Pretty Potagers

The French call a kitchen garden the potager, since it’s devoted to vegetables, the principal ingredients in soup.

Kitchen gardens can be somewhat formal even though they are devoted to growing vegetables for food. Sometimes a garden is elegant and walled — almost an outdoor room. But the notion of a potager — as opposed to just a fenced in area with rows — is the addition of decorative pathways and a creative plan. Two diagonal intersecting gravel paths [top], with a circle in the center, create an X-shaped arrangement that yields four main planting areas. Within the central stone-bordered rondel is a vertical feature is comprised of a square brick pedestal topped by a planted urn. Space around the pedestal base allows for additional greenery and a pair of curved benches are set back to provide a place for the gardener to stop and enjoy the handiwork.

A smaller garden is organized in a similar way but pavers are laid in the shape of a Celtic cross with a circular planted center. A slender tree gives dimension to the center of this garden and certainly will be a beacon from afar.

Kitchen gardens need not be huge. Smallish and circular, this simple one is divvied up by a three double lines of pavers laid out in a spoke. Each of the six pie-shaped planting beds is neatly devoted to single crop, notably basil, cabbage and leeks.

Railroad ties are used to define triangular beds, each planted with greens in the manner of hedges. A mix of stone shapes is used for the walkways. If the layout is consistent this set up could almost seem to have been inspired by a starfish.

(Source: cokuke, hemlängtan, pinterest)

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