The Evolution of a Vegetable Garden into a Potager

My thoughts on gardening continue to evolve as I read and learn from various sources.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past 6 weeks reading books by the great British garden designers – Rosemary Verey, Gertrude Jekyll, Christopher Lloyd.  I also spent hours watching a fabulous video that I received from Nora for Christmas, The Art and Practice of Gardening, hosted by Penelope Hobhouse, another well-known (still living) British designer.  In the course of this “study,” I realized that what I was creating, quite unintentionally, in my new vegetable garden space is known as a "potager" (defined below).

I created the new 52’ x 52’ garden area last year for primarily two reasons: (1) I wanted a smaller, more contained garden space that was closer to the house; and (2) I wanted to try the no-till method of vegetable gardening.  With some deliberation, I chose to place this garden close to the orchard and to include a fair number of beds of annuals (zinnia, sunflowers, cosmos, and marigolds) in the vegetable garden.  Much of last year was spent tilling and cleaning rocks out of the 3’ or 4’ wide beds, creating 2’ walking paths between the rows (covered with cardboard and wood chips to kill off any grass and weeds and to compact the soil) and a 4’ wide path down the center.  Jim also fenced the entire area to keep our little bunny and woodchuck friends out of the veggies.  Once the last of the fall crops were harvested, Jim and I spread several inches of straw and sheep manure on the beds to allow this organic matter to break down and leech into the soil over the winter.  

In accordance with the no-till method, the plan is to leave the layer of mulch on the beds in the spring, add a little more compost (and any other organic amendments needed to maintain a balanced pH level in the soil) and, at least this first year, very lightly work all of this organic matter into the top couple inches of the soil using a broad fork (the idea being to disturb the earthworms, nematodes and other micro-biotic organisms at work in the soil as little as possible).  In the future, the soil should not be disturbed at all and organic matter will be placed on top of the bed (“top-dressed”) in the early spring, and watering and subsoil organisms will pull this organic matter into the subsoil throughout the growing season. Transplants such as the flowers, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers are planted directly into the mulch/soil leaving much of the mulch untouched.  To sow seeds, I will need to move the layer of mulch aside so I’m certain the seeds come in direct contact with the soil.  Once the seedlings break the surface and get to be 2-3” tall, I will move the mulch back around their bases.   

The benefit of a no-till system of gardening is that you are able to add new organic matter once or twice a year, while minimally disturbing all of the beneficial life in the soil.  As an added benefit, you remove the labor and gas required in tilling the garden on an annual basis, and the mulch retains moisture in the soil requiring less overall watering.  With healthier soil, we should see healthier, more bountiful vegetables and over time, fewer pests.  Seems like a win-win method, hence the desire to give it a go.

But, based on recent reading, I decided to not only adopt the no-till method, but to move away from the traditional American style of vegetable gardening, i.e., symmetrical rows with each row containing only one type of vegetable and each vegetable plant a polite distance from its neighbor.  As mentioned, I’ve been growing flowers in my garden over the past couple of year, but they were also in their “own” rows.  There was no diversity in my garden rows.  It was all very clean and linear, but was lacking in the wild abandon I prefer in my flower beds (or, the look I’m striving for at any rate).  I decided I wanted that same carefree, natural look in my vegetable garden, and I wanted to add more flowers and herbs into the mix.  Turns out that what I had in mind has existed in Europe and England for hundreds of years.  What I ended up designing as I planned my vegetable garden for this year was a “potager.”

For those unfamiliar with this term, a potager is a formally laid out “kitchen garden” that incorporates vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers.  Some use formal boxwood hedges to define the beds; others may have raised beds.  All have established walkways that can be as formal (stone, brick, gravel) or informal (grass, wood chips, compacted dirt) as you like.  Some have fruit trees, as well as berries mixed in.  But all grow herbs, flowers and vegetables inter-mixed and densely packed in the beds.  For instance, a single bed may contain beets, onions, parsley and poppies.  Not randomly tossed in the bed, making it difficult to know what’s what, but all in a single bed nonetheless.  The final result is visually beautiful, as well as productive in a much smaller amount of space than that used by the typical vegetable garden.



 

      My garden doesn't look quite like this yet, but close to what I'm hoping to achieve.  Photo credit: Lisa Hubbard 

My garden this year will have a couple of raised beds (on a trial basis, per Nora’s suggestion) and some tripod trellis’ to grow sweet peas, scarlet runner beans and morning glories.  Nasturtium will be planted along the fence line, as will valerian.  The garden will also have 40 different vegetable varieties, 14 types of herbs, and at least 10 types of flowers (which serve various purposes: cuttings, to attract beneficial insects and pollinators, to repel pests, and simply as food for the soul).  I'm very excited to see how it turns out this year!