Page 44 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2021

Potager Gardens
What is a potager garden? Basically a vegetable garden /plot that follows the principles of garden design to create
an area that is both ornamental and productive. Potager is a French term for an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden. The French were early proponents of potager gardens where they have used vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs mixed together since medieval times. These days most French potager gardens are informal or romantic in design and are similar to
the English cottage garden style. In earlier centuries they had large formal potager gardens such as Chateau de Villandry.
The formal design is very regimented and looks very good whilst it is growing and up to harvesting, but once harvesting starts this can leave gaps in the beds with some crops which can look unsightly unless replacement plants are available to fill the gaps. Gaps
are less noticeable in informal designs and are easier to fill. The decision on whether to have a formal or informal design is likely to be based on the rest of the garden and its style unless you have a large garden that is easy to accommodate both styles by clever screening.
Why would gardeners want to have
a potager style garden? Mainly it gives them space or extra space (other than the vegetable plot / allotment) to grow fruit and vegetables. Thus giving them more growing area and therefore the possibility of more crops. It makes full use of their garden and looks attractive as well.
Potager gardens also encourage biodiversity which is something we should
all be trying to do in our gardens and allotments. It is also an opportunity to try and make use of companion planting and even attractive green manures like Phacelia.
The main design points to consider are rhythm, colour, texture and also to have a
Calendula 'Fiesta Orange'
focal point to help tie the design together.
A focal point is often a taller or distinctive plant that stands out and draws your eye in a certain direction. The colour and texture comes from the plants flowers and foliage; the rhythm can be achieved by having a repetition of certain plants or colours that draw your eye along a border giving it a flow.
To briefly look at formal designs these can be seen on some parterres next to large stately homes using beds of geometric design and shapes that form part of the interest. They are often surrounded by a low hedge (usually box) and have plants set out in a strict formal layout. Formal designs also work well with raised beds that are set out in a geometric design. The old gardens had gravel or brick paths sometimes with a clay edging tile. The paths and beds create the main design structure with the plants giving the interest.
Moving onto the informal design, these will be easier to fit into most gardens as they are less “structured” than formal designs and will blend in better. The main structure of the design will be shrubs and herbaceous plant, possible with a small tree or trees; and the infill being vegetables and some edible flowers. Fruit trees can be used to give height, structure and also flowers and fruit.
A good design should provide all the year round interest, plenty of colour, and texture as well as a regular harvest of crops to eat. When designing each display bear in mind crop rotation so that the same crops are not grown in the same place each year to avoid pests and diseases building up in the soil. Also make good use of successional and intercropping to extend the display and harvesting and make maximum use of the space.
Before moving onto individual plants / crops a few points of interest to note are to give the display some height so that it is
not totally flat use taller plants like globe and Jerusalem artichokes, angelica, wigwams of runner or French beans, climbing courgettes, sweet corn, tomato towers or fruit trees like Ballerina apples, cordons or pyramid shaped trees.
As well as colour from the flowers, both ornamental plants and vegetables make use of coloured foliage of which there are many examples later in this article. Coloured foliage lasts a lot longer than individual flowers so gives a longer lasting display;
44 Simply Vegetables
Climbing French Bean ‘Blauhilde’
Crimsom flowered broad bean
KELVIN MASON FNVS