Howdy Neighbor, nice to meet you, Nancy.
A cottage garden in Michigan, in summer...does it get any better than that?!
Love your brick pathway. So inviting. I added zinnia (mini & drumstick sizes) for more fall color. Happy with the results, will save the seeds and expand on the idea next year.

Here is an example of why I have a cottage garden. Multi-season bouquets.

Beautiful color
Love the sunflowers



I need a pole pruner to pick mine.




Don't seem to have many long garden shots
this is north of the pickets.

Thank you !
We're experiencing our last blast of blooms before frost.

My first thought when I saw this forum was, 'What is Cottage Gardening?' I love that the first thread I saw answers the question. This needs to be stickied.

When I was living in the Chicago area I noticed that the houses seemed to explode with life as soon as spring hit. Every single one had some sort of garden. One close to my apartment was quite different than the rest. Most did a formal garden in their little postage-stamp front yard with very well-defined lines and very manicured bushes. But, this house was a riot of what looked like plant chaos. I loved it. Now I have a name for the style. Thanks!

I wanted to share pics of our Cottage Garden from several years ago. We have a coastal cottage and I simply started collecting plants and putting them in the ground. Many tender tropicals are plunged in their pots for easier pulling to store for winter. Since then I've gone off the deep end for Plumeria and it's more like a jungle.

that is really beautiful

That is sooo beautiful
Looks rather tropical

Love the tropical feel of your garden @suzi44.
I bet it is your 'happy place'.

I have always thought of a cottage garden as simply an informal garden of mostly flowers, herbs and perhaps some vegetables. The key word is informal. Mine certainly is.

Beautiful
What are the masses of blue in the first and third photos.

@Elise3 your garden is beautiful!

Lovely !
Strolling the garden in your yard must be delightful.

Frillylily said: @Elise3 your garden is beautiful!

I used to refer to my style as "messy gardening," then realized "cottage gardening" sounds a lot nicer! I do have to admit that my garden beds are not nearly as tidy and weed-free as those pictured here.

That's because people only take photos that look good ...or at least they only post the best

Most of my photos are cropped closeup so you can't see the surrounding weeds

I've gotten pretty good at clever camera angles and close-ups, too!

We don't care how you crop your pictures; we love seeing the beauty.

I combine the answers of @CarolineScott and @ShawnSteve and get the answer I'm going with. I like everyone's pictures. My garden is informal, but I have quite a bit of lawn and open space, so I'm not going to call it a cottage garden. Also, the area right next to my house is probably the ugliest and most neglected, and I think a cottage garden utilizes the cottage much more than I do.

To me a cottage garden is plants in every nook and cranny, little or no lawn, or an herbal lawn or other groundcover, where the house (in my minds eye, a SMALL house) is rather beside the point. Nothing is manicured, nothing is square, there are no sharp corners. And something is always in bloom. Lots of somethings.