Hmm... interesting question. I bet The Secret Garden had an influence on a lot of people. I was in a gorgeous production of that awhile back. One of the most beautiful shows I've ever been in.

I'm not sure what started it for me. My grandparents gardened. My mom got back into it after I rejuvinated her interest. :-)

It's always kind of been 'in' me to grow things. I like taking care of things: flowers, animals, etc. But, I guess I really got going when I started researching ancient religions and earth based philsopies. It just kind of made me have an overwhelming desire to work in the earth.

I think ive been attracted to the style when i started noticing gardens. I moved into my first house with my now DH when i was about 21, then at 22 started little gardening. Now im obsessed!(age 25) i always knew what colors i loved in flowers, but going through books helped me realize i truly love cottage gardening!

I think I lean more towards a fairy tale cottage style. I think my earliest memory of "cottage style" was seeing Disney's Snow White at the movie theater. That's probably why I don't mind the deer (and chipmunks, bluebirds, etc.) sometimes visiting my garden :)

I'm still relatively new at this, but the cottage garden seems to fit my style of wanting to grow all kinds of things and having only a half acre to do it. I have no choice but to mash things together in the same bed.

In my condo garden, I had a more tropical theme with very little winter interest. It was usually too cold to spend much time there in the winter anyway. Now that I have more space, I spend a lot more time outside doing something as long as the weather cooperates.

I started gardening when I was a kid. I was forced by my parents to plant, hoe, fertilize, and harvest all kinds of vegetables. I remember long, LONG rows of beans, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We always had more than we could eat. Friends and family would come by and take their share as well. Now, I have a smaller veggie plot and many more flowers. I'm determined to invite more wildlife into my yard. It's a crossover from the days when my aunts and uncles would harvest from the fields.

To me, it just makes sense. To those looking in from the outside, they just assume I'm crazy.

My earliest memories of grandparents always include their gardens, informal but beautiful. My grandparents on a farm in Moreauville LA, I distinctly remember swinging on a porch swing over a bed of hydrangeas. My grandparents in New Orleans had a very small square back yard with cottagey flowers all around the perimenter, and possibly in the center? Seems all my aunts had cottage gardens, as did mom and dad, and the menfolk were more interested in small veggie plots. Also folks often had fruit trees, pears, figs, and "japanese plums." It was destiny and genetics, I guess.
Laurie

I think I was one year old. I have a photo of myself being carried around in my godmother's rose garden. I seemed to gravitate towards nature because it was peaceful and fascinating. I liked flowers too. However I lived in tropical asia and we didn't have many blooms like the kinds you have over here so in a way I felt deprived of being able to experience cottage gardening..... that is until I migrated over 19 years ago. In my first year here I practically absorbed everything I could about starting a garden. I already had skills of pruning, of starting new plants from cuttings, of seed starting - but what was new to me then, was improving soil, creating compost, garden planning, successive bloom gardening, learning about the individual plants. So I took in all I could about gardening. Even in my first year here in Canada, people consulted me about planting which I found funny. I was still learning about the kinds of plants that are available here. I was thrilled that all I needed to do was go to a plant centre and pick up my choice plant. This was something I couldn;t easily do back in my tropical home. Back there I had to ask friends and family for cuttings in order to start new plants. I think I was equally thrilled of how readily available the seeds are here, the information that abound about plants, the magazines and shows about plants. So it was a new form of exposure and it brought new light to this hobby of mine.

History. I studied 7 interdisciplinary areas of ancient history in University. Only three were taught at the school, the rest were areas I realized I'd need if I ended up moving on the the Berkley School of Archeology and Anthropology = so I studied medieval monastic gardens.

Thanks for all of your replies.

Scully, I didn't know that the secret garden was ever a production. Interesting...

Lilyfinch, we're both the same age. I haven't met anyone my age who truly appreciates cottage gardeing!

