The traditional kitchen garden or potager can be a central feature of a garden or landscape design of any size. As well as being a structured garden design space, they are usually a source of herbs, fruit, vegetables and flowers - an edible garden.
Kitchen gardens are often based on a repeating geometric design. Some designs are delineated by box hedges, although raised beds are becoming more popular as a way of maximising productivity.
In my mind, there is little more romantic in a garden than a well-designed kitchen garden and we have included these in the garden design for estates in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and The Chalfonts.
In many of our urban garden designs, window boxes or vertical herb and vegetable gardens have been included as mini kitchen gardens. We have included these in our garden designs in Nottingham and London, and we have a wonderfully productive herb and vegetable garden on the balcony of our design studio in Birmingham.
Kitchen gardens should be designed for year round visual appeal and productivity. Often ornamental plants and flowers are mixed with productive edible fruit and vegetables.
Vegetables, herbs and a cutting garden of flowers are very easy to grow from seed.
Check out garden Designer Alice Bowe’s planting plan from seed as featured in the Saturday Times Magazine
Alternatively, you can cheat very effectively by buying pre-grown plug plants of your vegetables and herbs for planting out.
Nothing tastes better than home-grown fruit and vegetables – and with a well designed kitchen garden, few things are more beautiful. Think about including some herbs, salad or vegetables in your new sustainable garden design.
