French Potager Gardening: Making Permaculture Productive & Pretty

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Click the video above for the audio/visual version

What we'll cover:

1. The Essence of a French Potager Garden

2. What Makes a French Potager Beautiful & Bountiful

   • 1. Aesthetic & Functional Design

     • Raised Beds & In-Ground Beds

     • Ornamental Structures, Fencing & Borders

     • Bird’s Eye Appeal

   • 2. Companion Planting with Fruits & Flowers

     • Flowers Interspersed Throughout

     • Medicinal Herbs

     • Cold Frames with Reclaimed Windows

   • 3. Permaculture & Ecological Practices Seen in Becky’s Video

3. Conclusion: Bringing French Potager Principles into Your Garden

4. FAQs

5. How Does the French Potager Apply Today?

1. The Essence of a French Potager Garden

A French potager garden isn't just a place to grow food—it's a living work of art that celebrates beauty, productivity, and sustainability. Combining formal structure with ecological principles, these gardens offer a model for actually making permaculture pretty.

Ornamental growers often criticize permaculture for being jungly-looking, and rightly so. I’ve seen many diversely planted gardens (my own included) that look ugly. Perhaps we can find a solution in the French potager, which can be both pretty and permaculture.

A lot of the inspiration for this blog comes from Becky, founder of the Seasonal Homestead’s video, Tour of 8 Amazing French Gardens. I am so grateful for having stumbled upon and lived vicariously through her as she travelled and reflected on French gardens that were practical, permaculture, and pretty.

French potager gardens often use symmetrical, formal designs with some sort of shape such as squares, circles, grids, or simply rows. Choosing what shape you intend to give your garden can be as important food production if your garden is to be properly French.

2. What Makes a French Potager Beautiful & Bountiful

In permaculture, shape is the result of your landscape. While to some extent, permaculturists can guide where water flows by building swales (drainage ditches) and excavating soil (earthworks), we do this only after first observing and “reading the landscape.” We ask,

Where does the water naturally go anyway?

How can I use contour lines in my garden design?

Where does the sun intensify throughout the day?

What structure might cast shade on my garden?

An excellent example of blending this eye for shape and food production can be found in the front cover permaculture book, Miraculous Abundance by Charles Herve-Gruyer.

1. Aesthetic & Functional Design

The book is about Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin in Normandy and how they transformed this piece of property into a permaculture paradise without the use of heavy machinery.

This brings us to a great point in the permaculture design of your own potager at home. Remember that whatever shape you end up with should also be practical, easy to work and move around, such as this image from the blog Botanic Bleu of a drone image of someone’s kitchen garden in France. You can tell, this a “real life” example of a French potager.

Raised Beds & In-Ground Beds

Often a potager is a mix of both raised beds and in-ground ones. And this is because perennials are placed in in-ground beds and cultivated annuals are in raised ones. As we shall see later on in this article, the French are not shy about using both annuals and perennials.

In more stately-looking French potagers, raised beds are often bordered with bushes such as boxwood and yew. This has always bothered me because neither boxwood or yew necessarily have an edible function. So I’m thinking you can achieve the same box-like perimeter by growing a very bushy berry and very actively pruning it.

Would this work using a blueberry as a boxwood perhaps?

Which edible berries have a very tight growth habit much like yew or boxwood?

Here’s a list of berries that you may consider as boxwood replacements if you ever want to go that route.

1. Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea)

• Growth Habit: Low-growing and dense, with a shrub-like appearance.

• Height: Typically 6-12 inches tall.

• pH: 4.5 to 5.5

2. Blueberry (Dwarf Varieties) (Vaccinium spp.)

• Growth Habit: Compact varieties such as 'Jelly Bean', 'Sunshine Blue', or 'Top Hat' have a rounded, dense form.

• Height: Typically 1-2 feet tall.

• pH: 4.0 to 5.5

3. Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

• Growth Habit: Low-growing, evergreen, and spreading habit that creates a tight, mat-like appearance.

