How to Design a Potager Garden (with Pictures) (2024)

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Co-authored byLauren Kurtz

Last Updated: July 25, 2022

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   Choose the right location. Ideally, a potager garden should be visible from your window so that you can enjoy it even while indoors. It should also be close to your home (rather than on the far end of the yard) so that it is convenient and easily accessible.^[2]

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   Ensure that the location gets enough sunlight. Most plants need 6 to 8 hours of sunlight to flourish. If the "ideal location" does not get enough sunlight, then you will need to stick with a less-traditional potager garden, and plant it elsewhere. After all, if the plants don't get much sunlight, you won't have much of a garden.

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   Have some sort of enclosure. An enclosure is an important element of a potager garden because it helps reign it in. You can have a natural enclosure, such as boxwood, climbing plants, or raspberries. You can also have an unnatural one, such as part of a fence or your house wall.^[3]

   • An enclosure will also help keep hungry animals from munching on your plants.
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   Plan to raise your garden in raised beds. Most gardens don't have the right type of soil for growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables, unless your soil has been amended. Raised garden beds are the perfect solution for this. You can create simple gardening mounds. You can also build large planters out of wood or brick, and then fill them with soil instead. Keep the raised garden beds no bigger than 4 feet (1.2 meters). This way, you can easily reach the center when harvesting.^[4]

   • You will need to fill the raised garden beds with well-drained loamy soil, especially if you are growing vegetables.^[5]
   • Your garden beds don't have to be rectangular or square. They can be oval, round, or even L-shaped.^[6]
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   Be sure to add pathways between the garden beds. This will allow you to go through your garden without trampling your fruits, herbs, and vegetables. Something around 3 feet (0.91 meters) wide would be ideal. This way, you can push a wheel barrow down for transporting your harvest, soil, mulching, etc.^[7]

   • Your pathways can be made from anything you want, including: bark, bricks, gravel, or stepping stones.^[8]
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   See Also

   How to Make a Garden Plan10 Basic Elements of Garden DesignPlanning Garden Layout – 9 Ideas for the Perfect Garden!Garden Plans for 4 x 4 Beds {Sample Layouts for Vegetable Gardens}

   Consider adding some ornaments. Items such as trellises, benches, garden orbs, and birdbaths will help add color to your garden during the winter months when hardly anything grows. You can also add some ornamental evergreens, such as artfully-trimmed boxwood shrubs or topiaries, to your garden as well. This way, there will be at least something green in your garden when everything else has died.^[9]

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   Have a focal point. This is where you can get really creative. The focal point is the center of your garden. It can be as simple as four raised garden beds, to as ornate as a fountain or a fruit tree.

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   Consider the overall pattern and layout. Most potager gardens are laid out in a grid-like pattern with four raised garden beds. You don't have to design yours this way, however; you can get creative. Popular garden patterns include spirals and wagon wheels.^[10]

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   Choose a variety of vegetables. Vegetables are great not only for filling your tummy, but also for adding color to your garden. Start with vegetables that you eat most often, then add some new ones as well. Instead of going with just the standard varieties, consider adding some non-standard ones as well, such as purple broccoli, white pumpkin, or striped tomato.^[11]

   • Beans and peas are vertical growers and great for adding height to your garden.
   • Fleshy fruits and vegetables, such as peppers, pumpkins, squashes, and tomatoes, are great for adding splashes of color to your garden.
   • Don't forget the salads. Lettuce, kale, and spinach will add not only texture, but also some color (depending on the variety.
   • Root veggies, such as carrots, potatoes, and radishes, don't add much color to your garden, but are still worth it at harvest time.
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   Use herbs to add color and texture. Herbs not only add flavor to your food, but some also put forth beautiful flowers as well. Grow herbs that you use often in your cooking. If you don't use many, great choices include: basil, cilantro/coriander, mint, oregano, and parsley.^[12]

   • Try some large, shrubby herbs as well, such as lavender and rosemary.
   • Some herbs are aggressive growers and an easily overgrow your garden if you are not careful. It might be a good idea to rein these in with metal borders or plant them separately.
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   Add color and attract pollinators with flowers. Flowers are a key feature in a potager garden. They add color and attract pollinators for your fruits, herbs, and vegetables.^[13] Choose flowers that bloom at different times during the year. This way, there will always be some color in your garden.

   • Add some edible flowers, such as borage, chamomile, lavender, marigold, rose, and violet.^[14]
   • Consider some climbing flowers as well. They are a great way to add color to your garden walls. Great choices include roses, morning glories, and sweet peas.^[15]
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   Don't forget to add some vertical growers. When designing gardens, most people tend to focus only what's on the ground. This leads to a very "low" garden. You can make your garden look larger and more interesting by adding vertical growers. Vertical growers include small fruit trees, climbing plants, and large shrubs. They also include plants that needs supports, such as tepees, towers, and trellises.^[16]

   • Great shrubs include berry shrubs, such as blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and elder berry.
   • There are lots of small varieties of trees suitable for small gardens, including lemon and lime.
   • Morning glory, rose, and sweet pea make great climbing plants.
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   Select plants that will grow well in your climate zone. Plants that thrive in your climate will be easier to grow and will provide better crops. Most local nurseries will carry plants that can grow in your location, but be sure to do research about your local climate before purchasing plants or seeds.

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   Start with at least four garden beds. A typical potager garden will have at least four garden beds arranged in a grid-like pattern, with paths in between. Sketch out four raised garden beds on a sheet of paper, then use the steps below to get some design ideas.

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   Add borders and color with flowers. Fill the center of your garden bed with a focal fruit or vegetable, then plant flowers all around them. For example, you could plant a row of cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli down the center of your planter, then add short, filler plants around the border, such as alyssum, violets, or pansies.^[17]

   • You don't have to plant in straight rows. Try diagonals, zigzags, spirals, or rings.^[18]
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   Group things together by color. This will make your garden look neater and more harmonious. For example, you could plant orange/yellow heirloom tomatoes and yellow squash in the same bed, along with some marigolds. You could also plant violets and lavender alongside eggplants and purple cabbage.^[19]

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   See Also

   Design a Garden Layout: A Step by Step Guide to Planning Your Dream Landscape

   Experiment with contrasting colors and textures instead. If harmony and organization don't appeal to you, try contrast schemes instead. Plant oranges and yellows together. Play around with round and jagged shapes, fuzzy and shiny, frilled and lacy. For example:^[20]

   • Lacy, feathery carrot leaves work great alongside the frilly leaves of lettuce and kale.
   • Thin and straight chives work well alongside soft, oval, and fuzzy sage.
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   Keep the seasons in mind. Don't put all of your June-blooming plants in one planter, and your May-blooming plants in another. If you do that, you will end up with bare patches in your garden. Instead, put different types of plants together in the same planter. This way, there will always be something growing.^[21]

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   Use vertical plants on your garden walls. A potager garden needs an enclosure. Unless you already have a natural enclosure, such as a shrub, your will likely be stuck with a fence or house wall. This won't be very interesting to look at. Instead, plant some of your vertical growers (such as beans, berry shrubs, small fruit trees, or climbing roses) along your wall or fence.

   • Don't forget about the spaces at the base of your fruit trees. Plant some strawberries, herbs, or flowers at their base.^[22]

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