Gardens Of Plenty: The Art Of The Potager

Maryln Abbott

Editions

Review

The tradition of the ‘potager’ wherein produce for the table is cultivated alongside flowers, is a typically French compromise between the functional and the aesthetic, inspired by walled gardens from the Classical era, via the medieval courts to the grandest schemes of Louis XIV at Versailles.  Not for Ms. Abbott the strictly ordered British vegetable garden.  She is scathing about their dry orderliness (Can she never have visited the extraordinary recreation by Jim and Sarah Buckland at West Dene in Sussex?).

Shades fell from her eyes when she first visited Villandry over 30 years ago and although she considers it an historic exemplar, vegetables were introduced to the earlier formal layout only after 1906, and she justifiably regales us with riveting details of the labours which produce such a ravishing decorative effect.  She travels elsewhere in Europe to show us classic potagers in France,and in Belgium at Kasteell Hex, she unearths a true horticultural gem.

An Aussie herself, she describes some Antipodean marvels and the excellent photographs by Clay Perry capture the difference in light between Europe and Australia which is in essence the point of Ms.Abbott’s first book Gardening With Light And Colour .

With every justification she draws upon her own experiences at West Green in Hampshire, where she has one of the best examples in the country and has provided both inspiration and a practical manual for anyone who wants to grow vegetables, be it in window box or stately walled-garden, with ingenious suggestions on how to introduce vertical notes to what is usually a flat area and what to plant against them.

Next year, don’t you fear. I shall have a lilac tinted Lathrys climbing up my standard Kumquat.  Can’t wait. - review by Stewart Grimshaw