Redbuds against Sky

Originally uploaded by nodigio

The potager garden is a garden that is both ornamental and practical. To the casual eye, it is pretty, with exotic flowers and foliage that you know belong to fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. It is winding pathways edged with edible lavender and marigolds, statuary with edible vining plants twining around the plinth, a fountain or pond, an intimate patio under an arbor of grapes and cucumbers and squashes. Exotic looking cardoons dominate the background. Trellises and arches hold up Malabar spinach, nasturtiums twined with tomato vines, honeyberries, sweet myrrh, and passionflowers.

Romanesco broccoli and purple and orange cauliflowers grow under the rose bushes. Tubs spill over with microgreens, creeping herbs, and upright lemon grass. Grecian urns house bright eggplants nodding over carpets of thyme. Demure statues peek through ferny asparagus and dill and fennel. Angelicas tower over colorful kale,

Hedges of bush cherries, blueberries, elderberries, and hazelnuts enclose the entire garden and one side is screened off with edible bamboo. Everywhere you look there is color and interesting foliage – and it’s all as edible as it is beautiful.

That’s a potager garden.

It can be intensely formal, composed of squares, rectangles, and triangles repeated among paved pathways, or less formal like a wilderness garden where everything mingles indiscriminately – or something in between.

To begin it, you need to lay your infrastructure first – the pathways and permanent structures you want – trellises, arbors, archways, patios, benches, gazebos, fountains, ponds, and so on. You don’t need all of these structures, but if you want them it’s easier to install them first. Do this on paper so you can them sketch in where you want the beds to be. Then, while it’s still on paper, measure it out (cardboard squares help a lot at this stage and can be used for mulch or compost later on) and place it on the actual ground. Walk through it and see how you fit. If you use a wheelbarrow or lawncart, wheel that through and see if you have enough room to move around. Use the trellises and tall structures to guide the eyes where you want them to look. Place benches where you think you’ll want to sit and gaze about. Put the fountain or pond where it takes a bit of walking through to come upon unexpectedly. Adjust your pathways and structures to fit both the space and your finished vision.

If you want trees, hedges, and/or a bamboo screen, plan placement for those after you place your furniture.

If you already have trees you want to keep, you’ll need to reverse this – plan the furniture and structures and pathways around the existing trees.

When you have the trees and furniture planned and installed, it’s time to plot out the actual beds and placement of containers and temporary structures.

Most seed packets and plant markers will tell you how tall and wide a plant will be, so use that information when plotting your potager. Put tall plants in back or in the center of small beds and containers. Use clumping plants as borders on the beds, and use a few creeping plants to spill across the borders and through the pathway’s paving.

What plants you use will depend upon the space you have and the zone in which you live. By taking advantage of walls, buildings, fences, and hedges, you can alter your growing zone slightly and may be able to grow more tender plants than your area is normally zoned to support and may be able to coax out a slightly longer growing season.

I live in Zone 7a, but I can, with care, grow plants that thrive in Zones 8 and even 9. I can grow some plants year round because of their location and protection from the harsher snow and ice we sometimes get. If you’re unsure what hardiness zone you are in, check here: http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

There’s no reason a vegetable garden has to be all tidy rows and no reason to segregate flowers and food.

Here is a list of edible flowers and exotic looking vegetables. Not all parts of the following plants are edible and not all the plants within that grouping are edible. Honeysuckle nectar, for example, is edible but all honeysuckles except the honeyberry have toxic berries and all honeysuckles have toxic leaves, stems, and roots.

If you have any doubt about the edibility of a plant, don’t eat it.

Plants with Edible Flowers:

Angelica
Anise hyssop
Apple blossoms
Arugula blossoms
Bachelor buttons
Banana blossoms
Basil flowers
Bee balm
Borage
Carnations
Cattails
Chamomile
Chickory buds
Chive/ garlic/leek/onion/shallot/ramps blossoms and scapes
Chrysanthemums
Cilantro
Citrus blossoms
Clover
Cowslips
Dame’s rocket (also called sweet rocket or dame’s violet – do not confuse with phlox which isn’t edible).
Dandelions
Daylilies
Dianthus
Dill flowers and
Elder blossoms
English daisies
Fennel
Frangipani
Freesia
Fuchsia
Ginger flowers
Gladiolus
Hibiscus
Hollyhocks
Honeysuckle (only the berries of the honeyberry are edible all other honeysuckle berries are poisonous)
Hybrid tuberous begonias
Impatiens
Jasmine
Johnny-jump-ups
Lavatera flowers
Lavender
Lemon verbena
Linden flowers
Mallow flowers
Marigolds (all the calendulas and only the citrus named tagetes such as lemon gem)
Marjoram flowers
Mimosa blossoms
Mint flowers (it’s not just the leaves that are yummy)
Mustard flowers
Nasturtiums
Okra blossoms (probably the best reason to grow okra)
Orange bergamot
Pansies
Passionflower
Pea blossoms and shoots (edible peas not ornamental ones)
Peach and pear blossoms
Peonies
Plumeria
Poppy petals
Primroses
Queen anne’s lace (do not confuse with water hemlock which is highly toxic)
Radish flowers
Ranunculus
Redbud
Rose of sharon
Rosemary flowers
Roses
Safflower
Sage blossoms
Savory
Scarlet runner bean blossoms
Scented geraniums (also known as pelargoniums – the citronella varieties are not edible)
Snap dragons
Squash blossoms
Sunflower buds
Sweet olive (osmanthus fragrans)
Tagetes lucida (aka mexican tarragon)
Thyme blossoms
Tiger lily buds
Tulip petals (although some people are highly allergic to these they have a flavor that varies between sweet lettuce peas and cucumbers)
Violas
Violets
Water plants like water lilies cattails watercress
Watercress
Wild hyacinths (not domestic – these are toxic)
Woodruff blossoms
Yucca petals

Ornamental or Exotic Vegetables

Asparagus
Broccoli raab
Brussels sprouts Falstaff (red Brussels sprouts)
Bull’s blood beets
Bush Beans
Cardoons
Cauliflower Cheddar hybrid (orange cauliflower)
Cauliflower graffiti ( a red cauliflower)
Celery safir (a good filler for cut bouquets)
Chioggia beets
Collards – Blue Surf
Cucumber pearl (an all white cucumber)
Dragon tongue beans
Eqyptian onion
Fennel
Globe artichokes
Heirloom tomatoes (particularly colored ones)
Jerusalem artichokes
Kale – Dwarf Blue Curled Vates, Winterbor, Red Russian
Lemon cucumbers
Malabar spinach (climber with strawberry flavored red fruits and spinach flavored leaves)
Millet
Myrrhis odorata
Peppers – both the sweet bells and the fiercer capsicums
Romanesco broccoli
Sea Kale
Squashes and pumpkins grown on trellises
Tomatillos

Toxic Plants

Unless you know how to identify these ornamentals and how to use them and avoid being made sick or killed by them, avoid them.

Azaleas
Belladonna
Calla lily
Castor bean
Crocus
Daphne
Foxglove
Larkspur
Lily-of-the-valley
Nightshade
Rhododendron