LavenderLass, I love the whole magical aesthetic and feel to cottage gardens, too (you mentioned fairy tales).

Token, I'm also still relatively new to this. When I have extra $, I go to amazon and get a book or two on cottage gardening. I find myself flipping through these books often.

Louisianagal, you're lucky you have those memories, I wish that I had that to look back on.

Ianna, whenever I watch HGTV, I have been noticing how often they show Canadian shows and footage. I love it! I would gladly move up north just to have what I consider a REAL cottage garden! Ok, so I know that the British climate is milder than the area you live in, but the thought of having an enormous collection of old French lilacs that utterly thrive makes me want to face the snowstorms!

Aftermidnight, the same thing I said to Ianna goes to you, with the exception that I believe your climate comes the closest to the British climate of most places in North America.

GGG, I have seen pictures of medieval monastatic gardens in France in an article I had long ago from the mag 'Garden Design'. They are very enchanting.

Actually I learned my present skills from British shows, most especially from Christopher Lloyd. And from American shows. I forget now the names of this couple but they ran a show on organic farming and it was this show that educated me on lasagna composting. That was over 15 years or so ago. Until then, I never heard composting described in such a way before. I also watched all the Victory Garden shows that I could find. It was also through many shows that I learned to cook gourmet style. It was a connection from organic vegetable gardening to cooking. I think I know which Canadian shows you must be referring to. Cathy Renwalds shows, right? it was fun show but I like a demonstration show even better. How I miss the British shows.

My area by the way is in Ontario which is colder than BC. Although I have lived in BC in the coasts and in the interiors, I eventually chose to live in Ontario because of it's cultural diversity. It's a very exciting area.

Hi Ianna,

I didn't know Christopher Lloyd had shows! He wrote my FAVORITE book on cottage gardening. I hate to say it, but I am not familiar with some of the shows you are. I guess when I spoke of HGTV having Canada on the channel, I was talking about shows like Divine Design, Room Service, Design Inc, My Parents House, For Rent, Income Property, and some episodes of House Hunters.

I always view Canada very fondly. Don't get me wrong-- I do love my country; however there is a certain something that intrigues me about Canada.

BTW, I am very much aware that BC is warmer than Ontario. I have even read that the city Victoria is a zone 9! Whether that's true or not I am not sure. I know that Quebec is very cold, however on helpmefind.com there is a lady by the name of Veronique Malouin who posts beautiful photos of her rose garden.

I think mine stemmed (pardon the pun) from growing up on military bases. Few people lived in the same house long enough to enjoy a garden or to spend the money on one. My family moved every two years.

That, coupled with my love for nostalgic things and the Renaissance and Victorian eras, made me determined to have a cottage garden when I had a home of my own.

I'm a city rat - I like to say that my entire past has been Urban Renewaled away, lol. Growing up in the Chicago slums means flowers = dandelions and morning glory vines, the only flowers I ever really remember seeing.

Having a garden full of complex foliage interest and colorful flowers year round was so much more interesting a concept than a boring water-hungry lawn edged with stiff hedges tortured into rectangular submission. Besides, our cottage is totally nondescript architecture, a small box with very little charm inside or out. It needed a serious dose of 'bling'...and that was going to have to be the garden because there was nothing else that could work, short of knocking the entire house down and designing something more creative!

This caused me to think about my gardening.

I am older than most of you so I began my gardening back in the 1970's. I read no books, saw no gardening shows on television I just grew what I liked paying no attention to anything else. Then I started wanting one of everything I saw in catalogs and tried my best to get them. I found out along the way that certain things just don't grow here! I wasted a lot of money testing.

It was only in the last 10 years or so that I finally put a label on it and I found that label here "Cottage". I really feel more comfortable calling my style "country" but there is no designation here for that.

Over the years I have acquired a wonderful collection of gardening books and decided that this category is the closest. I still just put things where I want and have space and pay little attention to most other details besides plant requirement.