• Height: Typically 6-12 inches tall.

• pH: 4.5 to 6.0

4. Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)

• Growth Habit: Low-growing, dense evergreen ground cover.

• Height: Typically 6-12 inches tall.

• pH: 4.0 to 5.5

5. Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus)

• Growth Habit: Compact and dense, with a rounded shrub form.

• Height: 2-4 feet tall.

• pH: 5.5 to 7.0

6. Dwarf Huckleberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides)

• Growth Habit: Dense and compact, forming a shrub-like mass.

• Height: 1-2 feet tall.

• pH: 4.0 to 5.5

Note that many of them have pH requirements that may clash with your annual vegetables.

Most annual vegetables require a pH of 6.8, while blueberries, wintergreen, and huckleberries do best in a pH of 4-5.5. Here are some blueberry varieties from a research study that categorized 15 blueberry cultivars by their tolerance to high soil pH:

• High tolerance: ‘Briteblue' (best performance)

• Intermediate tolerance: ‘Zhaixuan 9’, ‘Zhaixuan 7’, ‘Emerald’, ‘Primadonna’, ‘Powderblue’, ‘Chandler’

• Low tolerance: ‘Brightwell’, ‘Gardenblue’, ‘Prolific’, ‘Sharpblue’

• High sensitivity: ‘Legacy’, ‘Bluegold’, ‘Baldwin’, ‘Anna’ (worst performance)

For detailed insights, visit the study here.

So if you choose to use blueberries as borders, consider Briteblue so as not to do the extra work of fiddling with your pH more than needed. This is the reason that most berries, especially acidic-loving ones such as blueberries are set apart from annual vegetables and have their own dedicated low pH area.

However, I know some of our permaculture clients who very much want to achieve this formal look.

If you are heart is set on the formal garden shape, then consider doing the following:

• Use the appropriate berries above as an alternative to boxwood

• Get ready for lots of hours of pruning and

• Grow more acidic-type veggies in the interior.

Here’s a short list of more acid-loving veggies that you can pair with your acid-loving berries.

Acidic Annual Vegetables: Ideal for Low pH Soils (4.0 to 6.0)

1. Radishes (Raphanus sativus)

• Ideal pH: 4.5 to 5.5

• Description: Fast-growing root vegetable, perfect for early spring or fall planting.

2. Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

• Ideal pH: 4.5 to 5.5

• Description: Thrive in acidic soil, particularly useful for preventing scab disease.

3. Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas)

• Ideal pH: 5.0 to 6.0

• Description: Tolerant of slightly acidic soils, excellent for ground cover with edible tubers.

4. Carrots (Daucus carota)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.5 (Can tolerate slightly lower pH)

• Description: Root vegetable that grows well in loamy, acidic soils.

5. Turnips (Brassica rapa)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.5 (Performs well in slightly more acidic conditions)

• Description: Dual-purpose crop with edible roots and greens.

6. Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa)

• Ideal pH: 5.0 to 6.0

• Description: Similar to carrots, parsnips do well in acidic soils and provide a sweet, root vegetable option.

7. Squash (Cucurbita spp.)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.8 (Tolerant of mildly acidic soils)

• Description: Zucchini, summer squash, and winter squash can adapt to acidic conditions.

8. Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.5 (Can manage slightly more acidic conditions)

• Description: A vining plant that pairs well with trellises in French potager gardens.

9. Peppers (Capsicum spp.)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.5

• Description: Both sweet and hot peppers prefer slightly acidic to neutral soils, but can tolerate lower pH.

10. Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.8

• Description: Versatile vegetable that can tolerate acidic soil, offering high yields and culinary flexibility.

11. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

• Ideal pH: 6.0 to 6.5 (Can adapt to slightly more acidic soil)

• Description: Leafy green with a short growing season, ideal for spring and fall gardens.

12. Beans (Phaseolus spp.)

• Ideal pH: 5.5 to 6.5

• Description: Bush and pole beans can handle mildly acidic soils and improve soil nitrogen levels.

