A new look at the potager – Cambo innovates again

You make reference to French roundabouts. I am an American landscape architect and horticulturist involved in the planting design of the many roundabouts being built in our area. I would love to see some photos or get more information about what the French are doing with theirs. I doubt we can do better here in the states in our pathetic culture of public horticulture but a little inspiration would be nice.

Noel, as always, what a fascinating post! I don’t know how a potager compares with a kitchen garden or even if it does. Are they at all similar? The idea behind our garden is to be both beautiful AND to produce fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible blossoms that we can eat as well.

We built what we refer to as our “kitchen garden” in raised beds on the deck outside of our kitchen. It’s not always beautiful, especially when the tomatillos start getting straggly and spread out over the geraniums and basil just before they are ready to be harvested. We don’t restrain the vegetables for the sake of beauty and it’s definitely colorful and productive at the same time. From early spring until it’s buried under snow there are herbs and vegetables to harvest and flowering plants in bloom.

We have quite an eclectic mixture of vegetables (and we plant three different crops as the seasons change), herbs (both annuals like basil and perennials like lavender and thyme and sage), miniature roses, geraniums and other annual flowers, and violas, balsam, and other perennials. We also have lilac shrubs set into the beds and a hydrangea tree and some other tender trees that we bring in for the winter.

I confess that we don’t spend hardly any time planning what goes where (oh gosh, did I just hear someone gasp?). Except for the perennials, we aren’t even consistent about what we plant in the different beds from year to year. Mostly, I plant what fits well in he space available and what looks good together — dark green and purple coleus next to bright green basil, lettuce mixed in with eggplant and geraniums, and thyme spreading under the roses make a gorgeous visual impact and provide herbs and vegetables for dinner and bouquets for the table.

In years past, we’ve had cucumbers trail through the miniature roses and cosmos growing among the squash. Coleus also looks wonderful planted with cabbage, and one of my early spring and fall favorites is to grow radishes, leaf lettuce, dahlias, and pansies together. When the pansies get leggy, we trim them back and they reward us with enthusiastic growth after the radishes have all been harvested and the dahlias are starting to wind down.

Today we harvested the tomatillos and some lavender that I wanted to dry. We’ve been picking peppers and eggplant for weeks. The last of the tomatoes are ripening now and we’ll be planting another round of lettuces, peas and radishes on the weekend. And growing among all of the aforementioned are rosemary, lavender, cosmos, geraniums, miniature roses, mini carnations, and stocks.

It’s not a “public garden” (although it is always a hit on the garden tour) and it’s in a confined area, but it certainly is large and very diverse. Does that count as a potager?