I have been planting
potagers before I even knew what the term meant. From little on, I got no end
of thrills from planting seeds from my breakfast melon into the yard and
waiting for them to grow. As I got older I expanded into growing herbs, and then,
once I had a place of my own, created a potager. A potager is a small French
kitchen garden that generally consists of edible plants, both beautiful and
functional, that are used with frequency in the kitchen. It is planted close to
the house (kitchen) for convenience and, ideally, it is a garden from which you
can harvest three out of four seasons.
My former house sat
on an acre of land, an acre of shady land with only a sliver of it touched by
the sun. It was during my tenure there that I learned the French way of kitchen
gardening: to plant the things I used the most, to not run wild planting just
one item (like 20 tomato plants just because I could not resist the
end-of-the-season clearance sale), and plant herbs that would benefit me daily.
Every garden, I find, is a learning experience.
My new house has a
small yard that I have yet to draw into quadrants to create four, individual,
but dazzling gardens, complete with stone pathways connecting them all, and a
small koi pond and secret garden in the back. While I wait for the time and
money, not to mention energy to create my dream space, I continue to plant my
potager, but this year it is in containers and on the back deck.
I generally get
quite out of control at garden centers, overbuying and then getting completely
stressed trying to figure out what to do with everything. So now, I shop at
local markets that only take cash, bless them, and, as when I'm in the grocery
store, I shop from a list.
I mixed things up a
bit this year intermixing vegetables with flowers. I love to see the look on
people's faces when they peer into the flower boxes to admire the flowers, only
to find cauliflower growing in the corner.
An advocate of re-growing
kitchen scraps, I have my usual containers of scallion roots and leek bases
growing, along with sprouted
garlic, but this year I
decided to experiment, and shoved a ginger root into the grow. It's growing!
I'll have a blast watching this all summer long (which, I suppose, just
goes to show how starved I am for real entertainment).
Another new addition
to the garden is this artichoke plant. In years past I have tried,
unsuccessfully, to grow them from seed. This year I found a plant at the local
stand and nearly knocked an elderly woman over lunging for it. It is growing
like a weed (most probably because, as a member of the thistle family, it
really is sort of a weed). But hopes are high that by summer's end, I'll
be eating my own home grown artichokes.
Mr. O-P thrilled me
beyond words by gifting me with a Calamondin orange tree and a Meyer lemon
tree. I've had limited success growing these in the past, but these look hale
and hardy, and I've been given detailed instructions from a friend who grows
these as easily as some grow dandelions, so I am hoping to not only enjoy the
literal fruits of my labors, but be able to overwinter them and enjoy citrus
for many years to come. I’ll keep you
posted.
What do you have
growing?
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