Potager
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Translated literally from French, potage means a soup of broth with vegetables. For Europeans, le potager has come to mean simply a vegetable garden. But the term potager carries with it a much deeper historical tradition. For the most part, monks and nuns grew their own food, herbs, and medicines. Within small geometric plots, useful herbs, vegetables, and perhaps some flowers for the chapel altar were grown year-round for daily use. Monastery gardens were more than vegetable gardens, however; they were also used a sites for meditation and prayer.
A potager, or kitchen garden as Americans like to call it, is a year-round garden whose purpose is to supply the kitchen with fresh vegetables and herbs on a daily basis.
It can be near the kitchen door in a suburban yard, or it can be the central design in an urban garden.
[edit] References
- Bartley, Jennifer R. Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook. Timber Press: Portland, 2006. ISBN 978-0-88192-772-6.
