What was once a boring lawn is now a beautiful, four-quadrant kitchen garden in the French tradition.
Stately cypress trees define the space; fruit trees and herbs provide fragrance and color; and vegetables and berries produce wonderful flavors all summer. But no garden is complete without flowers, and in a kitchen garden, edible varieties are the perfect addition.In the two hours remaining, Dinos sets to work planting violas (Viola) (figure A) adjacent to the lettuce plot. This will make it easy to grab a handful or two of these edible treats to throw in a salad when you're out picking lettuce. There are many other varieties of edible flowers that you can grow in your garden: - Carnations
- Daylilies
- Hibiscus
- Honeysuckle
- Pansies
- Nasturtiums
- Snapdragons.
Note: Just as it's de rigueur to include edible flower varieties in a jardin potager, it's also the custom to grow all salad items organically.
With all the plants in place, it's time to water in the entire area of each quadrant. Hose guides keep hose from damaging plants (figure B). As the hose is pulled through the garden, the finial guides prevent it from getting pulled into the quadrants (figure C). And, like the French ideal for every element in a garden (plants and structures), these guides are decorative as well as functional.
In just two weekends, we've turned a high-maintenance lawn into a classic jardin potager, full of style and Old World charm. The bounty of the garden will be enjoyed for years to come, and within a month, many of the plants will have started to grow and flower and be ready to harvest. Compared to the appearance of area before the creation of the garden, this garden would be a wonderful addition even without the delicious edibles it will soon produce. And like the plants in its four quadrants, the garden's beauty will grow substantially within the next three years, as previewed in figure D.
Total time spent: 16 hours.
RESOURCES :
Plants from Monrovia Growers
Monrovia Growers
Website: www.monrovia.com
Plants from Ball Horticultural Company
Various plant material
Ball Horticulture Company
Website: www.simplybeautifulgardens.com
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