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! :)

It is so easy to get overwhelmed. Afterall, I have a full time job, and when I get home at night I have dinner to cook and housework to catch up on, and I do want so relaxation time... But I find that I get a renewed burst of energy when I have half an hour to garden. Here are my little tricks for staying on top of gardening.... 1. Prep Time. When dinner is simmering on the stove, I pour a glass of wine and go to the garden for 10 minutes to pull a couple of weeds, plant a pack of seeds, or pick a few veggies... as the season demands. This is when I notice what needs doing most after dinner. 2. After Dinner Drink. When the dishes are done, I set aside half an hour for watering or another project like pruning, digging in compost or planting something I bought on the drive home. 3. Rescue. I always keep a watering can full of water nearby for quick rescues on the way to work, or when I first arrive home and find the eggplants wilting. 4. Prioritize. If I can fit a bigger project into one evening, I make sure I have supplies and a list of priorities handy. This means you have to plan ahead to have a bale of peat moss etc. but when there are 10 things that needs to be done yesterday, keeping a list helps get me started quickly when I have a moment instead of wandering aimlessly thinking how hopeless it all is! 5. Procrastinate. Save big projects like fencing, freezing/canning or major weeding for the weekend. You just won't get them done in one evening, so use that time for something else. So... for the most part, gardening can be handled in 30-45 minutes a day plus 4 hours each weekend. If things still get out of control, They do sell veggies at farmstands and you can always use your efforts for compost!!!

We've got very heavy clay soil here in central Texas as well. The soil looks suitable for making pots and bowls... I am in my second year of amending the soil, mainly through the use of generous amounts of compost mixed in with a tiller. Last year my garden yields were not so great, in part because I got a late start (due to the date we moved into the house) and in part because of record drought. My best harvests last year were okra and basil; most other plants limped along feebly through the > 100 F heat. This year has been much, much better. I had a cover crop, and that also helped break up the heavy soil. One part of the garden got planted with a cover crop mix of vetches, oats, and bell beans in September, and this got tilled under in January. The other part got planted in January with fava beans, and the fave beans were harvested and pulled out last month. This year, in addition to tilling compost in, I have also made small holes or trenches of compost in which I have directly planted the seeds or transplants, to give them extra nutrients as they start. This year the amended garden has been yielding very well. The soil texture is better than last year, though it will probably take another couple of seasons to achieve the nice "chocolate cake" type soil that is possible after amendment. My clay + compost garden has far out-performed my trial 4' x 4' square garden raised bed, probably because the clay provides nutrients not present in the mix used in the raised bed. I am continuing to experiment with the raised beds as well by adding more compost and organic fertilizer.

Thank you Lulabelle, I will check out the square foot gardening forum. I have discovered that most of my questions on how to set up my garden is the result of wanting two different styles of gardens :) I really need to have a big vegetable garden that I can easily access. This is ideally for corn, potatoes, pumpkins, melons, beans, tomatoes, etc. We have a short growing season, but it's really warm, so it's important to grow as much as possible in the three to four months available. On the other hand, I love the idea of a more romantic garden, with some vegetables, but also lots of flowers, herbs, fruit, etc. I think your garden captures that style perfectly. I've decided to keep the majority of the vegetables in a "kitchen" or vegetable garden with some edible flowers and a few herbs, but fairly utilitarian. However, I want to use a smaller child-friendly potager garden to grow some fun miniature vegetables, lettuces and spinach, strawberries, some herbs and flowers. This would be the garden my nieces and nephews can "help" me with. I saw a cute idea for a children's garden, using fairy tales. The example they used was planting some pole beans on a narrow, four foot bean teepee, putting a house at the bottom, a "Jack" figure on the beanstalk and a larger "Giant" figure on the top. That would be really cute in the kids' garden. Thank you all for the input and Lulabelle, thank you for your beautiful pictures.