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! :)

What a strange thread. I thought about not posting at all, and I agree with one poster who said folks need to get outside for some dirt and fresh air. Where I come from in Hawaii, land has always been worth its weight in diamonds. No one can afford to grow in rows; consequently, people there take advantage of every nook and cranny they can find. They've gardened that way for generations. In any garden bed you will find mustard or pak choi cabbage growing alongside Thai basil growing alongside daikon radish growing alongside Manoa lettuce, hot chili peppers, and often, a big pot of Portuguese parsley. Bamboo tepees support string beans and yard long beans. Green onions are tucked everywhere because they are used daily! Hanging above it all in typical wood slat pots you will find one or more of the thousands of orchid varieties, some blooming on fragrant long stalks that perfume the entire neighborhood. My father grew vanilla orchids on an old rotten tree stump, the tallest thing in the garden. He'd use a ladder to get up there to hand pollinate the blooms. Not four feet away were a couple of papaya plants laden with fruit. Way in the background was banana and a small avocado tree on its way to becoming a giant. My mother used to always have a pineapple or two growing because she said the sharp, sword-like leaves chased away bad spirits. We shrugged our shoulders at that, but the pineapple was always sweeter than what was found in the stores. All of this was growing in a postage stamp of a back yard which still had to have room for a clothes line. I live in Kansas now, where it is quite easy to grow in rows, but my garden is no different from my mother's, always has been, just no pineapple or papaya alas. I guess the term "potager" must be like a buzz word for some and that makes it more special. Who knows. I just garden the way my parents did because it is practical.

if in London, go to Kew gardens http://www.kew.org/ not what you are after but great anyway, also look out for Garden safaris, where local people open up their gardens for charity, they will have 20+ home gardens to nose round, mainly June/July. http://www.redcross.org.uk/opengardens_searchresults.asp?id=54243&txtPageNo=1&txtEventLocation=EC2Y9AL http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/local-to-you/south-east/visit-ngs-open-gardens-in-kent.aspx http://www.kentgardenstrust.org.uk/visit.html http://www.touruk.co.uk/gardens/gardens_in_kent.htm http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-beta-map.htm?quicksearch Most of the above links will include places with veg, but they don't advertise the fact, as they tend to draw the visitors with flowers. try e-mailing, I know Goodnestone park gardens has veg, as I only lived 1/2 mile away and used to cycle there and have a pint at the Fitzwilliam Arms Pub! my the prices have gone up in 5 years! on their map it doesn't even indicate the veg, but it is next to the house, by the greenhouses! and Sissinghurst gardens have just opened a veg garden. village fates, you will get to see local produce by home gardeners and they will be around to talk to, as they will be keeping a check on their produce before judging! those British Murder Mystries have their heart in village fates! Hope this helps and enjoy your visit Can you guess I am from Kent? :) the furthest points of Kent from London is about 70-75 miles, and the trains are not bad, bus services again pretty good, but most of these places are easier to get to by car. Here is a link that might be useful: RHS

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.