It is not too early to be thinking about sowing seed for vegetables that can be harvested in winter and will create the most glorious soups.
Potage is a 13th century French word for soup or broth, and a potager is a kitchen garden where vegetables are grown for the pot. The traditional French kitchen garden adopted the simple pattern design of the mediaeval garden for ease of cultivation. They saw no reason, however, why a kitchen garden should not be as decorative as it was practical, and while still retaining the functional layout, they introduced patterns using the foliage of vegetables and an occasional sculpture.
The Potager du Roi at Versailles was made for Louis XIV between 1677 and 1683 to the design De la Quintinie, and the famous potager at Villandry was created by Dr Joachim Carvallo between 1906 and 1924. The Villandry kitchen garden covers 4 000m2. Based on a 17th-century design it is divided into squares of different coloured vegetables, each square enclosed by low wooden trellis fences covered with roses.
While it is not possible or desirable to grow vegetables on such a large and grand scale as at Villandry, the imaginative gardener can convert a sunny, forgotten corner of the garden into a productive, attractive garden potager.
What vegetables can you sow this January? Try Brussels sprouts, bush beans, carrots, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, parsnip, spinach, Swiss chard and turnips. - Saturday Star