I don't think gardeners should get too bogged down in typing themselves or limiting themselves to plants or design. Just do what makes you happy.

glenda

Glenda, I couldn't agree with you more, just do what makes you happy. Not only do we share the same birthday, we also seem to look at gardening the same way. Books did you say books, I've had to let some of mine go, ran out of room :o).

Annette

Glenda's response pretty much sums up my gardening life.

My earliest garden memories are of trailing around after our neighbor in his garden. Mr and Mrs Calhoon had no children and treated my like their granddaughter. I was about 4.

On Daddy's side, Most were farmers. Grandma had washtubs, stew pots, etc of plants sitting in her garden.

On Mother's side, 3 of her uncles were county ag agents. So almost every one had a non formal garden
And my grandparents had a gardener as Grandfather was a heart patient very early and could not longer do things.

I am so like Glenda. I started gardening around 1979. I had no idea what I was doing and like Glenda it was about 10 or so years ago that I realized my style was 'cottage'. I just grow what I love, although I've spent/wasted money on things not meant for my zone, but sold anyway at the garden centers.

This style is so me and I am very happy with my gardens. They are a continual work in progress.

FlowerLady

As a North Florida gardener, a garden packed with flowers is kind of a rarity here. But I was always attracted to the cottage gardens in magazines. When I was in college on a horticulture club trip to France I visited many gardens. I did appreciate the symmetry and the grand scale of these gardens, but something about them seemed cold and too organized. Then we visited Monet's Garden in Giverny and I identified my most beloved style of gardening. While walking through the gardens one of my professors said aloud to himself, "Monet invented color." I have to agree. Since then I found the name of the style of gardening I loved and have been trying to implement them here in Florida.

wow darstar, you are so lucky to have been able to have seen Monet's garden in person. One of these days I'm going to visit the UK and France to see the rose gardens I've only seen (and dreamed about) in photos.

My early gardens were cottage by necessity as I've always found it difficult to throw out plants so it tends to get crowded. DH & I moved every 2-3 years and I always bot too many plants and found a place for them in an existing flower bed. Then I discovered growing perennials from seed 30 years ago and it became worse! Or better from a cottage viewpoint. I also realized about then that when plants are close together the weeds are shaded and have less chance which was very appealing to me. Somewhere along the way I began to notice other people's gardens, many in gardening books and magazines, that were labelled "cottage" and I knew that was my style.

Strangely enough I was not aware of Monet's garden when we lived in Europe (pre-internet days) or I'd certainly have visited it. Parts of it are my dream garden and I hope to see it one day.

My parents were serious gardens with a huge veggie garden and many flower beds that were mostly structured. The one exception was a bed along the house where my DM planted mixed-color wallflowers from seed which I especially loved because there were no spaces between the plants and I now know it had a cottage look. My DF had a bed of lovely roses lined up like soldiers and the other beds were a mix of perennials and annuals but very organized, not at all cottage, but a common style in suburbs in the 50's.

Floweryearth,It is hard to find people my age also interested in gardening as much as i am. Most of my friends rent apartments, and i think if they had homes they could garden , im not sure they would. But i know id nag them till they did! Thats why I love coming to the forums, I can talk about flowers and gardening for hours, and noone seems to think im crazy! I remember one day when my girlfriends wanted to go out for drinks after work. My favorite nursery was having a huge end of season sale on roses stating that day. I had to get there so they wouldnt be picked over, and my friends really couldnt believe i was passing up margaritas for roses! Well, i picked up 9 roses for 65dollars, and ill be enjoying margaritas by my roses next summer! :)

My grandparents and my mom all gardened, so I think I always loved colorful gardens. I remember my mom's cottagey front yard when I was a little girl...roses, phlox, daisies, and petunias...Our yard always had bees and butterflies in it.

I have a photo of me at about age two in my grandparent's long zinna bed. The flowers were taller than I was. Grin