Books: New Style Cottage Gardens & Native Plants (GardenDesignOnline)

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Cottage gardens never seem to go out of style, but there's always a need for a style update. In The Modern Cottage Garden: A Fresh Approach to a Classic Style (Timber Press, 2020), author Greg Loades says a "modern" cottage garden celebrates "the best of old and new," and also celebrates diversity by combining the contemporary and the classic.

He gives you a brief history of traditional cottage gardens, moves on to the "new" perennial garden style favored by Piet Oudolf, and then to the "modern" cottage garden, with looseness, flow, self-seeding plants, and surprising color combinations.

There are some nice takouts in the book: plant combos for small spaces, how to make garden spaces seem larger, and yes, cottage gardens in containers. He includes the basics on soil. plant care and pruning, and a list of 50 "essential plants." A great guide for a modern take on an old classic.

Every designer needs a few good plant books, and this is one you'll want to add to your collection. In The Southeast Native Plant Primer: 225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden (Timber Press, 2020), authors Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross profile 225 plants that are southeast-friendly, but will also grow in many other locations. The plants are divided into trees, shrubs, sun-loving perennials, woodland wildflowers, grasses, vines, and ferns. Each plant gets its own photo, description, bloom time and more. There are also useful lists of things like plants with fall and winter appeal; rain garden plants; plants for wildlife; alternatives to invasive species.