Vegetable Garden Layout - The Potager Kitchen Garden (Or Flowers in Your Vegetable Beds)

Would you like to grow your own fresh vegetables at home in a vegetable garden layout which is attractive as well as productive? A potager kitchen garden is a vegetable garden in which there is a delightful mix of vegetables, herbs, flowers and perhaps even a fruit tree or two. Get some ideas here for planning your own potager design.

Origins

Garden

The French kitchen garden, called the potager (pronounced pot-ah-zhay) traditionally provided the ingredients for potage (soup or vegetable broth). In medieval times the monks and nuns used these kitchen gardens to provide flowers for the church and vegetables for the inhabitants of the abbey. Whereas the English cottage garden is a random, haphazard collection of flowers, vegetables and herbs growing together, these potagers were geometric and ordered.

Vegetable Garden Layout - The Potager Kitchen Garden (Or Flowers in Your Vegetable Beds)

Layout

The potager garden may be large or small and is usually made up of square, rectangular, circular or diamond-shaped garden beds arranged in a repeating geometric pattern. The plants within the beds are also planted in groups or patterns. In a larger garden, the whole garden may be surrounded by a clipped hedge with an arbor for a climbing vine (e.g. passion fruit) to mark the entrance.

Suggested Plants

The idea is to have plenty of color and interesting textures - colorful frilly lettuces to border the paths, swiss chard with brightly colored stems, curly blue-green kale, purple sprouting broccoli, red chicory, red-stemmed beetroot, feathery carrots (their leaves that is!), runner beans on a tepee with lovely red flowers and long green pods, French climbing beans with green, purple or yellow pods, feathery asparagus and colorful fruiting vegetables such as chili peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.

Besides the flowers on the vegetables, you may plant edible flowers, grow flowers for their companion planting properties or for cut flowers. Common companion flowers include marigold, nasturtium, chamomile and yarrow.

The external barrier could be a hedge of gooseberries, red currants, blueberries or goji berries or a combination of all four. Alternatively you could put up a trellis and plant it with grapes or kiwifruit. Make sure to choose varieties which will do well in your area. Your local garden center should be able to help you. Also take care that the hedge is not so tall so as to cast too much shade on your vegetable garden.

Vegetable Garden Layout - The Potager Kitchen Garden (Or Flowers in Your Vegetable Beds)

Conclusion
It may be helpful when designing your own vegetable garden to look at some vegetable garden layout plans. (See http://www.squidoo.com/VegetableGardenLayout to see some sample layout plans). Your vegetable garden layout will be as unique as you are. Each yard is a different size, a different shape, and faces a different direction. Just make sure to design your vegetable garden taking into account the physical aspects of your yard and your climate. (See http://www.squidoo.com/VegetableGardenDesign for tips).

Here's to your vegetable gardening success!

Perennial Flowers - Tips For Growing Your Perennial Flower Garden

So, you are thinking about starting a new flower garden, but don't know where to begin? Perennial flowers make an excellent choice for a beautiful flower display, but in order to create a garden with the most impact, there are many factors to consider before planting your perennial flower garden.

Site Selection

Garden

When selecting a site for a perennial flower garden, you should be certain that it receives enough sunlight. Most perennial flowers thrive on six hours of sunlight a day or more. If you are stuck with a shady place, however, you can still grow some perennial flowers. You will just need to be careful of which varieties you choose, and make sure they are shade tolerant.

You also need to consider soil quality and drainage in your proposed perennial flower garden site. Avoid planting in areas with an abundance of weeds, as they will compete with the perennial flowers for needed nutrients and water. You should also avoid areas that have poor drainage. While perennial flowers will be able to survive in a wet area for a short period of time after a rain or watering, they will not survive in an area where there is standing water for long periods of time. Ideally, the soil in your perennial flower garden site will also be fluffy and rich, but if not, try to incorporate sufficient compost into the soil before you plant your flowers.

You should also consider foot traffic and children and pet play habits in the area you are considering establishing your perennial flower bed. Try to avoid planting your perennial flowers in an area where they will be trampled underfoot.

Flower Selection

Perennial flowers come in a wide array of colors, shapes and types, and the perennial flower gardener may quickly be overwhelmed by choices. One tip for making your flower selection is to consider how colors combine. Try not to choose flowers whose colors may clash (such as orange and pink), and instead focus on complementary colors in your garden (pinks and blues often make a beautiful combination).

You should also consider the height of different flower species. Try to make sure a tall perennial flower you have selected does not hide a smaller one behind it.

Finally, pay attention to the blooming period of the perennial flowers you are selecting. Most perennial flowers have a short blooming period lasting from two to four weeks, and for maximum impact you should coordinate the blooming periods of different perennial flowers.

Growing Habits of Perennial Flowers

If you are starting your perennial flowers from seed, you should be aware that it is unlikely you will see any flowers during their first year of growth. This is because most perennial flowers will put all their energy into root and plant growth during the first year, but during the second year (and future years) you can expect a beautiful display. If you do not think you have the patience to wait a full two years to see flowers, consider planting some annuals with your perennials so that you will have some color in your garden during the first year.

You can also try using transplants you first year, in order to get your perennial flower garden off to a quick start. If you decide to use transplants, try to select plants that are not in bloom when you plant them, since this is not a good time to establish them in your garden. Also avoid transplants that have pale or yellow stems and leaves. Try to do your transplanting on a day which is relatively cool and overcast for the best results, and be sure to water the plants well after transplanting and continue watering until the plants have become well established.

Although starting a new garden can be a challenge, by following the few suggestions outlined above, you should be well on your way to creating a beautiful, and long lasting, perennial flower garden.

Perennial Flowers - Tips For Growing Your Perennial Flower Garden

Michelle Day is an avid gardener currently living in the Pacific Northwest. You can read more about perennial flowers on her Perennial Gardening Blog.