Wikipedia Commons

Ornamental Structures, Fencing & Borders

• Fencing & Borders:

  • Hedges and Shrubs: Create natural borders and structure.

  • Stone Walls: Provide a picturesque backdrop

  • Woven Willow & Branch Fencing: Adds rustic charm and is often combined with metal framing for durability.

Some of us like using metal or steel troughs as raised garden bed planters. They’re tough, durable, and not made of plastic, which is a big plus. However, in her video, Becky mentions how these rigid structures can be softened with an application of wattle fencing around them.

Another thing I've always wanted to try—something that feels so French potager-y—is to make trellises, arches, and fences out of natural materials to add both beauty and functionality to the garden.

Last year, I had this grand idea to create a woven willow hedge to act as a fence or border. My permaculture friend, Diane, gave me willow cuttings from her neighbor’s tree. They took easily enough and started leafing out, but they were quickly browsed and decimated by deer!

Of all the hundreds of willow branches I planted, only one survived, and that lone sapling happens to be in my kitchen garden.

I think I will weave wattle or bendable twigs from our forest around the existing structure of dead willow, This should be simple enough to do and I have a free supply of sticks to weave with. So there is still hope of beautifying this.

Espalier

This is not particularly French, but espaliering is a great example of growing beautifully and in small spaces.

I have to admit, I was intimidated by the word, “espalier” (which is Spanish for shoulder) and for many months did not attempt to try this at home. When I finally did, wow! It took 15 minutes and some gauge wire and eye hook screws. So simple to install especially when you have a supple 1-year old young tree.

You can even employ this espalier technique without needing a fence or wall and closer to the ground as in this example where “stepover” apples act as borders to a garden bed, giving it that defined shape we are looking for in potager gardens.

I once attended a garden training session at the Oaksprings Garden Foundation in Virginia, a beautiful estate established by the renowned garden designer Bunny Mellon in the 1950s. Mellon, who designed the White House Rose Garden, was also close friends with First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

During my visit, the Director of Gardens, who hailed from Kew Gardens in London, introduced us to the many stepover apples thriving in the formal interior gardens. I was captivated and immediately inspired to recreate this in my own garden!

To achieve that elegant border, however, apple trees require significant initial training and trellising. I dove into countless videos on pruning techniques, eventually finding myself watching bonsai tutorials to truly understand the art of training plants in this meticulous way.

This is yet another moment where you need to weigh the effort—whether training your stepover apples (or purchasing them pre-trained) is worth the investment in your specific gardening context.

Lazy Gardening Tip

Keep your blueberries in an orchard / perennial part of your garden and simply make a wattle fence like the one below for the rest of your veggies: A completely acceptable, simple, and lazy way to grow food while still remaining “potager."

Bird’s Eye Appeal

“Gardens are designed to look beautiful from above as well as on the ground”

-Becky from the Seasonal Homestead

One of the key takeaways from the video on French Potager Gardens was how stunning they appeared both from the ground and from a drone’s perspective. This dual beauty is a hallmark of well-designed gardens, offering visual appeal at every angle.

I don’t own a drone, but my permaculture teacher, Wayne Weiseman, once gave me great advice during my first school garden project:

“Climb up on the roof and take a before and after photo.”

I think this wisdom is still true today.

Potager du Roi, Versailles (Wikipedia)

In the design I created in our SAGE app below, I started with my existing kitchen garden. It already had an established planting of Anise Hyssop, which we can consider the “Star Player” in this design.

But taking a cue from Becky’s “fruits everywhere” experience in her French gardens video above, I decided to throw in the blueberries as a border of fruit to my kitchen garden. That way:

• I have easy access to the soil on the periphery, so I can fiddle with the blueberry’s pH there if needed.

• I have easy access to the blueberries that I can train into a box fence and prune.

• My kids have easy access to the blueberries (which might mean deer will have easy access too!).

Another way, to work blueberries into an annual veggies

In Becky’s video above, she also noticed that emphasis was placed on the fruits and flowers in a French potager garden, with vegetables serving as a backdrop, rather than taking center stage.

