Silent Sunday

One of the great things about social media is the ability to chat with people you don't really know and may never meet. This weekend I was chatting with some ladies about the humble French potager, the work involved and the glamour, or lack of it unless you count posh or flowery wellington boots. It got me thinking about my potager, especially as I should have spent the weekend weeding, digging, planting out and watering, but the weather has been horrid, raining all day yesterday, overnight and most of today too. This would have been good news if we had already planted out our summer veggies, but we haven't, mainly due to the weather.

A definition of a potager is an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden, often planted with herbs and flowers as well as vegetables to enhance beauty. We use flowers in ours mainly to attract the pollinating insects and to discourage the nasty bugs, but I will agree they do add to the beauty too. Here are some photos of our plot taken in different years and different times of year. I hope you like them too.

 

 There is always work to do in the potager from weeding to watering or sowing to harvesting, but despite the work it is a very special place to me. It is better exercise than the gym and comes without a monthly fee, it focuses the mind and gives plenty of time to think and it beats a supermarket for fresh, tasty fruits and vegetables every time.

This weekend I have also uploaded some clips to YouTube of some photo slideshows we have been working on for over a year. One is a lane we regularly walk with the dog, changing from spring through to winter that you can see here. The other is the life of a sunflower field from seed in April to harvest in September and you can see that here.