In Search of the American Potager

Much of my garden plant placement has been an exercise in trial and error. I place plants in one bed one year and opt to plant the same type in another location the next year. Some years I focus on flowers, other years I focus more on vegetables. My herb garden alone has made a move from one location to another and I am still contemplating yet another move to location number 3! I am always reevaluating the best ways to use my space, and with a mostly annual plant type garden, this is fairly easy to accomplish as annual plant life spans allow a gardener to start over in a new location on a seasonal basis. Perennial plant moves are harder and many times one has to start over from scratch. (The herbs didn't transplant well, later died, and needed to be repurchased and replanted in their new home.) Ever practical by nature, I have been searching for a design that would optimize my garden space to fit the maximum vegetables without creating overcrowding and that would give some sort of structure to my formless garden bed meanderings. 

Enter the not-so-new idea of the Potager/ Kitchen garden of early Europe. Through ancient to early modern Europe, peasants, clergy, and lords maintained their household gardens typically close to the kitchen. These kitchens fed families and were the mainstay of main a fine and simple table. These potagers became more formal through the late medieval period as monks and other clergy members developed these agricultural gardens for their specific needs. For more information about the history of the Potager garden, please read Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An America Potager Handbook by Jennifer R. Bartley. This book has been instrumental in helping me start my potager. It includes gorgeous pictures of old world and new world potagers as well as designs. In designing a potager, here are the most important elements to keep in mind:

Review your space: determine how much sun the area receives and place plants according to their sunlight needs.

1. Consider your kitchen's culinary needs: Place your potager close to your kitchen for easy access and choose plants based on what you like to cook and eat.
2. Layout: Potagers look neat and formal from a bird's eye view and repeat sequencing of plants. The key is to create a sense of unity in texture and color.
3. Enclose the garden: Traditional potagers are enclosed by a natural or man made wall to give a sense of charm and exclusivity within a garden space. I struggled with this concept due to practical purposes: how will I water the plants with an enclosure in the way. I opted not to completely enclose the area, but rather used annual flowers to create a border effect.
4. Create an edge to raised beds: Edging makes the space look neat and formal but in my garden, practical needs have outweighed aesthetic ones at this time. 
5. Counterpoint - This is the idea of using colors at opposite sides of the color wheel. I am not good at this because I tend to plant what I want, when I want and damn the consequences. Perhaps this is proof I need more structure?
6. Verticality: A tomato gardener doesn't need to be told twice. Utilize trellises and support for vining plants to increase the visual appeal.
7. Winter uses: I need to contemplate my seasonal plantings. I like to let my beds go fallow for a couple of months during winter so I can recharge my batteries.  My potager only has annual plants at this time so I need to reconsider the winter. (Bartley 97-118)

Here are the step to our first Potager (we started process in March so we could plant in early April):

Amending the soil: we used 3 bags of compost and 3 bags of chicken manure for  ~150 sq  ft

Roto-tilling the soil, crunching up weeds and mixing in amendments

Ready for placement of stones in new pattern

Stones placed, all pieces reused from previous bed configuration.

Round 1 of the planting included beets, kale, sunflowers, green beans and arugula from seed, San Marzano tomato, pepper, and annual flower seedlings. Round 2 will include more tomato and pepper seedlings. Round 3 will include tomato and pepper seedlings and more beets from seed.

Overview of warm season potager

Annual flower edging: marigolds and zinnias

San Marzano tomatoes and basil in bloom

I am enjoying the potager design since it allows me to stagger planting, maximize square footage, experiment with new crops, and rotate crops between the cool and warm seasons. I plan to potagerize the three beds on the east side of my garden and use one side for early spring vegetables (cool season) and the other for late spring/ summer vegetables (warm season). I plan to create a greater sense of enclosure by planting roses on the north side of the bed, but I do not want to start that project until the property fence height has been increased (for more privacy). Lastly, my herb garden is going to need some editing and revision to get it up to potager standards. I keep gaining more form and function in the garden thanks to potager ideals; I look forward to seeing the plants filling in the spaces and producing copious amounts of vegetables for a bountiful summer table.

Trending in the Garden 2013

I may be a bit late in posting trends for 2013, but I figured since the active portion gardening season starts in spring, my timing is still relevant. I have been researching gardening trends for the year and have organized them in to three main themes. As with most things under the sun, none of these are new, but rather, many gardening resources and individuals are focusing on these topics.