Would you be willing to do this in your own potager?

Would you be willing to design a guild with a fruit tree or flower as the “Star player” as we call it?

One of the many beautiful things in the French film, “The Taste of Things” was how much a part of French cooking the potager was. Below is a snapshot from the film where Juliette Binoche is seen harvesting and eating carrots in her garden at dawn. Behind her you will see the artichokes (or cardoons?) standing like sentries. Just a beautiful scene.

2. Companion Planting with Fruit & Flowers

Let’s see if this works for me.

I found a common theme in many French potager garden flowers. Here are a few I’ve come

Top 10 Flowers Commonly Used in French Potager Gardens

Flowers Interspersed Throughout

• Perennials like roses and annuals like sunflowers are mixed into beds for color and pollinator support.

• Rosa gallica (French Rose)

• Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine)

• Campanula spp. (Bellflowers)

• Cosmos bipinnatus (Cosmos)

• Papaver rhoeas (Common Poppy)

• Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower)

• Lavandula angustifolia (Lavender)

• Antirrhinum majus (Snapdragon)

• Tagetes patula (French Marigold)

• Viola tricolor (Wild Pansy or Johnny Jump-Up)

Medicinal Herbs

In French potager gardens we rarely find having plants that have only one function. Many of them have medicinal and culinary uses.

This leads us to several plants rooted in Western traditional medicine found in a French potager. Here are a few of those medicinal herbs and spices:

• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia): Known for its calming properties, lavender is used to alleviate stress and aid sleep.

• Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): Employed for its antiseptic qualities, thyme is often used to treat respiratory issues.

• Sage (Salvia officinalis): Utilized for its anti-inflammatory properties, sage can aid in digestion and soothe sore throats.

• Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla): Renowned for its soothing effects, chamomile is commonly used to promote relaxation and relieve digestive discomfort.

• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare): Valued for its digestive benefits, fennel can help reduce bloating and gas

• Borage (Borago officinalis): Traditionally used to reduce fever and support adrenal function.

• Marjoram (Origanum majorana): Known for its calming effects, marjoram can help alleviate anxiety and digestive issues.

• Mint (Mentha spp.): Commonly used to soothe digestive disturbances and freshen breath.

• Parsley (Petroselinum crispum): Rich in vitamins and minerals, parsley is used to support kidney function and freshen breath.

• Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium): Employed for its mild diuretic properties and to aid digestion.

• Rosemary

Cold Frames with Reclaimed Windows

I’ve seen this technique employed in Williamsburg and Oaksprings so it’s not a new technique at all but a way of repurposing old windows. Instead of throwing them out. Use them as a mini-greenhouse! Use them as a cold-frame to trap heat during the colder months.

One of our former GIY member Sylvia, use windows to make her own DIY Cold Frame.

• Biodiversity: Supporting a wide range of species, including wild bees, birds, and pollinators. We talk more about biodiversity on this blog, “Diversity in Your Garden,” but suffice it to say, French potager gardening always means a beautiful mix of different plants, colors, and animals.

• Soil Health: Intensive composting and no-dig gardening techniques. Using hand tools like the two-broadfork invention of Charles Hervé-Gruyer (see video) to maintain soil tilth without machinery.

• Microclimate Creation: Planting fruit trees and using ponds to reduce heat and wind. Even in the Potager du Roi in Versailles, the fanciest of all French potager gardens, they employed a fountain in the middle of the potager. We could do smaller-scale versions like bird baths or fish ponds.

Water Management: Features like grape arbors provide shade and ponds to enhance biodiversity and humidity. Below, we see this employed at Monticello. However, when we were there, I so wished the scarlet runner beans they were running were an early variety of beans as it was so hot, and they were not yet covering the walkways!

3. Permaculture & Ecological Practices Seen in Becky’s Video

At Monticello, Jefferson incorporated many of the design elements of French potager gardens, such as terraced vegetable gardens, a mix of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, and a focus on aesthetics as well as functionality.

