage garden in containers. Container gardening. Urban cottage garden.

Give me a sunny Sunday pottering in my courtyard garden and I’m happy. Even though it’s a small space, there’s always lots to do, although my jobs weren’t too tough today as I was tired after a busy few days. I sorted out my potting bench, and painted up a tatty old crate to hold my vintage terracotta pots. I used the last dregs of a tin of out door paint, and lettered my favourite flower names on top. It reads like a poem. Made some herby bread rolls for lunch, as I’d been given lots of wild garlic, and I chopped it and rolled it up inside the dough with butter and lemon zest. There was enough garlic leaves to add to a pan of potato and onion soup, and I ate it outside in the sunshine. Delicious! I moved some pots around so we can use the bistro table by the greenhouse. It catches the late sun. Tested it out with a mini art session. I have a new book about drawing with pastels, and I’m enjoying trying them. I have tulips still to flower but some are going over so I picked them and put them in my new bag from the art exhibition I went to on Friday (see previous post). I hope you had a lovely day. Courtyard garden. Small garden. Potting bench. Garden jobs for April. Yardener. Tiny garden.

I asked if I could join the press day for a new exhibition, Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today because I knew I would love to write about it. The venue, Kettle’s Yard, is a very special place to me. I’ve been visiting since I was a child. Incase you don’t know, the gallery/house belonged to a couple called Jim and Helen Ede. They opened their home to artists and visitors in 1957, collecting works from their friends and artists of that time. The house is preserved as a home (my ideal - floorboards and plants, old rugs and light flooded space!) and a later-addition gallery is now home to some wonderful exhibitions, showing contemporary art, as well as mid century work. This exhibition is about flower paintings, but of course they’re never quite as simple as they may seem. Each picture has a story behind it. The artists’ lives are touched upon, and their personal histories and lived experiences give depth and resonance to the paintings - the work is so much more than just ‘pretty flowers.’ It’s wonderful - you can also tour the house and visit the tiny church next door, always decorated with simple fresh flowers. A genuinely special day out, and somewhere close to my heart. @kettlesyard #prinvite Floral art. Secret Cambridge. Flower paintings. Under the floral spell.

I pass on this garden secret every year - because it really works! Treating your sweet peas to a regular dose of homemade comfrey tea will bring stronger plants and even more gorgeous flowers! 🌿 Pick your comfrey now - you’ll see it growing everywhere, it has white flowers and furry leaves. Use gloves and snips, as the sap can irritate skin. 🌿Chop it up small, stalks, leaves and flowers. 🌿Put it in an old bucket or watering can, fill with water, and weight the comfrey down with a stone. 🌿Let it brew for 3-4 weeks. Warning: it stinks, so pop it behind the shed if possible. 🌿Dilute the brew one part tea to 10 parts water and nourish those sweet peas at the roots. Result? happy plants! 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

A homemade afternoon tea in the garden … I love the fresh ingredients coming into season - wild garlic, rhubarb, watercress, home grown herbs, new laid eggs - and I like afternoon tea, so I decided to make my own against the backdrop of my spring garden. On the menu: cheese and carrot flapjack, wild garlic scones, egg and watercress sandwiches, rhubarb and custard cake decorated with apple blossom and for the very sweet-toothed, honeycomb Rocky Road and iced traybake with petals. I didn’t make the last two today, as I do need to get into my trousers, but I baked them for my son’s wedding last year, so I’ve added photos. All recipes are on the last painted slide if you swipe through. I’ve used old, thrifty recipes to keep costs down to under £10 (some with original measurements in ounces!), many from my seventies state school days when cooking was on the curriculum. Today I planted golden beetroot in a tub, my ‘Cosse Violette’ beans are through (indoors) and Charlotte potatoes are growing nicely outside. Hopefully, I shall have a few crops coming along for some healthier lunches and suppers. Small garden. Budget afternoon tea. Thrifty bakes. Tea in the garden. Yardening.

Most weeks, I visit the plant stalls at our local market in the town where I live, Stamford in Lincolnshire. It’s a traditional market, with stalls set out along the streets of the Georgian town centre. We’re lucky to have two nurseries bringing plants. Today, I bought two Tumbling Toms to put in a wall planter with trailing pelargoniums, and three trailing strawberry plants for a terracotta pot. Plus, three salvia ‘Amethyst Lips’ destined for a long trough. The plants were selling like hot cakes, it’s great to see such a buzz around growing. Have you acquired any interesting plants this spring? Let me know! ⬇️ Small garden. Container garden. Potted plot. Get growing.