1. The Sensory Experience in the Garden

Double Delight roses

The sensory experience of a Garden has become tantamount. Many gardeners are focusing on adding fragrant flowers, plants that bring vivid color year round, and use of textures that are delightful to the touch (and also release an enchanting scent). Striking variegated leaves are big this season as they provide pops of color when blooms are scarce. My favorite variegated plant is the Japanese mock orange hedge. I love the pale mint leaves with a creamy edging. The small flowers bloom February through April and are akin to citrus flowers. Gardeners are opting for fragrant flowers over minimally fragrant ones. Roses are following this trend; garden centers and nurseries are stocking more fragrant types of rose such as Peace, Mr. Lincoln, and Honey Perfume. Older, heirloom roses are popular again as well. My favorite heavily scented flowers are jasmine, sweet peas, and of course, roses. Children’s sensory gardens are now in vogue; check your local botanical garden or arboretum for potential offerings. These gardens focus on visual, scent, texture, and taste cues to get children excited about learning where food comes from and the ecology of land stewardship. Creating an herb garden (indoor or outdoor) with kids is a fun home activity to get them interested in plants.

Herbs bring sensory elements to the garden.

2. Urban Farming

Another main theme of 2013 gardening is the idea of creating and maintaining an urban farm in one’s backyard that gives the home owner a degree of self-sufficiency in bringing nutritious food to the table. This movement focuses on more intensive gardening methods (more production per square foot), raising farm type animals (mainly chickens for eggs, but rabbits, goats, and bee keeping are becoming more common), and use of strictly organic methods of growing food. In my mind, there is still a debate to be had between the labels of an urban farm versus urban garden. I think that using the label farm is a bit too ambitious for even most seasoned backyard gardeners and doesn’t represent the way the majority of American gardeners operate. But that is a debate for a later blog post. More importantly, I am very excited about the renewed interest in potager gardening, the design of esthetically pleasing, self-sufficient edible gardens that have their roots (pun intended) in early Mediterranean Europe. Again, more to come in a later blog post.

Flowers not lawns!

3. Ecological Gardening Design and Practices

Ecological practices will continue to influence garden design with a focus on planting native species to support native wildlife, planting of gardens that support bee and butterfly populations, and drought tolerant landscape design for dry areas. Meadows will be replacing lawns, growing heirloom plants and collecting heirloom seeds will pick up steam, and organic methods of pest control, soil enrichment, water collection, and composting should spread. I ditched my lawn years ago and now happily grow fruit trees, wildflowers, artichokes and squash in its place. I am finishing the organic soil amendment of my vegetable beds (with Hubby’s help, of course) with compost and pasteurized chicken manure. I have a pie in the sky dream of building a rain water collection system, but that will have to wait until more immediate needs are met (primarily the spring planting).  

I am anticipating a wonderful growing season this spring especially if the lovely pre-spring weather is an indicator of the future. Daylight savings is already a blessing in allowing me some week-day time in the garden. Did I miss anything? What is trending in your garden for 2013?

Misadventures in Real Estate

As some of you already know, Hubby and I placed our home on the market with the intent to move to North County. I’ve never had a house on the MLS before and boy is it ever eye-opening! In the space of about a month and a half, we’ve had close to 40 showings, 1 open house, and one offer.

Things I have learned in the process:

# 1 Low house inventory is causing frustration on both the buying and selling sides.

Renovated kitchen and property panorama

San Diego County has a smaller number of homes for sale than the historic data indicates. Consequently, buyers are vying for a smaller pool of homes that may or may not meet their must-have criteria. Buying realtors are attempting to compensate by showing their clients a wider variety of homes in a wider variety of neighborhoods. This can sometimes lead to a disconnect between buyer wants and neighborhood reality. For instance, my home in Bay Park is standard to the neighborhood: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1200-1700 square feet interior with 7000-10,000 square foot lots, built in the 1950s or 1960s, and have small bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets. This is typical of the era the homes were built and typical to the style of home: a mid-century ranch. Many prospective buyers want a house with more modern sensibilities: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a master suite, larger bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets, larger interior square footage of 2000-3000 square feet, and a smaller lot size of ~6000 square feet to reduce yard maintenance. Bay Park homes have little to none of these modern amenities, unless a given home has been updated to that standard. Buyers are frustrated that they are not finding what they want; sellers are frustrated that the buyers are not making any offers. Takeaways: Learn the basic characteristics of the neighborhoods and tailor property searches accordingly. Realize that small inventory may not allow the buyer to meet all the must-have criteria on their property wish list. Buying the right home and selling one’s home may take more time than previously expected.

