New potager garden is complete. Has anyone else got a potager?

Goldencity I do envy you your potager - it looks so neat.
Since we moved back to the UK we have a small garden front and back, just enough space to grow a few beetroots, which I found to be the most resilient veg to grow. plus onions.
I've always been more interested in growing veg. than flowers.

My one raised bed is used by next doors cats as a toilet..?‍♀️ I’ve tried various methods to keep them off but nothing works so far..

CBBL, do you like rhubarb??
Some years ago I visited the Shetlands with my mother, and
we noticed that just about everybody’s garden had rhubarb! So it’s evidently pretty wind and weather proof.
(We had amazing weather there though - so lucky - hadn’t expected it even in early summer (just after the longest day.)

I wish I grow things where I live (in the very North of Scotland, near John O 'Groats). The winds are really fierce. Any new trees grow at an angle, and the salt from the sea damages most things. I could maybe grow Turnips and Potatoes (Neeps & Tatties) if I could manage the digging to begin with!
Sadly, most of the Acers and Shrubs I brought from Lincolnshire (from a wonderful and colourful garden) are now bare husks. I would need a *really" strong greenhouse to over winter anything, and I can't afford that at the moment, as I'm currently saving for triple glazed windows all round (11 windows, plus patio doors).
I really miss the colour of our old garden - but then, I do have sea (and Castle) views from the kitchen diner!

It’s been lovely reading about people’s gardens. I too love David Austin roses and if you can go to the nursery (off the M54) in the flowering season - absolute perfume heaven.

I’m not sure a potager style would be right for me, I’m keener on the cottage garden style. However I am trying to eliminate the green concrete (ie tedious lawn) and to have a still water pond with British native planting with “rooms” and perhaps keep some grass pathways.

Must keep an eye out for local people selling plants from cuttings - good value and chance to chat.

Good gardening!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202203/medium-178310-ed072540-1cec-4373-9915-91890ad9904b.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202203/medium-847661-cbee72c4-f3b7-45cb-b2ed-dbe554bb84ce.jpeg

I have what I call my potager, here in central France. Raised beds, with grass paths (the width of the mower) herbs and flowers as companion plants to deter pests (or not ).
We started the garden in 2016- heavy clay soil, and a more continental climate so cold winters, but a hot dry summer, normally 30+.
With the greenhouse, I can grow most of our veg, although the flea beetles seem to munch more brassicas than we do!
I have fruit trees too- some we are trying to train over archways, and soft fruit.
I took my inspiration from this garden

www.prieuredorsan.com/jardins/jardins-a.html

The photos are of my garden.
It’s hard work, but worth it.

maybe it is a cottage garden, no idea but whatever, it is a mixture of flowers, trees, fruit and veg with no lawn grass

missdeke

Sounds beautiful but I can't help thinking my idea of a small garden and your's must be quite different karmalady

Potager growing area is 8m x 8m maximum. There is a lot in that small space, hence I ensured that the soil is as good as I could make it. Soil is the foundation, walls all around so is a lovely warm microclimate

sparkly, I have that rose, it is gorgeous

Sounds beautiful but I can't help thinking my idea of a small garden and your's must be quite different karmalady

karmalady I have just planted a rose bare root called Ronald Dahl from David Austin. I love his roses.
I have a container garden and mix in veg and fruit with flowering plants.
See photo from DA website of Ronald Dahl Rose.

Fine thanks Fennel. Still flogging away to create the garden in our new home, but enjoying our converted barn and living nearer to amenities.

When we couldn't conceive, DH and I were advised to eat lots of fennel!

That's it - blight or mildew.
Thanks Mamie - plodding on but not much gardening now!
how are you?
Another flower in our potager was fennel - my favourite, from where I chose my username.The bulb is tasty.

Don't doubt it Maw. In France it would probably involve un relooking to un Englishgarden. ?

I wonder if vegetable gardens became kitchen gardens and then potagers in the same way that sheds became home offices and lean to's rebranded themselves as conservatories and now orangeries ?

Blight is the disease but the French call it mildiou..
Hope you are keeping well Fennel. ?

Blight?

We had a potager in France which was mainly vegetables. Except for french marigolds and a selection of cucurbits which have lovely flowers.And also the large leaves smother the weeds.
We had much healthy food from it but it was hard work as it was mainly clay, but very fertile. We added the soiled straw from the chicken house.
Favourites : various types of onions, beetroot and tarbes beans.
We atarted a new potato patch but after a good first harvest it suffered from various pests - even colorado beetle, then
?wire worm etc so gave that up and planted a few in the original potager.
Pests flourished as much as weeds in that warm damp climate . Also- fogotten the name of the disease from damp which affects potatoes and tomatoes.

Yes I agree Casdon. I am gardening in a mask today - Saharan dust cloud!

From what I’ve seen, it’s more formally structured than a cottage garden, not as formal as a parterre, but with more hard landscaping, raised beds etc. I’m no expert, but there’s an example in the article I posted above, with a central feature. I guess it’s an interpretation for modern living - one good thing about gardening is that fashions are constantly changing, which keeps us all interested.

I have found a description of Villandry as a potager décoratif, but frankly having visited I think it is a poncey mish-mash. ?
Certainly wouldn't want to make soup from it.

Is it different from a traditional cottage garden though?

Growing flowers such as marigolds, French marigolds etc, amongst beans helps to deter black fly.

In theory.

MawtheMerrier

Mamie

That's interesting. The potager here in France is just the vegetable garden, literally where you grow your potage (soup). ?
We had 36 raised beds in our last potager and are currently working to create the new one. Not a flower in sight! Would be interesting to know when the meaning got changed in English.

I think that was where I was coming from Mamie but I defer to superior knowledge.
I thought those wonderfultapestry-like geometric gardens were called parterres anyway.
No doubt somebody will put me right there too.

Yes, they were, there was one at Hampton Court, designed by a French man I think.