When we met with client Jennifer Ruckman in May of 2021 she had a vision of turning the grassy area near her outdoor living space into a kitchen garden. The space was large, 20’ x 20’, so discussed maximizing the space with a formal potager design and a fountain feature in the center.

A Formal Potager is defined in our book, Kitchen Garden Revival, as a garden designed for a landscape that’s more than 20 feet wide and long. Formal potagers are large and ornate, so much that we had to call in the French language to help us describe them.

Potagers go well beyond a few raised gardens and include additional features such as fountains, fruit trees, seating areas, and more. We’ve designed and installed more than a handful of formal potagers for our Rooted Garden clients throughout Houston and we just love the magical spaces this design creates.

Formal potagers include garden beds with unique angles and curves and the gardens work together to create something of a maze or enclosure. If your space is ready for a formal potager, the Rooted Garden team would love to help you with the design and installation.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The Rooted Garden installation team truly transformed Jennifer’s kitchen garden space. We love a good before and after photo to show what is possible in transforming a space into a magical kitchen garden getaway, all within your own landscape space!

We began by removing this paved space that Jennifer wasn’t fond of.

Next, we prepared the space and added a coordinating gravel color to work with her homes existing features. Adding gravel to the kitchen garden space is a key Rooted Garden design feature. Gravel provides a clean aesthetic that lends the gardens in becoming their own separate space from other areas in the space. Gravel also helps with drainage. Houston is known for its excessive rainfall which can be a challenge in keeping the garden space clean, dry and pest free.

Once the hardscape is completed the custom made steel gardens are delivered and placed. Rooted Garden works with a local steel artist who custom makes all of our steel raised gardens based on the clients space and preferences. They are truly a work of art!

The next step is adding our own unique Rooted Garden soil blend. Since the start of Rooted Garden in 2015 we have had experience installing hundreds of raised kitchen gardens and have formulated a unique soil blend that is optimal for the delicate and picky roots of vegetables and herbs.

Metal trellises are like the icing on the cupcake. They provide important growing space for vining vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and peas. When the arches aren’t over flowing with garden vegetables they act as a piece of art and interest in the garden.

The grand finale is when our planting team arrives with loads of fresh herbs, vegetables and flowers. Each garden is custom planted based on our clients preferences and on the current growing season and plant availability.

CorTen Kitchen Gardens Provide A Unique Look to the Kitchen Garden Space

The Rooted Garden teams loves to create beautiful gardens utilizing unique materials such as brick, stone, cedar, and in this case, CorTen.

CorTen is a metal known for it’s durability, beauty and thin profile perfect for narrow spaces.

When we first started designing kitchen gardens in Houston, we were intrigued by the up and coming trend of Corten steel in more and more gardens. But we wondered how well they would do in the Houston area, especially knowing that Houston’s temperatures can be so hot in the middle of the summer.

With the thin edges of the steel gardens, the actual container for the raised gardens takes up significantly less room than our raised gardens made of cedar and especially less than those made of stone.

So, if you’re looking for a raised garden material that will last for decades but takes up the least amount of space, steel garden beds are the perfect fit.

In this Houston garden, the Corten steel provides a unique formal yet earthy feel to the garden space and makes the most of every square inch of growing space.

We know these Corten steel beds will be here in this backyard for many decades to come.

Stepping Stones in the Kitchen Garden Make the Garden Easier to Access

One of our Rooted Garden philosophies is to gravel the kitchen garden space, which allows for a clean aesthetic and helps to drain water away from the garden. However, those small pieces of gravel just aren’t comfortable to walk barefoot on.

Stepping stones can be added along the perimeter of the garden, in the center of the garden or just in the walkways.

In Jennifer’s garden we used concrete stepping stones, but we have incorporated other materials such as a clients existing stone in walkways throughout the garden.

A Fountain Adds Interest to a Formal Potager Kitchen Garden

Each time our garden consultants design a kitchen garden space they discuss with their client the possible features the client could add to the kitchen garden space. In some cases these features include pollinator gardens, pots with mint, benches or other seating spaces. In formal potager style kitchen gardens we love to incorporate fruit trees, Bay Laurel trees, sitting areas and in this case, the bubbling fountain.

For our client, Jennifer, she loved the ideal of a peaceful space that felt like a getaway within her garden so the fountain was the perfect addition. Bringing water features into your kitchen garden design is always a great idea. Water is necessary to support wildlife as well as our kitchen gardens, so offering a restful space for birds, bees and butterflies supports a healthy kitchen garden space.

Bringing a fountain into the kitchen garden space means there’s a need for electricity lines in the garden but the payout with the sound of running water and the added beauty is totally worth it.

We love this central feature of the formal potager and can’t wait to bring more fountains in our kitchen garden designs.

Trellises Provide Vertical Growing Space

Rooted Garden kitchen garden designs incorporate metal trellises for beauty and functionality in the kitchen garden. Adding interest to the garden space with these custom made obelisk trellises allow vining vegetables the space they need.

In Houston, we use trellises in the garden to grow sugar snaps and snow peas in the winter, and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and pole beans in spring and fall. In the summer, we can even use these obelisk trellises to grow beautiful malabar spinach, luffa gourd, Armenian cucumber or yard long beans.

You can shop some of our obelisk trellis kits here.

And during a Rooted Garden consultation, you can request any of our original RG trellis designs for your own garden space.

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Thanks to our client Jennifer for trusting Rooted Garden with your kitchen garden project.

We would love to help you next! Did you know Houston is a unique climate that is literally non stop all year long. 365 days of fresh herbs and vegetables growing in your kitchen garden.

Learn more and book a garden consultation with our team today. We can’t wait to work with you!

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Tour a Formal Potager Garden in The Woodlands, Texas