A New Site for Our Kitchen Garden

We've finally moved into our new home on Vancouver Island and the spot is perfect for a garden.  There are two acres in the back to work with and the site isn't too treed, giving us options to set up the site.

This is a picture of the property to the south.  You can see our neighbour's white horse in the distance.

 

 

 

A picture to the east shows the length of the property which extends to another road in the distance.   The land is fairly rocky right now and will need a lot of work to make it suitable for planting.

Some of the tree are pretty tall but are far enough away from the house and garden.

 

One of the main things to contend with on Vancouver Island are the deer.  They don't have any preditors to keep their numbers down and can be hard on a garden.  I'd rather have a fence around the property than get rid of them.  The babies are out right now and they're pretty cute. 

 

We've recently hired workers who've been preparing about thirty feet out from the house for irrigation and lawns.  A lot of the homes in the area have either grassed a huge amont of land or are using it to keep horses.  We're each allowed two horses!  Our neighbour's horses are always out in the morning.  I'm going to have to walk over to ask their names (the owners' and the horses').

My plan is to work about 30' x 30' of the property to create a symetrical kitchen garden.  I'll draft a plan and post it soon.

 

Potager Gardening - Espalier

An espalier is a tree trained to grow flat against a wall. There are advantages to growing fruit trees this way. Less space is required, more sunlight is able to ripen the fruit and the gardener has easier access to maintain and harvest from trees.

Where to Start an Espaliered Tree

The best place to start an espalier is on a south facing wall which receives full sun in summer or as close to full sun as you can manage. The second best place to plant is east-facing. The wall or fence will block wind and create a warm micro-climate. Avoid a south or west-facing placement or the trees won't survive winter conditions. Here's a great video explaining how to start an espaliered tree: Planting an Espaliered Pear

Pruning an Espalier is also a great video for reference: Pruning an Espalier

Espalier Shapes:

Dwarf apple and pear whips are probably the best choice. A whip is a very young tree of a single vertical growth with no branches or side shoots.

Potager Gardening - Basil - Edging Plant

In French cuisine, basil is a very important herb. Torn basil leaves are added to salads of sliced tomatoes, seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and virgin olive oil, accompanied by a crusty baguette. One of the most famous basil dishes is pesto.

The bouquet garni or "garnished bouquet" is a bundle of herbs tied together with string and used to prepare soup, stock and stews. The herb bundle is boiled with the other ingredients and is removed before serving.

A bouquet garni includes parsley, thyme and bay leaf. The recipe may require more herbs including basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon.

Château de Villandry - Famous Potager

The Château de Villandry is located in Villandry, in the département of Indre-et-Loire, France.
The Château was acquired in the early 16th century by Jean Le Breton, France's Controller-General for War under King Francis I.

The château remained in the Le Breton family for more than two centuries until it was acquired by the Marquis de Castellane. During the French Revolution the property was confiscated and in the early 19th century Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Joseph Bonaparte.

In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property and created one of the most beautiful gardens anywhere. The gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are laid out in formal patterns created with low box hedges. The Château de Villandry is open to the public and is one of the most visited châteaux in France.

Potager du Roi de Versailles - The King's Kitchen Garden

Thirty gardens were spread around the central Grand Square and would shelter espalier-trained fruit trees behind their high walls. The original idea of a succession of protected rooms, favouring microclimates and diversity of exposures remains unchanged.

As initially planned, the Grand Square of 3 hectares is composed of sixteen smaller squares surrounded by espalier pear trees. Within the square is contained fifty species and varieties of vegetables including traditional vegetables, condiments, gourds, pear-shaped tomatoes,Jerusalem artichokes and ancient vegetables.

The pruning of some 5000 fruit trees requires an extensive number of hours of work to train wall-trees (espaliers) or to fix them on trellises (counter-espaliers, which have replaced La Quintinie’s round-headed trees by the XVIIIth century).

First is a central portion devoted to vegetables. It's also known as the "grand square" an area of three hectares. It's divided into sixteen squares arranged around a large circular pool decorated with a central fountain, which serves as a reserve for irrigation water. Around the grand square are four raised terraces that transform it into a kind of scene theater.

Enclosed by high walls, there are now a dozen (twenty-nine originally) gardens, home to fruit trees, mainly apple and pear which are trained on trellises (palissés) on the walls. In 1785, six southern walls were taken down due to high humidity and poor ventilation, leaving five gardens instead of eleven.

Twelve gardeners prune and maintain 2800 and 2100 the apple and pear trees, and other fruits and vegetables produced annually in the season.

In Spring

From April to June, brings flowering fruit trees upon entrance to the garden. Growing now are lettuce, carrots, artichokes, herbs, garlic, onions, shallots, potatoes and early beans.

In Summer

Fruit crops begin by mid-June berries: raspberries, gooseberries, currants. The first apples "Stark Earliest" are harvested in late June and pears "Citron des Carmes" are harvested between the 10th 15 July.

From July to September, the Potager du Roi is full also of melons, cucumbers, turnips, radishes or lettuce.

In Autumn

September is the busiest month when all crops are harvested.

In Winter

The vegetable garden is laid bare ...

But gardeners do not stop working, they prepare the garden for the next years crops, enriching it with compost and work to prune trees to improve their shape and quality of fruit.

I'll need to take a more in-depth look at the King's Kitchen Garden in a future posting.

Potager Gardening - Tarragon - Filler Plant

French tarragon plants should be purchased instead of seeds. In warmer areas, to propagate Tarragon, you can divide the roots in March or April. Plant small root clumps about 12 inches apart.

In the Kitchen: Fresh tarragon has very intense flavor. You don't need to use as much fresh as you would dried. My favorite ways to use tarragon is with chicken. To keep the most flavor of fresh tarragon when storing is to freeze whole sprigs in airtight baggies for up to 6 months.

Tarragon is a main ingredient in Bérnaise Sauce and the French herb mixture, fines herbes.

Fine Herbes is a classic French herb seasoning mix and is easy to make at home. Use equal parts chopped:

• tarragon
• chervil
• chives
• parsley

Potager Gardening - Marjoram - Filler Plant

Marjoram or sweet marjoram is a perennial in the mint family that grows wild in the Mediterranean. Although considered a perennial, in cooler climates it should be treated as an annual. Plant marjoram in well-drained, humus-rich soil. Pinch back the blooms to maintain its shape and to encourage growth. Marjoram and oregano are very similar. Oregano is a hardy perennial, while marjoram is more sensitive and prefers damper soil.

In the Kitchen: Marjoram is a staple in French cooking. Marjoram is sweeter and milder than oregano. In French cooking, it's used in herbes de Provence which typically contains savory, fennel, basil, and thyme flowers and other herbs. Thyme is usually the strongest taste produced by the herb mixture.

Herbs found in herbes de Provence:

Thyme
Chervil
Rosemary
Summer Savory
Lavendar
Tarragon
Marjoram
Oregano
Mint
Bay Leaves