What a great idea.

Most plants we use in gardens today have been commonly used since Victorian times so gardens in the 1930's will be very familiar to us. I would think that English cottage garden with fruit and veg patches would be in keeping with the 1930's feel.

Kildermorie's right, most plants we use today were available then, though not so much the tropical ones in poorer people's gardens, of course. But the most significant feature of ordinary people's gardens at that time would have been crazy paving paths, with little low walls making raised borders or beds, laid out often in reasonably formal patterns, maybe circular, with flowers in the middle, rustic pergolas, bird baths, plenty of bedding (expensive to do now) and annuals, with really not so many shrubs, just a few here and there, and bulbs. I took a 1930s garden apart gradually over 15 years - it had crazy paving paths either side of a lawn, crazy paving foot high walls either side with raised borders and at the end, more crazy paving paths with 3 circular raised beds, walled in crazy paving, with 2 slightly higher crazy paving walls at the bottom end with what's laughingly known as rustic 'pergola' or trellising - basically a sort of rusty iron framework for perennial sweet peas. Planting otherwise was mostly perennials like shasta daisy, ox eye daisy, a few roses, some lavender, loads of bulbs in spring Pain in the proverbial for maintenance, every gap in the paving produced oodles of weeds every year... It no longer exists in that form!

Think I should have been around when the house was built Bamboo - there are some elements there that I was thinking of using before we thought of introducing plants of it's era. A pergola is a must to provide some shade and height in this flat garden, which is very different from my current 80 foot terraced garden. Not keen on high maintenance crazy paving or annuals, but I could substitute gravel paths and perennials here - got some nice cottagey garden ones that I have taken cuttings from. Like the idea of raised beds as I could use them to get some height variation. Can't wait now, especially if this weather continues as I am not planning to go back to work after we move.

Crazy paving, done properly, is fine actually - its only as it ages and the mortar starts to shift that you get a problem with weeds. Deeply unfashionable now, but it was a cheap form of paving for most people, and actually quite fun to do, I loved doing it in my garden 30 years ago, meant I could incorporate special shells or stones/pebbles picked up from holidays, etc. The weed problem is actually worse with modern paviours, those block type ones that are laid on sand and have a whacker plate run over them to set them down. The weed growth in the gaps on that within a year is appalling, even with a membrane underneath.

Thanks bamboo, been thinking as we have been clearing the loft today, that maybe old bricks laid as paths would be a better bet? Saw them in Carol Klein's garden on TV recently and thought they looked good and maybe plant some of the 'missing brick' spaces with creeping Thyme or other aromatics, possibly even Chamomile Treneague, which is non-flowering. Like you we appear to have half of the seaside and most of Scotland and Wales (or so it seems) in our garden - don't know what the removal men will say when we show them the crates of stones, maybe we will just put them quietly in one of the cars!!!!!

If you're talking about house bricks, there'll be a problem if we continue to have harsh winters, or in fact any winter where there's a fair bit of frost, never mind arctic conditions. Housebricks are not designed to withstand frost and cold when laid on the ground, so they spall (which means flake, crack and crumble). Use them if you want, but you'd need to lift out and replace any badly damaged ones after every winter.

Hi Wendiam, Mrs Beeton's Gardening Companion (from 1860s I think) is a good source of the types of gardens traditionally in England. I find it useful as a guide to what to garden and put out and when. It has also inspired me to pleach my hedge as it grows.

Hi Wendiam, Mrs Beeton's Gardening Companion (from 1860s I think) is a good source of the types of gardens traditionally in England. I find it useful as a guide to what to garden and put out and when. It has also inspired me to pleach my hedge as it grows.

Ooh, thanks Kildermorie - did you get this online or is it a trawl through book shops job? Am thinking about cordoning my fruit trees as step-overs to increase the growing space - not sure what the dog will make of it though, he loves fruit and veg. and has been known to help himself to the odd french bean or courgette from the tubs. (Incidentally, he's a squatter, not a leg-lifter, so no worries in that department!)