Text: Lynne Yates, Natalie Sinclair and Jane Griffiths. Photography: Loren Shirley-Carr, Jane Griffiths and Keith Knowlton. Article from the July 2012 issue of Garden and Home Magazine.
Jane Griffiths, expert veggie gardener and author of Jane’s Delicious Garden, and landscape designer Natalia Sinclair of Whirlwind Gardens, give us the lowdown on how to create a sustainable and stunning potager.
Growing your own fresh, organic produce is always rewarding and a sensible move when you consider the rising cost of food prices. One of the most wonderful ways to do this is to create a potager, which combines the decorative and productive aspects of gardening to give you pretty flowers for the vase and all sorts of fresh ingredients for your kitchen.
What is a potager?
Natalia: Potager gardens, from the French, jardin potager, meaning vegetable or kitchen garden date back as far as the French Renaissarice when it was essential for people to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Today’s potager is a delightful mix of edible and decorative plants with a modern, structured design combined with a more informal planting plan.
The benefits
Jane: Although there is some motivation to save money, it also has to do with becoming aware of what we are feeding our families — and the best way to make sure we know what is in our food, is to grow it ourselves. It’s also part of a global shift to get back to our roots, literally. South Africans are becoming increasingly aware of carbon footprints, food miles and the need to reduce our impact on the planet. Growing your own fresh produce is eco-savvy because the shortest food mile of all is the one from your garden to your kitchen table.
The design
Jane: This depends on individual taste. Do you want a geometric garden with raised beds and defined squares, a rambling cottage style with meandering pathways or perhaps a spiral? Whichever design you choose, there are certain practical considerations to take into account:
The golden real-estate rule of ‘location, location, location’ applies to vegetables too. As vegetables require plenty of sun, look for a spot receiving the maximum amount.- Place it fairly close to your kitchen. You don’t want to walk miles every time you want to pick something.
- Your potager will need water. Either choose a spot close to an existing tap or install a tap nearby.
- Include pathways for easy access.
- If your garden is on a slope, design the beds so they lie along the contours of the slope, not away from them. This prevents soil being swept away.
- Before planting your crops, enrich the soil with plenty of compost and well-rotted manure.
Natalia: As a general rule a potager will lend itself to a formal geometric design with a focal point in the middle such as a pot, sculpture or water feature and paths leading from the centre. There is usually a bench under an arch or pergola placed at the end. Herbs or clipped hedges separate the borders and define the shape of the design.
What to plant?
Jane: The choice of plants depends on the size of your potager, what you like to eat and what time of year it is. Familiarise yourself with plants’ requirements before starting. A potager should include a mixture of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. There are endless combinations from which to choose where one plant benefits another. Many plants, such as feverfew, do the work of insecticides by repelling pests. Others, such as calendula and clover, are magnets for beneficial insects, inviting bees, wasps, spiders and butterflies into the garden.
And then there are plants, such as comfrey, which absorb nutrients from deep in the soil, thereby feeding the other plants.
Natalia: I love to choose plants for their colour and form; the burnt orange spears of Leonotis leonurus set against the soft, grey foliage of the curry plant (Helichrysum italicum) is a wonderful combination.
Use companion planting principles when mixing and matching plants. Dill and fennel don’t like to be neighbours and mint, if left to its own devices, will take over. One of my favourite summer planting combinations is tomatoes growing up obelisks and basil, strawberries and marigolds at the base. Cabbages, beans, onions, spinach, pansies and beetroot are great companions in your winter garden.
Trimmed hedges are too much maintenance for my liking, I prefer borders of cascading catmint, Nepeta cataria, which look great and keep the pests at bay. Avenues of chives, sage, thyme and marigolds work just as well.
Hard landscaping
Natalia: Reclaimed items are always fun to use in the garden, so instead of a pot as a focal point, use an old bath that has been made into a water feature. Consider using old doors or window shutters as screens for bare walls. Old tin cans, gutters, tin pots or kettles can be assembled in an interesting display and potted up with sun-loving herbs. Gravel, bark mulch, natural stone or cobblestones can be used for the pathways. For a softer alternative, you can use sleepers interplanted with herbs.
Jane: Don’t be misled by the old-fashioned notion that a vegetable garden is the poor cousin of the flower garden and should be tucked away out of sight. A beautiful potager should encourage people to explore and enjoy the garden. Here are some tips for creating a practical, yet inviting space using hard landscaping materials:
Include an archway with rambling roses at the entrance. Structures like archways, trellises and tripods not only look decorative, but will help to maximise space and can be made from a variety of materials to suit your potager’s style.- Add statues, sculptures and works of art as focal points.
- Include a water feature.
- Add containers or interesting pots.
- Introduce seats where you can relax and enjoy the garden.
Maintenance
Natalia: This kind of garden is labour intensive as vegetables and herbs need to be replaced and seasonal crops-planted frequently to maintain a constant supply of fresh produce. Feed beds regularly with an organic fertiliser. Keep mulch topped up and watch out for weeds. If you spot any pests or diseases, spray with an organic spray if necessary.
Sources
Bristlecone Nursery 012 207 1041
Jane Griffiths info@janesdeliciousgarden.com or
www.janesdeliciousgarden.com
Whirlwind Gardens, Natalia Sinclair
083 302 7893,
Darryl Richardson 082 739 1263,
info@whirlwindgardens.co.za or
www.whirlwindgardens.co.za
We’re giving away a copy of Jane’s Delicious Garden and Jane’s Delicious Kitchen (both Sunbird Publishers) worth R265 each. Filled with practical information and author Jane Griffiths’ clever, hands-on tips, these books are a must for any aspiring kitchen gardener. Also look out for Jane’s Delicious Herbs (Sunbird Publishers) to be released in September 2012.
For more information on how to win one of the books see the July 2012 issue of Garden and Home Magazine.
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