It's Easter weekend, and I don't have long to post because there is serious garden/allotment pootling to be done.
Actually it's been a bit more productive than that: yesterday I planted 3kg of Epicure potatoes (dates back to 1897, since you ask), while my trusty assistant who prefers to keep a low profile on this blog sowed three types of peas (Karina, Sugar Rae and Norli). Today I've been to the not-so-high-class store known as Wilko (which nevertheless does very cheap gardening stuff), bought 15 8ft bamboo canes destined for various jobs around the allotment, perlite, vermiculite and an agapanthus for one of the raised beds in the garden.
It's now raining, hence the pootle hiatus and the chance to type. And to foment further plans for the two beds in my garden I haven't yet got around to renovating. At the moment I am thinking potager, for one of them at least. Unfortunately I can't find a good web resource in English that explains what a potager is, but if you have rudimentary French this Wikipedia page should be enough to fill you in. It would be a way of creating an area of the garden for herbs and salads that could be picked and eaten immediately, while still being attractive. For the moment, though, those plans are on hold because the spring bulbs on that patch are so gorgeous at the moment that I can't bear to dig them up.
The term would be "kitchen garden"
Try Linkname: Potager Vegetable Garden
URL:
http://www.cookingisfun.ie/gardens/potagervegetablegarden.htm
and the English version of the Hungarian site
Linkname: * Potager - (Gardening): Definition
URL: http://en.mimi.hu/gardening/potager.html
Posted by: weed | March 27, 2005 at 09:53 PM
Thanks for those links weed - very useful.
I guess the distinguishing feature of the potager is the way the vegetables and herbs are chosen for their ornamental value as well as their tastiness. It also tends towards the formal, when compared to the classic English kitchen garden - low box hedges arranged in symmetrical shapes surrounding herbs and vegetables in contrating colours.
Posted by: Jane Perrone | March 29, 2005 at 05:14 PM
'WIKO'S'my favourite garden 'center'
Posted by: andrewS | March 30, 2005 at 07:20 PM