#2 Home maintenance is intimidating.

Renovated Bathroom

I’ve seen the crestfallen faces of some of our prospective buyers when they see my back yard. Yes, it’s big, it’s lovely, and it’s a heck of a lot of work! Home maintenance, including yard work, is intimidating because it takes so much time and money. Prospective buyers may or may not have the experience to take care of it. Hubby and I have completed a top to bottom renovation in 2 stages and we still have maintenance items that need addressing. But our experience pales in comparison to the reality of owning a home over an extended period of time. In over 30 years of home ownership, my parents have completed multiple interior and exterior paint jobs, multiple termite repairs, roof, window, and interior/ exterior door replacement, 3 bathroom renovations, 3 sets of carpet, refinishing and replacing wood floors, 1 flood remediation, a top to bottom kitchen renovation, and yard work up to the eyeballs (I am sure I’ve missed something)! I dread home maintenance, but it is a reality of home ownership.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a maintenance free home, whether brand new or 100+ years old. Takeaways: Accept that things will break and the home owners are responsible for fixing them. Create a contingency fund to address issues.

#3 Don’t allow your assumptions to rule your reality.

As buyers and sellers, people can make all sorts of assumptions about the person or people on the other end of the deal.  For instance, buyers may assume that the sellers are desperate to sell or are under financial stress. Sellers may view a under asking price offer as proof of a buyers inability to afford the home at a higher price. These are not facts, so why do we base our decisions on them? Buying and selling a home is an emotional experience, and many times we get wrapped up in our feelings.  Takeaways: Both buyers and sellers need to take a step back, quiet their emotions, question their assumptions, and take a look at correct data in order to make and accept reasonable offers.

#4 I really wasn’t ready for this process.

I didn’t fully realize how intrusive the process of selling a house truly is. The ease of getting started belied the difficulty of the long haul. It’s weirdly creepy having strangers touring your home day after day. Prospective buyers see some of the most intimate locations of your life: the bedroom, the bathroom, peeking in closets and cabinets, and come into contact with pets. The house always has to be clean for a potential showing and yet there is no time to clean it due to back to back showing on the weekends.  We’ve had comments from buying relators that range from “the house is beautiful” to “this house is overpriced and is in poor condition.” It is hard to reconcile such disparate ideas and no matter how hard I try to ignore the negativity, the comments irk me. I admit my fault in not being ready for this process and I also admit to not coping well with major changes in my living situation.

I am still very much emotionally attached to this house and I have not found another property that meets both my and Hubby’s criteria (again, the low inventory issue). I am scared that I will not be able to recreate my vegetable garden due to location, size, and soil quality. Ultimately, we have decided to pull our house from the market. I look forward to the opportunity to “bloom where planted” and be able to continue tending my vegetables, herbs, roses, plumeria, fruit trees, camellias, fuchsia, sweet peas, nasturtiums, and all my other much loved plants.

Outdoor living - can you spot the cat?

The Death of the American Lawn Part 2

Edible front yards are the ultimate expression of the Victory Garden. They are also the most revolutionary reasons for the death of the American Lawn. While a native or xeriscape garden might be more palatable in conforming to established zoning, code and Home Owner's Association rules, the edible garden flies in the face of conformity and places food plants front and center in the neighborhood's sight lines. For some front yard gardeners, this has become a battle ground and a cause, for others, it has become a positive point of contact with their community.

At first glance, vegetable gardens have any unruly appearance if not scrupulously maintained. My tomatoes look pretty scraggly by season's end. Truthfully, my tomatoes are not what I had in mind and an ideal edible front yard candidate. In The Edible Front Yard, Ivette Soler outlines how to choose the correct edible plants to ensure an aesthetically pleasing front yards. She spends a considerable amount of time listing ornamental edibles that will be both pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the palette. Her choices focus on the form of the plant, its flowers, and how well it holds up during the space of the growing season. Hardscape is key; well planned and executed paths, growing beds, and trellises help neighbors over look wilted or spent vegetables. I loved Ms. Soler's approach and would love to build a front yard edible garden using her guidelines. However, I would only go with the front yard edible approach if I was unable to build a vegetable garden in the backyard due to space, poor orientation to the sun, or other issues. Front yard gardens must deal with scavengers, especially of the two-legged kind. I blew a fuse when some one stole plumeria cuttings. Imagine what would happen if they harvested all my fruiting vegetables? Secondly, front yard edible gardens need more constant care. If they are front and center for everyone to see, the gardener will feel obligated to keep them looking perfect. I certainly can't do perfect, especially at the end of the growing season when both the tomatoes and the gardener are spent! I have plenty of space in by backyard for my vegetables. I could turn the front yard into a victory garden, but that will cost me more time than I am willing to pay right now with a full-time job, family and friend responsibilities, and participation in gardening clubs and other hobbies.

