Cream-of-the-Crop Vegetable Gardens



Did you know that pottage is a thick soup? It makes sense, considering the first potagers (vegetable gardens) were made to provide manor kitchens with ingredients such as … wait for it … thick soup. The monks of this medieval period took the potager to a different level by bettering the humble veggie garden to a piece of art.

Listed below are few gardening approaches and design methods based on the timeless potager. You might be inspired to bring a bed of cabbage or start a rooftop lettuce garden.

Deborah Cerbone Associates, Inc..

A potager has beds with one crop each. Today’s potager-inspired gardens unite edibles and ornamentals but draw layout cues from classic plant groupings.

Beertje Vonk Artist

Group and Rotate Plants

Classic potagers had four beds with four distinct crops that rotated each year. Today’s gardener often wants to develop a lot more varieties, therefore hark back into the potager idea by placing in groupings — but feel free to add more than just four.

Olivotti Landscape

It makes crop rotation simple when every bed is planted with a different species. Simply plant berries, onions, legumes and brassicas in different raised beds and then rotate them to ensure the exact same type of plant isn’t in precisely the exact same bed for three additional years. This keeps the soil fertile and helps protect plants from pests and diseases organically.

The Brickman Group, Ltd..

Insert Vertical Structure

Many veggies need to climb to produce a prosperous harvest. Use this need to provide an chance for exquisite layout. Pea towers crafted out of sticks include a vertical element and a rustic appeal to backyard potagers.

Giannetti Home

Adding iron structures into the potager gives a more formal appearance whilst still fulfilling plants’ climbing needs.

Anne F Walters Company, Landscape Architects

A timeless trellis provides vertical interest and doubles the planting space in your garden. A sweet potato vine or even a watermelon vine functions well.

Blasen Landscape Architecture

Potagers do not have to look old-fashioned. Pair classic potager plantings with contemporary vertical elements to get a beautiful, practical mix.

John Kraemer & Sons

Choosing Shapes

The monks demonstrated creativity in the layouts of potagers, producing circular, rectangular and triangular gardens. This circular garden might not contain beds of veggies, but it gets its design inspiration from some humble monastic potager.

Clinton & Associates, PC Landscape Architects

Using a variety of rectangular sizes can make interest in a upgraded vegetable garden.

Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture

Try Raised Beds

When soil was composed of hard clay or sand, raised beds were often the solution. Simply piling new fertile soil in a raised bed creates an instant garden without backbreaking double digging.

Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture

Raised beds can be anywhere from 6 inches tall to 3 feet or higher. Taller beds are helpful for men and women who cannot bend or kneel on the floor.

Banyon Tree Design Studio

For a contemporary, whimsical spin on the classic raised bed, try galvanized watering troughs.

Bright Green

Potager Placement

Living in an apartment? You are not left out of this potager party! Try growing herbs and salad greens in a planter right in your kitchen.

The Brickman Group, Ltd..

When you’ve got great sun in the front yard and color in the back, go ahead and plant your potager outside front. Organizing veggies in orderly groupings retains the appearance appropriate for a front walkway.

Mark English Architects, AIA

A rooftop is also a excellent location to get sun-loving veggies and salad greens. Planting rows on the diagonal causes this tiny bed a charming throwback to the monastic potager.

Jason Lee Design Studio, Inc..

Potager Plants

Various alliums (onions, scallions and chives are a part of this family) are perfect options for your well-designed potager. They include a vertical element to the look of your beds, offer sweet little spherical flowers and are edible to boot.

Andrea Meyers

Herbs are a traditional addition. If you’re a beginner, try easy-to-grow herbs like mint and cilantro.

Thyme is a versatile, yummy potager plant. Use creeping thyme to soften the advantages of planters and paths, and scatter the fresh leaves on a roast chicken.

The Outdoor Room, LLC

Take a few cues from the potagers of older, incorporating raised beds, crop rotations or pea towers into your layouts. Stray from the layout rules of classic potagers but do not neglect to heed the wisdom of natural strategies which have worked for generations.

More:
Raised Beds Grow Any Garden

Herb Gardens for Indoors and Outside

Sudden Edible Gardens

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