Potager loosely means “kitchen garden” in French. However, directly translated it means “for the pot” as in, soup. I wanted to create a design that felt organic and natural, but also structured. The idea of the design reminded me of what I love seeing in real gardens – wild nature mixed with balance and symmetry.
The first few years at the School House we tried a traditional garden with long rows of vegetables because that is what gardens look like where we are from. It was very time consuming and too large for us to maintain.
As I started seeing more cottagey gardens on our travels (above left from Charleston, right from Mount Vernon, below from Williamsburg), I became drawn to these smaller-scaled gardens with herbs and flowers that were planted in a more structured pleasing way. Ok, maybe these photos aren’t that small-scaled but still inspiring.
The purpose of these gardens were utilitarian, yes, but also the arrangement was part of the art – tidy squares, rows, height and shapes. Since we are weekend gardeners, we discovered we needed more to do in the garden besides weed, water and harvest. I wanted to focus on creating a garden that was just a pleasure to spend time in.
We create four squares that have lavender on the exterior borders with rosemary anchoring the corner. Each box has a center trellis with various things like cherrie tomatoes or sweet peas growing, then lettuces, rosemary, thyme, chives and oregano on the interior borders. We chose not to do raised boxes because we wanted it to feel more at home in the country, and we have great quality dirt. I also wanted it to be accessible, natural and a bit wild, even though it is structured.
They are a breeze to keep weed free. The watering – we are still working on. But they have been the perfect Potager solution for us – a space to constantly harvest from in the form of herbs for dinner, so much aromatic lavender that we constantly run our fingers through and a visual pleasure for us to enjoy 10 months out of the year.
I sketched this design by hand – climbing thyme intertwined, and rosemary sprigs creating lines to give the design structure. It is printed on a heavy slub cotton with a nubby linen texture. Potager is also available in wallpaper. The first colorway we printed for fabric and wallpaper is our classic English Blue. Potager will be available this fall in a soft English Green.
Potager is currently available in :
Pillow Covers
Table Linens
Fabric by the Yard
Wallpaper
Other designs shown : Tea Leaf, Mae & Dahlia, all available here.
