Welcome to Potager Way. This website has been quite some time coming and, I have to admit, we’re still not quite 
there. But it’s May and I think spring is finally arriving in the Pacific Northwest, so the site is being launched. Spring is my favourite season and I hate to see it rained out and cold as it has been this year, but the good thing about having a kitchen garden is that even if you can’t plant much in the way of vegetables, there are things to do. I have been busy removing a shrub so that I can manoeuvre a wheelbarrow into the garden through the back gate. But then the potting bench was in the way and had to be made smaller which was a good thing because I just piled junk on that table most of the time. I planted dwarf fruit trees and have been moving the self seeders-rose campions, parsley, calendula-to better locations. And now, bricks are strewn about as I contemplate how much of the dirt and wood chip paths I want to turn over to brick paths.
Another good thing about this cold, wet spring is that I have been spending a good amount of time in the greenhouse potting up lavender. This year I have rooted cuttings from more than 20 varieties of lavender. So if you like the sight and scent of lavender, we will have a lot to choose from. We’re also working on our ‘pocket’ nursery-a little cob shop & a greenhouse built near the entrance to our property. I doubt we’ll be finished before the end of summer but I sure will be happy to have another greenhouse to over winter plants in!
This will be the third summer for my kitchen garden at this location. There is now a lot less focus on structure and more attention to filling in. The soil is beginning to benefit from the generous amendments of seaweed, manure and compost. The climbing roses are branching out-the Chrylster Imperial Rose more so. I can imagine it now in a couple of years taking over part of the garden fence. The clamatis on the entrance arbour looks like it is going to put on growth this year, after struggling for two years.
This is the part of the fun of a kitchen garden. Because all or some of the garden has a permanent structure, areas can be planted up with perennials and shrubs that get better with each year. Potager Way is about all of these things. It’s about growing your own food and herbs. It’s about using structures. It’s about being creative in your garden. I hope that through this blog we can share ideas about kitchen gardens and succession planting and using space creatively. If you have suggestions, please let me know.
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