The only thing better than looking at photos of herb gardens is walking through them. Your potager turned out pretty. If you plant chives, they are edible and flower as well, fun to watch come up like teensy blades of grass. I have calendulas in my herb garden, don't know what the planting times are for you, but they're colorful and edible and the dollar stores have seeds. Oh, there are just so many possibilities! You could put an eggplant in the right hand corner -- lavender blossoms and beautiful purple fruit (veggie) to eat. Nell

I just posted about doing a circular garden, and then found this post. So inspirational! I am going to show these photos to DH, as they capture the Spirit I was going for. We even have some flagstones that got left behind at this house. Your photos made me think of a quick glimpse I had of a photo of a garden at the Kripalu Yoga Center. Thank you so much for sharing... and you do know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery??! BTW, I am in Syracuse.

ditto to the 2 raised beds, but not wider than 4'. The easiest beds to work for me by hand are 3'. It's handy to reach across & use fingers. Think about how you'll be balancing yourself to work the garden... Leaning over, standing up using a tool, on knees using hands? Fill the path with mulch material. (can be whatever you gather up & something different on top for looks -- cardboard, burlap, are good top layers if that's all you have) When you fill the path up, so it's no longer a ditch -- you can plant more closely to the edges of your garden & the mulch materials holds moisture. Plan how you'll water the plot before you plant. By hand with a bucket is manageable for your size plot, but plan on spending 1/2 hour doing it 2x a week or more depending on your summer climate/weather. A great watering tip for larger plants is to drill 2-3 small holes in the bottom of 2 liter soda bottles & bury them leaving the neck exposed so you have room to mulch, too. Then when you water also fill the bottle to slowly drip more water in your absence. It barely shows up once you're done with planting around it and once the plants grow will nearly be invisible. Plan ahead how you'll reach it. I like them at least 12" away from the stem of cucumber, tomato or squash. The roots will get what they need that way & I won't be disturbing them with bumping the bottle. Maybe even have that be your child's job to fill the jugs. My kids loved doing that when young. Another idea is to divide up the duties between the adults & child in your family. If you select some plants or an area to be yours to tend it encourages more participation because they own the area. Worked rather well when my children were young. Now hubby is helping more in the garden and selects some things to be his to tend. Makes it more fun for me, too! Someone is always -- in charge-- of the garden, so dividing up ahead of time can avoid some disappointment and arguments about how to -- work it--. Ask others at the community garden what they do -- should give you the local tips. Follow square foot gardening spacing & it will be easier for all of you to plant the garden together. OR just make short rows across your divided plot. Install the supports for your climbers (peas & beans) before you plant. Much easier that way. The simple supports work without breaking the bank. Scrap wood or tree prunings + brown twine can make beautiful supports once covered with beans no one will know you didn't buy the expensive obelisks. We don't bother to paint them because we don't want paint residues though our wood won't last as long. Even a wooden ladder can be put to use as a support. I use them and always get comments from other gardeners. The non-gardeners don't really like my repurposed materials and think of the rows instead of how I garden, so if you go that route be prepared for some comments from the other community gardeners. You don't list your zone. In my area we can grow a 2nd crop of cool season vegetables for fall - early spring harvesting. Very productive & less insect damage in the fall, plus the rain waters the garden for me. I wish your family the best in the gardening adventure. Remember that you will try some things this year, but you have next year, too. It takes years to develop your style & figure it all out to grow a lot of food for your family. When my kids were young we learned together. Then became teens & the garden was no longer an interest. Now my married daughter is growing a good amount of vegetables and fruits for their family. I would not have guessed she'd return to gardening when a teen. We had a lot of fun together as a family or just the kids and I playing games while we worked out there. Be creative with your child and they will work hard with you. I miss my little helpers now. Have fun together in the garden~ Corrine

Welcome! If you saw pictures of my potager ('Potting Shed' thread), mine is having a fence installed the week of June 7th. It is still under construction. Luckily, I haven't seen any rabbits, but I do have squirrels and birds, neither of which will be deterred by my fence. One squirrel came up and took a leisurely drink from a low birdbath yesterday while I was about 2 feet from it! My understanding is that rabbits can get through spaces of two inches. In order to keep them out, I think people both put up fences and dig wire mesh into the ground or some other sort of barrier. Others are worried about deer (see "How high is your fence?" thread). In my case, I will have a picket fence where the spacing is 1.5 inches, but it won't be a rigorous attempt to keep rabbits out. I just hope it slows them down if they should come, LOL. Actually, I am looking for an antique iron gate, which will basically let them in if they are really after my veggies. Like I said, I haven't seen any in my backyard in two years (I live in town), but that's not to say they aren't around. I did see a groundhog once, but luckily they are bigger and hopefully can't squeeze through. Every recent thread about someone building a potager has some discussion of fencing if you read through them. Off the top of my head I can think of this thread, Lavender Lass, nycynthias and tammyinwv. You might find more info there. Lisa