Cottage Gardening

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To discover the beginnings of companion planting one must go back to the cottage gardens, those small, closely planted gardens where vegetables were often mixed with both flowers and herbs.
Cottage gardening had been evolved slowly in Europe over many centuries. It grew up as a matter of necessity; plants were needed to keep the family alive. Initially gardens, or more likely primitive enclosures near the house, were probably restricted to the growing of herbs for medicinal and culinary purposes; the vegetables were grown in fields that were more like modern smallholdings. As the peasants became stripped of their land they concentrated their vegetable growing into cottage gardens similar to what we think of today when we use that term. In the nineteenth century, many gardens were moved once again outside the confines of land around the house, this time to the allotment or to community garden plots. Here they continued to use techniques they had evolved in the cottage garden and, in many ways, the allotment is still one of the great bastions of cottage gardening, or companion planting, techniques.
The companion planting techniques that were used evolved out of experience. This experience was handed down from generation to generation. Any changes being made as new methods were discovered by the cottager himself or shared by friends, possibly often the gardener at the “big house.” Many gardening theories of the time were tested at the big house, by its army of gardeners, before they were adopted by the cottager, for his techniques had to be successful or he and his family were likely to go hungry.
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While many of the cottages maintained very attractive flower borders, as can be seen in the many watercolors done in the nineteenth century, there was very little time to spend on them. Country people were hard working, and spare time was more likely to be spent on the more productive vegetable gardens. The flower gardens, then, had to be easy to maintain and if possible look after themselves for long periods of the year. So gardeners would choose flowers that got along well together, that more or less helped each other create an environment beneficial to all, and that kept the garden in bloom spring, summer, and fall with interest provided by bark and berries in the winter.
The cottage garden has great appeal today because we are attracted to its well-intended informality, to its gentle interplay of so many kinds of plants. It has another great attraction, and that is that it creates a more natural environment in which plants can thrive so, once established, there is less maintenance involved.
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