Best Way to Create a Modern Potager

One way of having a decent-sized vegetable plot, as well as a colorful garden feature, is to create a potager. In a potager, vegetables are grown alongside flowers, herbs and fruit. Beds are arranged in decorative, formal patterns, and separated by paths.

An area that provides vegetables, as well as being attractive to look at, has appeal for modern gardens. The idea of growing vegetables in formal, ornamental beds is not new. Indeed, the practice has reached high art in some French chateaux. But how practical is it? You need to accept that in order to look decorative all year, a potager may not be as productive as a dedicated vegetable plot. However, you will have a greater variety of produce, such as a mixture of flowers for cutting, herbs and even soft fruit, as well as vegetables.

The potager could be a simple rustic feature with rectangular beds and firmed earth or bark paths. Alternatively, you can introduce paving to divide up the beds and even raise the beds with edges of board or brick. Giving the potager a permanent structure will increase its appeal as a garden feature during winter. You could create a pattern using unusually shaped beds rather than squares or rectangles. Try to stick to a simple, symmetrical pattern and remember that you need to be able to reach into the centre of each bed from the paths. In addition, the higher the ratio of bed to path, the greater the yield of vegetables.

To make the beds in the potager look interesting, use the more ornamental vegetables especially those suitable for edging. Within the beds, plant bold blocks of the same plant. To keep the beds occupied all year, include overwintered vegetables in your planting scheme. As soon as you harvest a vegetable, fill the gap with fresh plants you have raised in small pots so the beds are kept full during the summer.

Wigwams, obelisks and arches all add vertical interest and impose a sense of symmetry, but be sure to site them where they will not shade the beds. For a seating area within or to the side of a potager, consider an arbour or a pergola.