Four Skills To Create The Perfect Cottage Life

The perfect cottage is a house that enhances your bond to nature. Not only does it bring you closer through its location – you’d be hard pressed to find a cottage in the middle of town – but also through its settings. Cottage owners have no other way than embracing their connection to nature to make the most of every day. That’s precisely why there is no cottage without a garden. As charming and traditional as cottages seem to be, they are also the pinnacle of a sustainable household. They encourage you to develop green habits and find independent solutions to common problems. Ultimately, if you’ve chosen a cosy cottage, you know that you’ve had to make sacrifices. Takeaway deliveries, home cinemas, and self-heating floors are the kind of luxuries you can’t have due to the structure and location of your home. As a result, you tend to cultivate an independent lifestyle that brings you closer to nature.

Wild mushrooms

Can you start a fire?

Old fireplaces are tricky to find fore modern homeowners. However, cottages are more likely to be suited with either a fireplace or a wood burner. Lighting your fire adds an element of charm and romance to your household. But you need to know how to start a fire – using specialist blazers heat logs when you can’t get dry wood, for instance – and how to maintain it. In a small house, the fireplace can considerably cut down your heating costs in winter.

Can you grow your own veg?

Growing your own vegetables is a hobby nowadays. However, you have to remember that less than one-hundred years ago, being able to harvest your garden for food was the difference between starvation and survival, especially after the war where supplies were low. You may not be able to survive entirely from your veg bed, but you can maintain your supplies throughout a few months. Beginners choose to grow salad – which you can sow throughout the summer – and potatoes and peas, which are better suited for cold weather.

Can you make your own cleaning products?

When the next shop is several miles away, you need to find easy substitutes for every solution. Using the natural resources available in your kitchen, you can make your own cleaning products, which are safe to use around children and pets. Combining borax, soda crystal and a shaved bar soap, you can make your laundry detergent, entirely free of allergens and harmful chemicals. If you’re worried about varnish products, you can polish your old furniture, using essential lemon oil and a little water.

Can you recognise wild plants and mushrooms?

As you become more resourceful with your surroundings and more respectful of nature, you can learn to identify the goodness that grows freely around you. If you leave by a woodland area, you’re likely to find plenty of delicious mushrooms in the wild. Do make sure, however, to know how to tell the difference between the edible and the poisonous mushrooms. Similarly, native plants such as dandelion, elderberry, sheep sorrel and Creeping Charlie are not only nutritious, but they’re delicious too.

If you’re dreaming of a sweet little cottage in a rural area, you need to boost your skills as a resourceful nature-lover. Knowing how to start a fire, grow your vegetables, keep your house naturally clean and find edible wild plants can help to make your cottage dream come true.