Potager

The new book orders are starting to arrive! It feels like Christmas to open the boxes and see what we've ordered.

Timber Press books have amazing photographs. The book that caught my eye was Design the New Kitchen Garden : an American Potager Handbook [SB 324.3 .B38 2006] by Jennifer R. Bartley. I admit to not knowing what 'potager' meant.

A potager garden is the French counterpart to the English kitchen garden, but with an emphasis on growing vegetables.

This seems to tie into the slow food movement - getting fresh food close to home. The potager brings the food right outside the kitchen door yet seems to provide the visual appeal of a formal garden. The gardens that inspired Ms. Bartley are Renaissance potager gardens (Chapter 2). They remind me of Williamsburg gardens, formal yet useful.

If you don't have the space or energy to create a formal potager, Ms. Bartley offers a section on container potager gardening (pg 186). Her suggestions for container gardening might meet the need for fresh food, right outside the kitchen door!


-kls