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potager garden

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Potager Garden Layout

The potager kitchen garden (pronounced poe-ta-zhay), initially developed by French monks, became popular in the 16th century in France. The potager was quite widespread, from large chateaus to the common farmyard. Strictly speaking, the potager is really just a kitchen garden, but it now often means a decorative vegetable garden. The traditional potager garden contains symmetrical, geometrical garden beds, with the vegetables planted in patterns or groups rather than in rows, often with flowers, herbs and fruit intermingled.

On this page, you will find some pictures of famous potager gardens and some garden plans based on these potagers. I hope this inspires you to create your own kitchen garden.

Potager picture credit: denisema4 on Flickr.

Table of Contents

  1. A Productive Potager Garden
  2. Potager Gardens at Château Villandry
  3. Villandry Potagers
  4. Potager Garden Layout 1
  5. Potager Garden Layout 2
  6. Potager Garden Layout 3
  7. Potager Garden Layouts 4 and 5
  8. More Ideas for a Fall / Autumn Vegetable Garden
  9. Potager Garden Layout 6
  10. Château de Gruyère Gardens, Switzerland
  11. Potager Garden Layouts 7 and 8
  14. Software to plan your potager garden layout - free trial
  15. Colors and Textures in a Potager Garden
  16. More Potager Pictures
  17. Book: The Garden Lover's Guide to France
  18. More Vegetable Garden Layouts
  19. Choosing what to plant in your potager
  20. Have you ever tried a potager garden design?

A Productive Potager Garden

Summer Potager Style Garden with Freshly Harvested Vegetables in Wooden Trug, Norfolk, UK
Summer Potager...
Gary Smith
Buy This at Allposters.com

Potager Gardens at Château Villandry

potager garden layoutThe potager gardens at Château Villandry, France, are a spectacular example of some of different garden layouts available for a large scale potager. There are nine different potager garden layouts at Villandry, all the same size, surrounded by a small fence. These potagers can each by symmetrically divided into four quarters. Each garden bed within the potager is bordered by short hedges.

Picture credit: cookipediachef on flickr.


On this page, I have used some vegetable garden planning software to create potager garden layouts based on these potagers at Villandy and another garden, but on a much smaller scale, more suitable for an ordinary backyard.

The potagers at Château Villandry are bordered by low hedges, but in your own potager, you could use a border of flowers (eg marigolds), herbs (eg parsley), another vegetable (eg lettuce) or no border at all.

See more pictures of the Château Villandry and its gardens.

Villandry Potagers

An aerial view of the garden layouts

If you use the zoom in button (+) below the arrows on the top left of the map, you can see the nine Villandry potager gardens arranged in a 3 x 3 square below the marker and slightly to the left.

The potager garden layouts pictured below were all produced using this useful garden planning software.

Potager Garden Layout 1

One of the 9 Villandry potager gardens

potager garden 1

Picture credit: caspermoller on flickr

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Potager Garden Layout 2

Another of the 9 Villandry potager gardens

potager garden plan 2

Picture credit: Joe Shlabotnik on Flickr

potager garden layout 2

Potager Garden Layout 3

One quarter of one of the 9 Villandry potager gardens

potager garden plan

Photo credit: ell brown on flickr

potager garden layout 3

(Contains cucumbers, peppers (capsicums), lettuces, tomatoes, carrots, beans, sweetcorn, flowers)

Potager Garden Layouts 4 and 5

One quarter of one of the 9 Villandry potager gardens

potager garden plan 4

Photo courtesy of ell brown on Flickr

Summer Potager Plan

potager garden layout 4

(Contains basil, chives, lettuces (2 varieties) oregano, parsley, peppers, summer squash, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes and a dwarf apple tree)

Fall / Winter Potager Plan

Fall - Winter potager garden layout

(Contains broad beans, beetroots, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, leeks, peas, spinach, swiss chard (silver beet), turnips and a dwarf apple tree in the center.)

More Ideas for a Fall / Autumn Vegetable Garden

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Potager Garden Layout 6

Château du Grand Jardin, Joinville, Haute-Marne

Château du Grand Jardin

Picture courtesy of A3X on flickr

potager garden layout 6

(Contains sweet corn, lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, chives, beetroot, parsley, Swiss chard, phacelia (a flowering plant which attracts bees and other beneficial insects) and rhubarb in the center.)

