I included plans for a large and small potager in my previous book The Bee Garden, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to include another one here. Having said that, when I think of the term ‘potager’ it conjures up a vision of a posh vegetable garden with some flowers added, whereas in this plan the emphasis is equally on flowers and herbs as on vegetables. In fact, the range of vegetables is limited and I have chosen them as much for their decorative quality as for their utility. You can, of course, change or adapt these plans to suit your own situation, so if you want to replace some of the flowers with vegetables, or not bother with some of the herbs, then that’s fine – it’s your garden!
Not everyone has space for a dedicated vegetable patch, which is one reason why I came up with the idea of incorporating a good number of flowers and herbs. I also thought that a ‘modular’ system based on an area measuring 2 metres by 2 metres would be a novel way of making the idea accessible to nearly everyone, from those of us with a modest back garden to others who have a much larger space to fill. Each module could be divided in four sections (A to D), so that a rotation system for vegetables could be maintained – more on that below.
The plan as it stands is for an area of 2 metres by 4 metres, covering a space equivalent to two modules, so that each of the groups of planting signified by a letter, A to D, occupies half a ‘module’ area. If you have enough space for four modules, you can allocate a whole module to each of the letters, and so on.
Focus and framework
With regard to information on which apples to choose, have a look at the information given in the plan for a Large Cottage Garden Border.
For this plan I have chosen four varieties: ‘Egremont Russet’ and ‘Red Windsor’, both in pollination group B, and ‘James Grieve’ and ‘Sunset’, which are in pollination group C. These should be trained as ‘step over apples’; they are trees on a dwarfing rootstock that have a very short centre stem of about 30cm – low enough to step over, hence the name – with a horizontal branch either side. They are both attractive and productive.
In the centre of the whole design is the pink rose ‘Scintillation’, whose lax habit makes it ideal for tying to a wigwam; it is not as vigorous as a climber or rambler but will reach 2 metres. It has lovely red hips in the autumn and is fragrant to boot, so just right for us and the bees.
Each of the modules has, as its focus, a wigwam made from hazel poles, up which runner beans and squash are grown. The flowers of the runner beans are beautiful in their own right; indeed, these plants were grown for their flowers long before it dawned on anyone to eat the beans! Although we are used to seeing squash growing on the ground (think of pumpkins), many varieties can easily be grown vertically, as long as the support is stout enough to tie the fruits to if necessary.
Flowers, herbs and vegetables
In this plan we find herbs and vegetables as well as flowers. I would like to talk a bit about the vegetables, as they are unique to this plan of the selection in this book.
The groups of vegetables are ordered in such a way that it should be fairly easy to keep to a rotational planting regime, whereby the same type of vegetable is not grown in the same place each year – in fact, it should be five years before your peas are back to where they started. In the first year you would plant up according to the plan; the next year, you shift things round in a clockwise direction so that Bed A is planted up with what was in Bed B the previous year, and so on.
So in Year 1, Bed A has Alliums (garlic, leeks); Bed B has legumes (broad beans, peas); Bed C has brassicas (sprouting broccoli, cavolo nero); and Bed D has roots (carrots, parsnips). In Year 2, Bed A has the legumes, Bed B has brassicas, Bed C has roots, and Bed D has Alliums. And so on. The main reason for rotating crops is to prevent a build-up of diseases and pests that target particular types of plants. If you don’t grow the same thing in the same place year on year then the disease has less chance to get a foothold. Another reason is that some vegetables require more nutrients than others. The legume family ‘fix’ nitrogen in the soil, a nutrient for which the brassica family is hungry, so it makes sense to follow peas and beans with kale or broccoli.
I have indicated precise vegetables in the key – these are the ones that I would grow because I like them and they fit in with the rotation. If you don’t want to grow garlic, this could be replaced by onions – still a member of the Allium family – and if you can’t stand parsnips, then how about some celeriac?
If you wish to keep seed from your favourite vegetables then you must obviously allow some of them to flower – even the broccoli and carrots! This is where the bees come in, of course. A note of caution here if you do want to collect seed for next year’s crop: make sure that you grow ‘traditional’ varieties, not F1 hybrids, which will not come true from seed. Varieties marked ‘heirloom’ can be worth growing because they are often closer to the original species than modern hybrids.
Some vegetables can be slotted in anywhere there is space because they hold no threat of disease to other vegetables. These include leafy salad crops such as lettuce and rocket, also spinach and chard.
Obviously all the flowering fruit and vegetables will be a magnet for bees, and the harvest will increase as a result: it has been estimated that fruit and vegetable yields can be increased by anything up to 36 per cent if bees are active on the crop, so it’s a real win-win situation.
In contrast to the vegetables, which are shifted round each year, the flowers and herbs are permanent. I have chosen the flowers so that there is something in bloom throughout the ‘bee season’, plus a number of them are good for cutting; and if you let some of the herbs flower the bees will be ecstatic!
Fillers
As well as tulips to carry the plot through spring into summer, when the lovely compact maroon Allium sphaerocephalon takes up the baton, I have suggested planting alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) between the stepping stones.
Plant families
Primary families Asteraceae and Lamiaceae feature strongly in the herbs and flowering plants; unsurprisingly, neither is to be found among the vegetables. The Secondary family Rosaceae features in the focus and framework; Other families account for the vegetables.