How to Prepare a Potager or Permaculture Garden
Potager gardens are a blend of the berries, fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers that a household would use or consume during a year. The geometric layout allows the gardener to harvest a large crop from a small garden. Potager gardens are different from American kitchen gardens because the emphasis on vertical growing and edible hedges creates the geometric shapes. The plants are spaced closer than in American gardens, according to the L'Atelier Vert (Everything French Gardening) website. Europeans have enjoyed potager gardening for centuries. Prepare a potager or permaculture garden that's as beautiful as it is functional. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Sketch pad
- Art pencils
- Shovel
- Fine rake
- Soil pH test kit
- Fertilizer or compost
- Trellises
- Tomato cages
- Saucer
- Seeds or seedlings
- Edible bushes
- Dwarf fruit trees
Instructions
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1
Sketch the geometric layout for the garden. Mark where you'll place trellises, tomato cages and plant supports, and which areas will get the most and least sunlight or shade. Some French potagers are in groups of hexagons while others are rectangles or more complex shapes. While a small garden plot may eliminate more elaborate designs, the overall geometric layout can be whatever shape you prefer.
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Choose the best growing area for the different plants. Vegetables and dwarf fruit trees need at least six to eight hours of sunlight every day. Some flowers thrive in sunny locations while others need protection from the hot summer sun. Read the seed packets or plant instructions for specifics.
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3
Assign plants to the different areas of your design sketch based on their colors, nutritional needs and mature size. For example, place plants that thrive with an acidic soil pH on one side of the potager and those that prefer an alkaline pH on the other side. Use a color wheel to see which colors complement or contrast each other (see Resources).
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Plan a garden for the year so you'll have a harvest in spring, summer and fall. Select appropriate varieties of dwarf trees, edible hedges or vegetables for your region of the country. Successive planting will increase garden output. You should be able to produce at least three crops from the same space.
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5
Remove grass and weeds from the garden area and walkways. Dig down about 5 inches to remove the roots. Run a fine rake through the soil to catch any stray roots, especially if you have weeds or Bermuda grass.
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Test the soil pH and add compost, working it into the soil to the depth that the deepest roots will go. Read the seed packets to determine how deep you should dig. Alternatively, install the forms and fill with an appropriate planting mix if your potager will be a raised bed garden.
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Install the trellises, tomato cages and other growing supports in the garden. Refer to your sketch to identify which plants require support, and their assigned places in the potager.
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Place a saucer of water nearby if you need to attract bees and butterflies, which are necessary for pollination of crops.
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Plant the seeds or arrange the plants in the garden so plants with a tall mature height will not block sunlight from the shorter ones. Since the garden grows vertically, plant the seeds closer together than recommended on the seed packet.
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10
Plant the edible hedges to outline the geometric shape. Among the choices--depending on the USDA hardiness zone in which you live--are rosemary, blueberries, blackberries, pomegranates, tea camellia and pineapple guava. See Resources for a link to the USDA chart.
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Plant the dwarf fruit trees, such as peaches, oranges, lemons, limes, pears, figs, pink grapefruit, apples, bananas and cherries.
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Tips & Warnings
Sketch the garden design in full color for ease of use when planting your crops.
A benefit of compact planting is that you'll have very few, if any, weeds in the garden.