During his time as the U.S. Minister to France from 1784 to 1789, Jefferson visited many French gardens, including the famous Potager du Roi at Versailles.

The winding paths, the use of espaliered fruit trees, and the ornamental placement of edibles all reflect the influence of the French style. His gardens were not only practical but also served as a place of botanical experimentation, much like the experimental spirit found in French potagers.

FAQs for French Potager Gardening: Making Permaculture Productive & Pretty

1. What is a French potager garden?

A French potager garden is a kitchen garden that combines beauty and productivity, blending ornamental plants with fruits, vegetables, and herbs. It is characterized by its formal geometric design, companion planting, and aesthetic appeal.

2. How do I start a French potager garden?

To start a French potager garden, begin by planning your design, incorporating geometric shapes and raised beds. Choose a mix of edible plants, flowers, and medicinal herbs, and practice companion planting to maximize productivity.

3. What plants are best for a French potager garden?

Ideal plants for a French potager garden include:

• Vegetables: Carrots, radishes, lettuce

• Fruits: Espaliered apples, blueberries

• Herbs: Lavender, thyme, sage

• Flowers: French marigolds, roses, cosmos

4. Can I use permaculture principles in a French potager garden?

Absolutely! A French potager garden can be designed using permaculture principles, such as companion planting, biodiversity, soil health practices, and water management strategies.

5. What are the benefits of a French potager garden?

A French potager garden offers aesthetic beauty, edible produce, and environmental benefits, including attracting pollinators, enhancing soil health, and promoting biodiversity.

6. How do I maintain a French potager garden year-round?

Maintenance involves seasonal planting, succession planting, pruning, and adding compost to keep the soil fertile. Using cold frames and cover crops can extend the growing season.

7. Do I need a lot of space for a French potager garden?

No! A French potager garden can be scaled to fit small spaces, including urban backyards, raised beds, and even container gardens.

8. What kind of soil do French potager gardens need?

Most plants in a French potager garden thrive in well-drained, fertile soil with a slightly acidic to neutral pH (6.0 to 7.0). Acid-loving plants like blueberries may require specific soil amendments.

9. Can I grow a French potager garden in a hot or dry climate?

Yes! By incorporating permaculture techniques, such as mulching, shade structures, and drought-resistant plants, you can adapt a French potager garden to hot or dry climates.

10. What are the best tools and materials for a French potager garden?

Helpful tools and materials include:

• Hand tools: Pruners, trowels, garden forks

• Materials: Wattle fencing, metal troughs, natural trellises

• Design tools: Our SAGE app for garden planning and design!

Conclusion: Bringing French Potager Principles into Your Garden

Aesthetics play just as important a role as production in a potager.

It’s worth noting that French potager gardens, particularly the more formal examples like the Potager du Roi in Versailles, with its highly geometric design, are expressions of the cultural values of their time. These French Renaissance gardens, with their precise layouts, drew inspiration from the Italian Renaissance, which aimed to revive the long-lost Roman ideals of order and harmony. In a way, both the French and the Italians sought to embed these virtues in the minds of their people through the striking order of their gardens.

How Does the French Potager Apply To You?

One thing to consider is the context in which you grow. My hope is that, much like Becky did on her French garden tour, you’ll take away principles you can apply, not necessarily to your entire property, but to the key parts where they make sense. And if you have the time or if the desire to create beauty through order is strong, then a proper French potager might be the perfect fit.

But if not, a Climate Victory Garden could be more appealing.

At Bethany Farms, when visitors come by, many may not understand what permaculture is. Permaculture isn’t often something you can explain at a glance, but a French potager garden makes that possible.

In a French potager garden don’t have to explain why a permaculture garden works—the flowers, fruit, and buzzing bees do the talking.

Ready to transform your garden into a French potager? Get started with our SAGE app today!

Our SAGE garden planning app allows you to plan & design your food garden so you don’t waste hours wondering what to plant and when to plant it!

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