Hands in the Dirt: Potager

Photo and article by Donna Iverson 
 
A couple of my favorite seed catalogs arrived this week. As the temperatures fell and the snow arrived, looking at photos of green veggies, colorful flowers and scented herbs warmed my gardener’s heart. There are so many interesting offerings, it’s difficult to choose. 
 
In my community gardening bed, I plant a mixture of easy-to-grow vegetables, annual flowers and herbs. Recently, I learned there is a name for this: potager.  
 
Potager is the French word for kitchen garden, a place where plants were traditionally grown to add to homemade soup or “potage.” A portage is usually right outside the kitchen door and includes veggies, fruits, flowers, herbs ..anything edible and flavorful.  It is pronounced po-toe-jay.
 
A potager garden emphasizes both productivity and beauty. Attention is given to garden design, creating a patchwork quilt of flowers and vegetables that are pleasing to the eye as well as the palate. 
 
A potager can be as simple as adding flowers to your vegetable patch, or vegetables like lettuce to the flower garden.  Or you could go more formal, and add pathways, raised beds, some kind of garden structure and an enclosure. Adding a few native plants would also enhance the garden’s sustainability. 
 
The potager garden provides edibles and beauty in every season, including winter. Veggies that grow in winter, even in Michigan, include kale, leeks, chard and chicory. 
 
For those with an artistic eye, a potager can become a living painting that provides healthy real food along with your favorite flowers and herbs. It also evokes a meditative spirit.  In fact, the first potagers were monastery gardens in Celtic Europe. 
 
So if you are planning your 2022 garden, consider a potager.  Keep it simple and design it for beauty as well as for good eats. 

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