A Potager

(pronunciation: puh ta zhay) a garden that combines both edible and ornamental plants; a vegetable garden that is utilitarian in nature but designed with beauty in mind; much like an English kitchen garden, but often formal and symmetrically designed in the French fashion. 

A potager was a solution of sorts for me.  I was quite into flower gardening when my son left home and left his vegetable garden in my care, I was not very excited about it.  Over the course of several years I begrudgingly spent time working in this garden.  Sure I loved all the fresh vegetables it provided, but it just seemed like work to me.  Unlike the flower gardens which I enjoyed tending.  This was a problem I decided surely could be solved.  What I came up with was a potager. Just the name sounds interesting.  It could be beautiful and fun but still functional.  My potager is small in size but produces exactly what the two of us can eat along with a cutting area. I grow quite a variety but in small quantities.  I knew I wanted a formal design and since I love old brick I decided to use that.  

From earlier in the summer you can see the rectangle shape intersected by two paths with a half arch on the short ends.

This is how it looks today.

Cilantro is one of the herbs in the potager.  It looks quite pretty in flower.

Basil

Dinosaur kale

Zinnias are a favorite flower for cutting.

This ornamental pepper 'Black Pearl' edges the cutting garden.
In the background are the purple grapes.

A large urn is the centerpiece of the potager.

Bloody Sorrel or botanically know as Rumex sanguineus is a pretty herb.

The arbor at one end has a green variety of grapes on one side and purple on the other.

Marigolds are both edible and just belong in a potager. The fence holds back the tomatillos.

Alpine strawberries along with a salvia argentea that seeded itself there.

Bronze fennel