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Cottage gardens are attributed to English origin and are typically random and carefree in form."
"Originally, these gardens were created by the workers that lived in the cottages of the villages to provide them with food and herbs with
flowers planted in for decoration. The more common flowers to the cottage
garden were hollyhocks,
delphinium and daisies in addition to the flowering herbs. The method of planting closely packed plants reduced the amount of weeding and watering required."
"Today, a cottage garden is often primarily flowers and completely free-form in nature. Many
gardeners attempt to use heirloom varieties of
plants in their cottage gardens to preserve the antiquity of the method."