My Beautiful Potager (next year)

MsMinchin 7/20/2010, 10:56 pm

I have finished redesigning my garden for next year - who wants to see? Very Happy

I have taken what I learned this year regarding which areas of the garden get the strongest sun, and redesigned the layout to make it more comfortable to work in and more beautiful.

Included in this design are 2 walk-through trellises for squash and for peas, a frog/toad pond in the center (or a bird bath), more tomatoes, skinnier boxes (2 feet wide), and pea gravel paths.

A few notes:
-each square is 1 sq foot (of course)
-overall space is 14 feet by 18 feet
-I made this using MS Excel, and images from the gardener's supply garden planner tool (to help visualize the plantings)

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Gplan210

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Gplan210

Of course I can't do much until the growing season is over, but it feels good to settle on a design.

NAR56 7/20/2010, 11:18 pm

Very impressive. Can't wait to see pictures of the final result.

boffer 7/20/2010, 11:54 pm

Hi

Two things that catch my eye. I have to clean my bird baths regularly in the summer. If a bird bath is what ends up being in the middle, you don't have easy access.

Your pathways are narrow, and plants will encroach into them. The width will be workable if there is no perimeter fence.

Of course I can't do much until the growing season is over, but it feels good to settle on a design.

I'm beginning to think that one half of our gardening pleasure comes from the daydreaming/planning stage! okay

Chopper 7/21/2010, 12:22 am

boffer wrote:I'm beginning to think that one half of our gardening pleasure comes from the daydreaming/planning stage!

Absolutely. If I had to live with what is instead of what I plan to create I doubt I could get through a day! My Beautiful Potager (next year) Icon_biggrin

And I love the potager. I decided to plant now and plan later after I get a feel for things. Now I have someone to steal from!

Mirjam 7/21/2010, 6:01 am

Nice design! I wish I had that much space to work with....oh, wait, I have the space, but my husband won't let me turn the whole garden upside down! My Beautiful Potager (next year) Icon_biggrin

dstubbs 7/21/2010, 7:21 am

That looks amazing! Can't wait to see pictures when you get it up and running.

Retired Member 1 7/21/2010, 11:29 am

WOW! Beautiful design. Hmm -- I had planned on redoing my beds for this coming year and my area is just a tad larger than yours.... Mind if I "borrow a cup of garden"? My Beautiful Potager (next year) Icon_biggrin

MsMinchin 7/21/2010, 8:11 pm

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Feel free to steal the design Smile

Boffer has good points! I intentionally made the paths two feet wide because my current 3 ft paths are more space than we need, though it is definitely a good idea to take path width and plant encroachment into consideration.

Also I will rethink the configuration if we go with a birdbath in the center. I might work in enough space between the boxes for a stepping stone or two to make it easier to reach.

I can't show it in this picture but I'm planning to play with the height a little too, making sections of the bed double high, and there will be trellises along the outer edges of the beds on the sides for tomatoes, cukes and melons.

martha 7/21/2010, 9:53 pm

Wow, but wow! I want to figure out how you did this design thing! I can see that I gave up way too soon using the same garden planner from Gardener's Supply!

boffer 7/21/2010, 10:22 pm

My wife is big on having some height in the gardens. She would give you an A for the walk-through trellises. She would give you an A+ if there was a rooster on top of one of them for good luck!

LaFee 7/22/2010, 1:56 am

That's really, really beautiful -- I hope you are able to realize it.

Mirjam and I can tell you that that is truly a classic European potager design (which are gorgeous) -- they tend to not use raised beds, but then the big chateaux have crews of dozens of young people (with good backs and knees!) to till, hoe, weed, prune, etc. Just last week, I saw three young men on their hands and knees trimming a dwarf boxwood hedge WITH SCISSORS. Yike. Gorgeous and perfectly square, but I'm content to look at theirs, and let my hedges go crazy!

Here's a link to one of the most famous chateau potagers in northern France...thought you might like to see how well your design stacks up against royalty:

The potager at Chateau de Villandry

So see -- they use squares (but they freehand without dividers!) -- if you click to the Download page, you can even use a photo you like as a wallpaper on your computer.

Dietryin 7/22/2010, 12:13 pm

Love the garden!

Below is a link for a garden planning web site I joined this year. It has been very helpful. Not only can you plot your garden you can keep a garden log and a harvest log, and much more.

www.plangarden.com

I was think today I should start planning for next year. You have inspired me to start today!