Some municipalities find this gardening approach far too revolutionary for their tastes. Recently, Orlando authorities have threatened Jason and Jennifer Helvengston with fines of $500.00 per day until they remove their 25 by 25 front yard vegetable garden. Strangely enough, the authorities are demanding the Helvengstons install grass even though vegetable gardens have a much more carbon friendly foot print than the monoculture of a pesticide and water guzzling lawn. (Please click here for further details in the original article.) Another gardener, a blogger from Toronto, had the opposite experience. As she slowly “came out” as front yard vegetable gardener, her neighbors have accepted and liked her front yard garden. In the right social climate, front yard gardens can connect neighbors, allowing them to meet and share ideas (and food) in the more public sphere of the front yard (instead of hidden away in the backyard). I suspect that rules will continue to be broken and municipal regulations over the content and usage of front yard space will continue to be fought. But there will continue to be more acceptance, especially in a community where people want to know where there food comes from.

So garden on, front yard gardeners! I may not be able to join you at this time, but I stand with you in solidarity for the right to produce one's own food and the right to rethink and change the ideas of what the American front yard landscape should be.

The Death of the American Lawn Part 1

Have you noticed that the traditional expanse of green lawn is becoming less and less prevalent?  I look around my neighborhood and see so many options: xeriscape gardens, meadow gardens, native gardens, and countless more kinds of gardens. Homeowners are more and more looking to different options for their gardens that provide more visual appeal, are less work, and focus on water conservation. This change comes from three main influences, the ever changing demographics of the cultural landscape, expansion of conservationism into private gardens, and proliferation of growing edibles in private gardens.

In the post-war baby boom of the 1950s, home builders struggled to keep up with the demand for housing. Track homes with wide front lawns grew up overnight and ran as far as the eye could see down every block of new suburban neighborhoods. Young children treated these lawns as one gigantic play area, for these unfenced front lawns made ideal locations for baseball, football, and other lawn field based games. As infrastructure caught up with growth, public parks began to supplant the need for open front yards. The advent of “stranger danger” and other crime into areas made parents less willing to allow their kids to play in the front yards and the streets. Children retreated to the backyard or to parks with adult supervision. Bu the front yard lawns remained, static, hard to maintain, soaking up large amounts of pesticides and water needed to keep them green.

In the wake of the environmental movement, home owners started questioning the need for these  lawns, especially if their children were grown or could play in a neighborhood park. Conservationists and gardening aficionados began looking for alternatives to the traditional lawn and found inspiration in nature. They conceived native style gardens that mimicked native meadow, prairie, or chaparral ecosystems. As housing demands push developers to build on undeveloped land, they can attempt to soften the blow to wildlife by providing gardens that provide shelter and food for birds, blooms to provide nectar to local bees, and plants to help sustain beneficial insects. As my county is very susceptible to drought, xeriscape gardens are very popular. There are gorgeous succulents, cacti, grasses, salvia, palms and a host of many more options that can make a water conserving garden appear lush and green. These particular gardens bloom in late winter to early spring and are a gorgeous site to behold among the dormant background. There are a host of options in taking your garden native; if you wish to research options for your new native or xeric garden, I recommend Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn J Hadden.

Personally, I have no need for a traditional lawn. When Hubby and I moved in to the ‘ol homestead, we promptly killed the existing small piece of lawn by neglecting to water it. That area is now our mini-orchard containing plum, fig, pomegranate, lemon, and tangerine trees. The ground cover is a mixture of mulch and seasonal wildflowers. When the wildflowers die off, I convert the area to vegetable gardening overflow, growing pumpkins, crook-necked yellow squash, zucchini, artichokes, and cucumbers. We save a bundle on our water bill, so much so that our expense is only about $50.00 a month, and most of that cost is taxes and fees. The vegetable garden has been a true harbinger of the death of the American lawn, but I leave that topic for the next time, as I delve into the idea of the edible front yard.

Xeriscaped garden using agave, flax, creeping rosemary and native shrubs.

Succulent garden with tea tree and other water-wise shrubs

A friend just started this succulent and cacti garden with his favorite species.

Neighbors continue to extend their bird and bees garden that attracts local wildlife.