09/10/2026
Who says a native garden can't look like an English cottage garden?
This garden started out as a typical zoysia lawn. A few weeks ago, we replaced it with a variety of native plants designed to create the lush and layered look of a traditional cottage garden.
It's already filling in nicely, with blooms and foliage filling in the spaces between and plenty more to come as the plants establish.
We also added to the existing garden along the front of the house and planted a Sweetbay Magnolia to the treeless space. To keep the evil zoysia from creeping back in, we installed Corten steel edging around t he garden to give it a clean edge. The Corten steel will weather intentionally over time bringing in a warm earthy tone.
One of the things we enjoy most about native landscaping is that you're not limited to one particular style. Native plants can be used to create formal gardens, cottage gardens, woodland gardens, meadows, or something completely different.
This one just happens to look like an English cottage garden except wwith a lot more wildlife!
