Potagers...the French kitchen garden

Is there anything in life that can't be turned into art? I think not! I've been dreaming and scheming; up all hours of the night, pouring over seed catalogs and gardening websites when it struck me like a bolt of lightning...why not make my veggie garden a combination of flowers and vegetables with a formal geometric layout that would make it easier to get around and weed? And to add to the interest, I envisioned scarlet runner beans on a teepee in the center for a colorful, vertically interesting, and rustic, cottage-y feeling. I would build my garden around this central focal feature. Gardening meets quilting! So I poked around the internet looking for gardens that include flowers, herbs, and veggies in pleasing geometric layouts. What I found was that my big idea is not original (I always think my 2 A.M. harebrained schemes are original) and not only is it not original, it's been done for centuries and has a name; Potager. Here's how Wikipedia defines a potager...

"The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager (in French, jardin potager) or in Scotland a kailyaird,^[1] is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. Most vegetable gardens are still miniature versions of old family farm plots, but the kitchen garden is different not only in its history, but also its design.
The kitchen garden may serve as the central feature of an ornamental, all-season landscape, or it may be little more than a humble vegetable plot. It is a source of herbs, vegetables and fruits, but it is often also a structured garden space with a design based on repetitive geometric patterns.
The kitchen garden has year-round visual appeal and can incorporate permanent perennials or woody shrub plantings around (or among) the annuals."

I was actually kind of relieved to see that there are others that are as crazy and obsessive as I am.  

Urban Potager Kitchen Gardens, Chicago

Photo credit by Lisa Hubbard, Country Living

http://www.countryhousefrancetobuy.com/pages_house_france/garden.htm



Photo credit by Lisa Hubbard
BE STILL MY HEART!

This weekend hubby and I planted our potager in my community garden plot over at the Methodist Church. It of course, centers around a tee-pee of scarlet runner beans. Around the beans is a diamond shaped set of rows--one side lettuce, one side carrots, one side onions, and the last side is radishes. The corners are dahlias. Between them are dill, kale, and peppers. Along the far row are two spinach beds, and gladiolus along the front entrance. Here's my original plan...



I'm calling it Debora's Jardin Potager.
All I need is a little sunshine and some fine-misty rains!



from the Humble Potager


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