Contents

The Magic in Vegetable Gardening
Starting at Home
What Is a Potager?
The Threads of Inspiration
Contemporary Approaches
The Home of the Edible Landscape
Ecstasy or Anguish?

Elements of Design
Getting Started: The site; The style; Drawing up the plan
Plan of a Formal Potager
Plan of an Informal Potager
Plan of a Small, Urban Potager
Plan of a Low-Maintenance Potager
Plan of a Winter Potager
Patterns and Bed Shapes: Squares; Diamonds and triangles; Circles; Unconventional patterns; Minimal patterns
Boundaries: Man-made; Hedges; Instant boundaries
Paths: Soft paths; Mulched paths; Hard surfaces
Edges: Hard edges; Dwarf hedges
Focal Points and Features: Arches; Seats and arbours; Standard trees; Topiary; Supports; Containers

Dramatic Effects
Planting for Effect
Architectural and Dramatic Plants
Drama from Seedheads and Flowering Vegetables
Climbers: Culinary climbers; Mixing climbing flowers and shrubs with vegetables
Living Edges: Frivolous edges; Useful edges
Ground Cover: Types of ground-cover plants; Special effects with ground cover
Textured Effects: Plants with form and texture
Colorful Touches: Vegetables and herbs, Flowering edibles and edible flowers; Intermingling annuals; Mixing bulbs with edibles; Vegetables in the flower beds
Intercropping: The patterns; Practicalities; Options for intercropping; Contrasting colors; Contrasting heights; Contrasting textures
Seedling Patches: Suitable crops; Sowing and growing; Effects with CCA seedlings

Fruit as a Decorative Feature
Using Fruit Creatively: Shapely and colorful trees; Fruit in containers; Integrating fruit into the garden; Selecting fruit
Fruit as Framework: Trained fruit on boundaries; Trained fruit forms; Climbers and trailers on the boundary
Using Fruit for Ornamental Hightlights: Arches; Tunnels and walkways; Columnar effects

Potager Management
Soil Fertility: Green manuring; Mulching; Watering
Raising Good Quality Plants: Direct sowing; Sowing in seedbeds; Raising plants 'indoors'
Keeping Order
Controlling Pests and Diseases
Plant Protection: Forcing pots
Planning for Succession

A-Z Directory
Table of common and botanical names
Brassicas
Salad and leafy vegetables
Roots, bulbs, tubers and swollen stems
Podded vegetables
Fruiting and seeding vegetables
Gourds and squashes
Perennials
Herbs
Edible flowers

Glossary
Seasons
Further Reading
Suppliers
Index