Patricia Fox’s modern take on the potager, ‘Freshly Prepped’, went down a storm at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year. The designer decided to create a kitchen garden (which was also a kitchen in a garden), where every single plant was edible. But that wasn’t enough – this isn’t just a working veg plot – it’s a hot veg plot, tuned to perfection using contrasting textures, colours and patterns.
This garden room makes the very best use of the tiny space available by growing not just in every nook and cranny, but also vertically. To do this, Patricia and her team at Aralia Garden Design had to re-think the way veg is grown.
Most of the crops in this garden are grown on a soil-less hydroponic green wall system. The wall took up a very tiny amount of space, which meant more room for entertaining in the garden. And watering was done via a pump, for ten minutes each day.
There are no straight rows of veg here, or any sign of freshly tilled soil. But if you look closely, the garden relies heavily on geometric designs and contrasts, which is a modern interpretation of the principles of the potager.
And once Patricia had run out of wall space, she decided that the only way was up, and so created an arching structure over the garden for growing climbing vegetables such as runner beans.
if you’re feeling inspired by Aralia’s work, skip over to their website.
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