DIVIDE AND PROSPER

Raised beds and an attack of the blues

Preparations are in  full swing in the potager - or kitchen garden in English. Each year we have the dilemma of deciding what and what not to grow and where to plant it.  Decisions taken now have an impact on the entire year's harvest so negotiations for space for our favourite vegetables are intense. It is chard, cavalo nero, rocket and beetroot for me - and leeks, potatoes and pumpkins for my husband. 

In the photo below the beds in the potager have just been cleaned and prepared ready for this year's crops. Some winter vegetables remain - the ruby chard is still being picked and glows a rich red in the slanting evening light, while the red mustard - a hot salad leaf has become enormous and we add one leaf - at most - to any salads we prepare. Other leaves we are now adding to salads include oak leaf lettuces and sorrel supplemented with chives, parsley and fennel. Today I have just picked my first tarragon leaves to add to our lunch. As you can see the rhubarb is also doing well.

Raised beds in the potager - rhubarb at the front with salads and chard behind.

We grow our vegetables in raised beds and supplement the soil each year by adding well rotted horse/cow manure to the top of the soil. We have left it a little late this year - but timing is always a tough call. Leave it too late and the worms have less opportunity to drag the manure into the soil before you plant anything; do it too soon and the rain can wash away a lot of the nutrients. The manure must be well rotted - it should have no unpleasant smell and have broken down into a lovely crumbly texture. Raw manure will scorch young plants and roots - so avoid the temptation to add it in desperation.

Meanwhile in the ornamental garden the colour scheme has largely moved on from the yellow of daffodils to a combination of blues and acid green - key blue plants are iris siberica, muscari (or grape hyacinths) and beautiful cerinthe major purpurascens which is a gorgeous foil for the acid greens of our euphorbias. 

The blue of Cerinthe with Euphorbia characias behind it

Cerinthe is easily grown from seed - just throw some where you want the plants and, once it is established,  it re-generates year after year - proving surprisingly hardy in cold winters. Some euphorbias also work extremely well in gardens in France. Euphorbias are a massive plant family which ranges from a cactus type of form found in the desert to poinsettias on the table at Christmas. We grow E.characias, E.myrsinites, E.robbiae, E.martinii and this year for the first time - courtesy of Olivier Filippi's superb nursery near Sete - E.rigida.