Cottage Garden is a puzzle-style tile-placement game where players compete as gardeners, filling two Flowerbeds at a time with polyomino-shaped Flower Tiles. When a Flowerbed has no free spaces visible, it is completed, scored, and replaced. Players score points for visible Flower Pots and Plant Covers on completed Flowerbeds. The player with the most points at end of game wins.
Components
Double-sided Nursery game board (one side for 1-3 players, other for 4)
36 Flower Tiles (polyomino puzzle pieces)
Flowerbeds (double-sided, light/dark)
Green Gardener die
Parasol token
Cat tokens, Flowerpot tokens, Beehive tokens
Per player: 1 Planting Table with scoring tracks, 3 orange Flowerpot Scoring Cubes, 3 blue Plant Cover Scoring Cubes
Wheelbarrow
Setup
Place the Nursery showing the correct side for your player count.
Randomly fill 16 Nursery spaces with Flower Tiles (1 per space).
Place remaining 20 tiles in a queue beside the Nursery, marked by the Wheelbarrow.
Each player gets a Planting Table, places 3 orange and 3 blue cubes on starting spaces, draws 2 random Flowerbeds (one light side, one dark side), and takes 2 Cats.
Set remaining Flowerbeds (light side up), Parasol, Cats, Flowerpots, and Beehives beside the Nursery.
Set Gardener die to 1 (or 2 with 1-2 players) on the starting space.
Turn Structure
A turn has four phases in order:
Refilling Phase
Planting Phase
Scoring Phase
Gardener Phase
Actions
Refilling Phase:
Check the Gardener Row (row/column indicated by the Gardener). If all 3-4 spaces are empty, fill them from the queue using tiles in front of the Wheelbarrow.
If only 1-2 spaces are empty, you may surrender a Cat to fill them.
Planting Phase (must do one):
a) Take a Flower Tile from the Gardener Row and immediately place it on one of your Flowerbeds. Tiles may be flipped and rotated. Tiles may not overlap other tiles, protrude over edges, or cover Cat/Flowerpot tokens.
b) Take a Flowerpot from the reserve and place it on an empty space of a Flowerbed (covers 1 space, scores points). You may also place Cats from your reserve on empty spaces at any time (they cover 1 space but score nothing).
Scoring Phase:
If a Flowerbed is fully covered (all spaces without printed Flowerpots or Plant Covers are occupied), it is completed.
Score visible Flowerpots: advance 1 orange cube by the number of visible Flowerpots (1 point each).
Score visible Plant Covers: advance 1 blue cube by the number of visible Plant Covers (2 points each).
After scoring, return Flowerpots and Cats to reserve, place tiles at end of queue, flip the Flowerbed to the other side and place it in the center, take a new Flowerbed.
Gardener Phase:
Advance the Gardener die by 1. When it reaches 6, reset to 1 and start a new round.
Scoring / Victory Conditions
The game lasts a fixed number of rounds based on player count.
At end of game, each player may complete one Flowerbed (partial scoring allowed – lose 2 points per uncovered empty space).
Beehive bonuses: First player to get any cube to the target space (20) on either track receives the 2-Beehive token. Second player receives the 1-Beehive token. Each beehive = 1 point at end.
Final score = sum of all scoring cube positions across all tracks + beehive points.
Highest total wins.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
Crossing the red “mice line” on a scoring track earns a free Cat.
Moving the last orange or blue cube off the starting space earns a Flowerpot token (must be placed immediately).
Maximum 2 Cats in personal reserve at end of turn; excess must be placed on Flowerbeds.
You may provisionally try tiles from the Nursery using the Parasol as a placeholder.
Both Flowerbeds can be completed in the same turn if a Cat placement finishes the second one.
A Flowerbed showing only uncovered Flowerpot/Plant Cover spaces (no empty spaces) is considered complete.
Player Reference
Scoring
Value
Visible Flowerpot
1 point (orange track)
Visible Plant Cover
2 points (blue track)
Beehive token
1 point each
Uncovered space (end game)
-2 points
4 phases per turn: Refill, Plant, Score, Gardener
Must take 1 Flower Tile or 1 Flowerpot per turn
Complete Flowerbed = all non-printed spaces covered