source: Family Food Garden
pronounced: pow·tuh·jei
practice video
What is a Potager?
A potager kitchen garden is a garden close to your kitchen where you can access fresh veggies and herbs easily. There’s some wonderful history behind kitchen gardens and some great books on kitchen garden design.
One of the most common themes you see with potager design are plants growing on the outside edges as well as the middle.
How to design your kitchen garden
When you start brainstorming ideas for your garden you’ll need to make sure you’re planting it in the right place. You also want to doodle and out sketch out your kitchen garden to get ideas for design.
Things to keep in mind before designing your potager garden are
Adequate sun exposure- you’ll need 6-8 hours of sunlight for most crops. Make sure there aren’t too many garden shadows preventing veggie growth or grow crops that prefer some shade in those areas.
Keeping your garden design as close to your kitchen as you can. The goal is fresh food from your doorstep!
Try and use the edges as much as you can.
Create fun designs. Try sketching them out in different ways for eye appeal.
Consider adding a bench or table in the center or close to your kitchen garden. An eating area in your garden is a great long term idea.
Best crops for a potager kitchen garden
Although you can grow anything you’d like in your kitchen garden, because it’s close to the house certain crops are better than others.
The best crops for a potager kitchen garden tend to be ones that are eaten fresh not preserved.
You want to choose crops that are ready to harvest sooner instead of waiting until the end of summer. You also want to choose space-saving crops instead of ones that take up lots of space like pumpkins, corn or potatoes.
What to Grow in your Potager Kitchen Garden
Culinary herbs (which also have the benefit of companion planting)
Salad crops like lettuce, radishes, arugula. Learn how to grow greens year-round.
Fresh Greens like spinach, mustard greens, kale, collards etc
Heirloom tomatoes
Green snap beans/french filet beans.
Summer squash & zucchini
Flowers, especially edible ones like calendula or nasturtiums
Gourmet peppers
Green onions, scallions, shallots
Baby root crops like beets, turnips
Medicinal herbs are very eye catching and the bees love the flowers.
--- Need help planning your garden?
We provide garden consultations, design and builds.
Contact us today for more information:
call: (770) 683-7224
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