"Of Vegetables and Art - Part Two"
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:27PM Last week I began this topic by describing both the romantic and formal potager (French Ornamental Vegetable Garden) and why I am so extremely passionate about this garden style. Well I tried to get a lot more of this topic down last week but my website just wouldn't let me! My sites health is not the best - how do you fertilise the ether? Well let's begin and just hope for the best....
"Vegetables are a work of art, the vibrant, multi-coloured stems of 'rainbow' chard, the tall, feathery tassels of sweet corn waving in the wind, bright red chillies ripening on the bush. Yet increasing the biodiversity of your plot with flowers, herbs and fruit attracts bees and increases beneficial associations enhancing both the gourmet's palate and the garden artist's palette - voila!
Sun Kings, Monks and Priests - the formal potager
There is a great deal of debate in France about the origins of such garden artistry. Medieval Monks used a cross to divide their monastery gardens into four, with one quadrant for vegetables and one for fruit, a third quadrant was set aside to grow medicinal herbs and the final quarter was for flowers destined for the altar.
The parish priest was given a small house with a garden attached where he would grow herbs, fruit and vegetables to supplement his meagre wage. His parishioners also provided him with cuttings of flowers to decorate the church which were usually planted in a riotous way in amongst everything else.
Today, French allotments as well as so many French gardens, carry on these traditions. By the end of the growing season they are a riot of dahlias, hollyhocks and apples amongst rows of vegetables.
The Palace of Versailles to the south of Paris, contains one of the best examples of the French formal potager style. The King's Vegetable garden or le potager du Roi was begun by the Sun King, Louis XIV in 1678. It is set out in a symmetrical manner with a central water feature. Vegetables, herbs and flowers all grow together flanked by walls of espaliered fruit trees.
The two and a half acre vegetable garden at Chateau Villandry in the Loire Valley is the world's most famous formal potager. It is divided into nine squares with 100,000 vegetable seedlings planted each year to form intricate patterns or parterres. Plantings of box, pear trees and standard roses all help to unify this garden extravaganza where vegetable growing has truly become art."
........So, next week..... from London and France to the backyards of Australia - how to create a garden that is both productive and beautiful.
PS In 2005 Frances and I spent a month in France filming Versailles and Villandry as well as private gardens and allotments - it was the greatest adventure that this gardener has ever had - so much so, that I cried as we taxied out of Charles de Gaulle airport....
Au revoir!
The Extreme Gardener
Reader Comments (4)
I can see why you're so fond of French ornamental vegetable gardens. My mom has one but it's just a small vegetable garden. I'm not sure though if you can consider it a French garden.
Hello Lance,
Well, does your mom wear a beret while IN the garden?
Really, it's just about being inspired by an idea and running with it..... as simple as growing some flowers amongst the vegetables or it can be as complex as parterres, and espaliers.
Size doesn't matter...... vive le vegetable!
Paul "the extreme gardener!"
PS Hope you enjoyed reading the blogs, I try to add a new one each week.... in between working as a gardener and managing a garden retail business.
Hmmm... I'm never good at maintaining gardens, whether its full of flowers or vegetables but I love looking at lovely gardens. Will you be posting pictures of your garden someday?
Hi Natasha,
Gardeners are always so humble and self critical of their own gardens...... I'm sure you have a lovely garden! I'll try to post photos in the future (when I work out how to do it! - my New Years resolution).
Two tips from me in maintaining gardens: do a little bit of work often and plant shrubs (even small ones) that cover the ground thus reducing weeding. Maybe even clip a shape or two to give the garden order.
Paul (still) the extreme gardener.