MsMinchin 7/22/2010, 9:09 pm

Thanks everyone!
Martha lol you can't do this with the gardener's supply tool, I just copied and pasted their pictures into excel. Yes I'm very nerdy like that.
Dietryin - it would have been so much easier if I had used that plan garden tool! I had a free trial but it expired before I really got in to use it. I'll have to try it again. Thanks for the endorsement LaFee Wink

, I love the pictures of the potager at Villandry!

MsMinchin 7/2/2011, 12:46 pm

Hi everybody,

I came back to update you all on my SFG Potager garden.
First I modified the plans a little:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Garden11

But I didn't really stick to those plans either. Here's the finished product:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0910

Here's what it looked like the year before:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Yeartw10

And here's what it was the first year:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) 1year_10

And now more beauty shots:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0911

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0912

The pathways are about 2.5 feet wide:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0913

I moved the pyramid to a shady corner for lettuce and broccoli growing, but it's really too hard to work across the 4-foot base so I'll be moving it next year. I'm planning to build 2-foot wide boxes in the back instead.
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0914

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0914

The other back corner square is a children's garden for my boys. We're growing mini pumpkins on a teepee, small sunflowers and nasturtiums.
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0915

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0915

We put in a raspberry bed behind the house (shown with planting in progress):
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_1010

And two rain barrels, but i need 2 more!
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0916

And I planted lavender in front:
My Beautiful Potager (next year) Img_0917

Uprooted 7/2/2011, 1:00 pm

MsMinchin, this is beautiful -- thanks so much for sharing!

**Kelejan** 7/2/2011, 1:04 pm

Chopper wrote:
boffer wrote:I'm beginning to think that one half of our gardening pleasure comes from the daydreaming/planning stage!

Absolutely. If I had to live with what is instead of what I plan to create I doubt I could get through a day! And I love the potager. I decided to plant now and plan later after I get a feel for things. Now I have someone to steal from!

Stealing ideas in SFG is the sincerest form of flattery.

**Furbalsmom** 7/3/2011, 2:46 pm

Lovely, MsMinchin

I am absolutely in awe of the final result.

**camprn** 7/3/2011, 3:52 pm

SWEEEEEET! Very Happy

Where'd you get that handsome rain barrel :?:

Goosegirl 7/4/2011, 10:42 am

MsMinchin wrote:Thanks everyone!
Martha lol you can't do this with the gardener's supply tool, I just copied and pasted their pictures into excel. Yes I'm very nerdy like that.

That is exactly what I did for my garden plan - plus a few extra pics I copied from ClipArt. Between the 2 I ended up with a nice garden plant that even I couldn't mess up!

GG

mamamagoo 7/4/2011, 2:16 pm

What a beautiful garden Smile

tinakocher2000 7/11/2011, 8:26 am

Love the garden! Rethinking mine now.... I did have plans to expand next year anyway. I have a seating area in mine as well. It has become a regular hang out spot. This year is a 16 x 16 area, but can enclose (horrible deer problems) a 16 x 32 area all together... hmmmm...

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Relaxa11

My Beautiful Potager (next year) Relaxa11

This was SEVERAL weeks ago, you probably can't see the table and chairs for the squash and zucchini anymore rofl

Where did you say you got your little plant pictures from? One other question... What are the red things surrounding your tomatoes? I have not seen anything like that before.

HouseofWool 7/11/2011, 10:13 am

tinakocher2000 wrote:One other question... What are the red things surrounding your tomatoes? I have not seen anything like that before.

I was going to ask about them as well... What is their purpose?

boffer 7/11/2011, 10:22 am

The red things are tomato trays

http://www.amazon.com/Dalen-Prod-AU-16R-Automator-Tomato/dp/B000RNH3UK

Product Description
Tomato watering tray increases tomato harvests by 40% or more. Protects all vine crops against droughts and brings earlier, tastier harvests. Reflects red light back to plants which helps stimulate growth. Split tray design for easy installation around plant stem.

madnicmom 7/11/2011, 7:40 pm

Absolutely beautiful garden! Lots of love went into that one!

MsMinchin 7/19/2011, 11:57 pm

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the support! I got the rain barrrels through a local program that subsidized the cost a bit, from new england rain barrel company www.nerainbarrel.com. I don't think they ship right now, but it's pretty cool that they recycle used food barrels. Another poster got rain barrels from http://www.epcontainers.net/ and I might order some there too.

The tomato trays are pretty cool, I don't have to mulch and it helps with watering.

My garden ended up being 18 x20 feet which I forgot to report Smile

TinaKocher2000 I love your garden and your fence! Did you use the quikcrete forms for planters (the tube thingies)? that is a cool idea.
I got the plant pictures from Gardeners supply website. They have a garden design tool at http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

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