Just sharing about our hardscape, though not really a cottage garden theme.
When we moved to our home in 2008, my hubby and I have agreed that we do not want to mow any grass. Our home has a small sideyard which was just all dirt and over our fence there is a line of city trees. And I want to fully continue my container gardening as well.
So we opted to have pavers installed, making sure there is an edge around where I can put my container plants. We just had to find at least a good one week window of dry weather at that time, it was late winter, on and off rains. Finally got that window, and our installers did the job in 3 days. I was glad then that it is a small yard, because the pavers were a bit costly, but the results were worth it for us:
Knowing that we have very strong winds here at times, we have to use heavy clay containers gradually. And so far, things work well, the real mess comes from the city trees most of the time when fall comes, all those falling leaves, and during spring the tons of catkins. At least clean up is easier than raking them from dirt. We have also added in 2009 a water fountain, to add some moisture especially during the 100+F summer heat : I have also decided too, early on, to concentrate more of my plants outdoors to drought tolerant plants, to conserve water and they last better in our mostly dry weather.
So that is our hardscape
know what you mean! 