Château de Gruyère Gardens, Switzerland

An aerial view of the garden layouts

If you use the zoom in button (+) below the arrows on the top left of the map, you can see the gardens of Chateau de Gruyere just to the right of the marker.

Potager Garden Layouts 7 and 8

Château de Gruyère, Switerland

Château de Gruyère garden, Switerland

Picture courtesy of pratensis on flickr

Left-most garden bed in the picture

Château de Gruyère garden design potager

(Contains cornflower, aubergine (eggplant), pepper (capsicum), sweetcorn, tomato, basil, parsley, sage, oregano, echinacea, cosmos)

Middle garden bed

Château de Gruyère, Suisse potager2

(Contains poached egg plant, black currant, blueberry, swiss chard (silver beet), letuce, carrot, celery, rhubarb, cosmos)

Software to plan your potager garden layout - free trial

Colors and Textures in a Potager Garden

Potager Garden, Devon, UK
Potager Garden,...
Geoff Kidd
Buy This at Allposters.com

More Potager Pictures

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture

Potager pictures courtesy of sgustin78, alison e dunn, museumdetoulouse, NomadicLass, romytetue, meeeeuh out !, Lomyx, RuTemple, museumdetoulouse on flickr

IMG_1069 by sgustin78
potager early am by alison e dunn
themamai_paillage by museumdetoulouse
Villandry by sgustin78
Jardin potager du château de Castelnaud by romytetue
IMG_1074 by sgustin78
IMG_1060 by sgustin78
Azay-le-Rideau by @lain G
17e siècle - Maison paysanne d'Eggiwil (BE) - Switzerland by Lomyx
Jardin des Plantes - "Teaching Soup-garden" by RuTemple
Jardins du Muséum de Toulouse by museumdetoulouse
curated content from Flickr

Book: The Garden Lover's Guide to France

The Garden Lover's Guide to France (Garden Lover's Guides to)

The Garden Lover's Guide to France (Garden Lover's Guides to)

by: Patrick Taylor

Amazon Price: $19.85 (as of 06/04/2012)Buy Now

More Vegetable Garden Layouts

Check out these pages for more potager layouts and types of vegetable gardens

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Choosing what to plant in your potager

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Have you ever tried a potager garden design?

Leave your green thumb print here to let me know you dropped by

  • casquid May 31, 2012 @ 9:09 am | delete
    Remarkable footage of layouts to use. Too bad, there isn't enough room in my backyard to turn around without bumping into something. I do my gardening in pots and Topsy Turvy's. Great work on the lens!
  • Joanne May 6, 2012 @ 9:27 am | delete
    Hi I'm in the planning stage have always had standard prairie garden but I'm looking at making rasised beds this year so I don't have to crawl to weed anymore.Love the look of potager gardens I have lots of room but will need to build wind break of some kind. Thanks for pictures and infor. I'll keep sketching.
  • ---Chazz Apr 20, 2012 @ 9:00 pm | delete
    I wish I had the room to do this. Hi Five -- I love the designs you presented.
  • gatornic15 Apr 9, 2012 @ 7:39 pm | delete
    These are some beautiful gardens. I have not tried it myself...wish I had the room to.
  • Hope Apr 9, 2012 @ 11:24 am | delete
    Gorgeous! Thank you!
  • StaCslns Mar 15, 2012 @ 8:55 am | delete
    Oh my goodness! These are so beautiful! I never knew about them! Super lens!
  • NinaLouder Mar 12, 2012 @ 9:54 am | delete
    So beautiful. I wish my garden looked like that.
  • Rosaquid Mar 5, 2012 @ 8:22 pm | delete
    Great lens! I enjoyed the info and the beautiful, informative illustrations.
  • mihgasper Mar 4, 2012 @ 11:32 am | delete
    They look astonishing! Thumbs up!
  • RenaissanceWoman2010 Jan 28, 2012 @ 2:34 pm | delete
    These potager gardens are gorgeous. This is the Art of Gardening, for sure. Thanks for the link to the free garden planning software trial. Appreciated.
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