The word "potager" is simply from a french term for soup: "potage". The original potagers were cultivated by monks outside their small cottages in monasteries. The gardens supplied the kitchen (or soup pot) with vegetables AND fruits AND cooking Herbs. They also incorporated flowers as decorations for the church altars and medicinal herbs for their use in treating their own illnesses or the illnesses of the people they served. Because of limited space, potagers were gardened intensively, often, but not always in raised beds, but usually with plants spaced closely (a la Square Foot gardening). The beds were made narrow, so that the gardener could stand in the pathway and reach into the bed to work, thus avoiding walking on the bed and compacting the soil. These days, three foot paths are recommended so that a wheelbarrow can be accomodated. (Maybe then too.) I built a potager this year. I have nine raised beds edged with decorative concrete retainers. Each bed is 8 feet long and 3 1/2 feet wide. I am five feet nine inches tall, so this is the most comfortable width for me. I can work on a bed from all four sides. I absolutely love this gardening method. It lends itself to staggered planting and year round planting so well. I can pull out an old crop, amend and work the soil, replant and mulch a bed in about an hour and a half. This being my first year, I have learned alot from mistakes, of course. The one problem I am still puzzling over is the incorporation of ornamentals into the beds. Perennial plants are not so good. They are in the way when it's time to re-work a bed. Ditto for annuals. My poor black pearl peppers have been dug up and replanted three times since March! I think that next summer, I may leave out the flowers, except as edgers, and even then, only plant with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant since these tend to grow and produce for most of the summer. I have been planning my winter garden this week and am excited that I may be able to get lots of color and beauty from planting in patterns using edible crops. So many brassicas and lettuces have colorful leaves, you see. Anyway...I have also learned that if you want design ideas, go to the Potager forum. If you need help growing vegetables, come here or to the Tomato Forum. And if you are trying to figure out how to space and trellis plants in intensively planted beds, go to the Square Foot Garden forum. Nice folks in all places. I bet this was more than you really wanted to know! :)

We bought the plans online, and had a contractor friend of ours build it. Unfortunantly, the plans were not great, and there are some MAJOR changes I would now make to it before I built another one. Ebay now has a ton of cute small coops. It would be worth it to buy them premade (even with shipping). My mom bought a small wooden children's playhouse and converted it-- it is way cute, too! The coop is sitting on the concrete, though there is now about 12-16" of straw covering it. We had originally planned to put it on soil, but forgot that the neighbor on that side has a satanic dog that would terrorize our chickens! So it went on the other side of the house on the cement pad. This also prevents any predators from digging under the coop, so I guess its OK. We started off with only 2-3 chickens as well. But we started with bantams (minature chickens, about 1/4 the size) so they would do less destruction to our landscape and so my daughter could more easily hold them. We have been very happy with them, especially the Cochin breed, which are very calm and sweet. I would STRONGLY suggest you visit www.backyardchickens.com/forum and look around there for a while....there is so much fabulous info there. Over 22,000 members across the country and so much knowledge. I spent hours and hours on the site and learned so much before we even got the babies. Another great source of info was http://www.mypetchicken.com/ebook.aspx This really spells it all out! Have fun! My daughter has really enjoyed the last few years with our chickens! Here she is reading books to them in the doghouse :)

It sounds great. I'm looking forward to more pics, I'd like to see the "view" from the street.

Okay, as I sit here today, going through rose books, I've decided...my "potager" is going to be a garden for roses, herbs and some annual flowers like sweet peas and morning glory. I really want a "girly" garden and I think this will be it. I should call it my "big girl" garden since I also am designing a "fairy garden" for my nieces :) With all the mud out here and snow, for most of the year, I've decided to move the vegetables to another location and concentrate on pretty and fragrant flowers. However, I am practical enough to make sure they help the bumblebees and butterflies. The birds have all kinds of plants in the pasture and I don't want them too close to the barn kitties. Any more suggestions for roses? Loved ebb tide and will include it in the garden. This area will have to be mainly for smaller roses, about three to four feet wide, although height is not really an issue. I hope to put the larger damasks and albas in front of the lilac hedge and surround them with deer-resistant perennials and lavender. Vegetables are great, but with my short growing season, I have about three and a half months without frost. This means everything has to be planted almost on top of each other, so I think a bigger area would be a better idea. This way I can have a working garden and a pretty area to sit and have tea :) The fairy garden is really a pastel butterfly garden with lots of little surprises for the girls. I have gallica roses that change color from pink to fuscia to lavender to purple and little bridges that the "wee folk" might use. They love Tinkerbelle and I think this will spark their creativity and give them a garden they will enjoy. Also will have small apple trees, three foot high and smaller blueberry bushes and alpine strawberries in this area, behind the flowers. This is all non-toxic, so no lily of the valley, but violets and pansies are okay...you probably get the idea :) Any ideas on this garden are great too!