Villandry part cinq

The final part in our series from the magnificent potager at Villandry looks at some of the herbs planted around the gardens.

As F&F readers already know, herbs are so very useful in a potager. Not only are they important for seasoning your veg when you come to harvest and cook it, but they also provide stunning shapes, colours and textures to make the garden even better-looking than it was before.

The gardeners at Villandry have used herbs to maximum effect in the potager, weaving feather fennel amongst stocky, thick cabbages, and planting dark-leaved basil as a foil for lighter, brighter-coloured veg.

This herb, which is so very beautiful in its own right, regardless of anything planted around it, is basil ‘Dark Opal’.

Away from the main potager is a large herb garden thick with box hedges, billowing Perovskia, lavender and gaura flowers. Some of the plants only just peep above the hedges.

So that’s it for our series on the potager at Villandry. You can re-live the series here, or view our guide to creating a stunning potager of your own.