Sounds lovely! My only thought is that perhaps putting your sitting area with an arbor might be better on the west side of your vegetable garden. That way, you would have the advantage of early morning sun to take off the dew, and protection from the late afternoon hot sun. Of course, I'm in Texas, so I'm very conscious of hot afternoon sun!
Plant rosemary--very Italian, very aromatic, and makes a lovely border for a pathway!

That's a wonderful idea. We badly need something like that at our community garden. The full sun all day long is great for the plants, but not for us gardeners. We need a spot to rest, cool off and socialize.

Jim

Seating sounds like a great addition. I've carried a patio table umbrella stand into the garden and stuck the umbrella in it so I could weed in the shade :) I'm thinking you want something more permanent and attractive than that!

A place that I helped at had this seating area last summer. By time the heat came, the Russian Mammoth sunflowers had grown enough to provide lots of shade. A second outside row of smaller sunflowers gave flowerheads at kid height and screened the inside area even more.

Early in the season, area approximately 8x10. Could be done much smaller for use by 2-4 people:
{{gwi:15098}}From Yankee Springs, Deep Lake, Kayak through marsh

Later in the summer
{{gwi:15100}}From August 2009

Close up inside....only shot I have...and only one chair at the time, plus it has a puddle on it! Lots of kid sized chairs fit inside here and provided a cool hideaway. {{gwi:15101}}From August 2009

The background in the second shot shows a structure made of sapling trunks. Something like it would make a great veggie garden hideaway with runner beans or pole beans growing on it. An arbor would work well for runner beans, also. Or for something quick, easy and inexpensive, try a bamboo bean tower...maybe a lean-to style with the slant to the north so you could sit in the shade throughout the day. Hmmm, I may have to try something like that. I will have seeds for 3 varieties of pole beans soon, each with a different colored pod. Kids would love it. I'll try a visual of it, hope it isn't too confusing. Tie twine along the crossbar and anchor it at an angle to the south. Plant beans at each piece of twine and around each of the tripods poles. This would give a structure shaded on three sides....at least at my latitude.

Bamboo-----------Long bamboo crossbar lashed to top of tripods---------2nd Bamboo
Tripod-----------------------------------------------------------------------Tripod

Jimster,

At a nearby community garden someone brought an inexpensive patio table and chairs...I think I heard they rescued them from the trash. I think the shabby looks helped keep them from being stolen. Sunflowers, hollyhocks and perhaps other tall plants I don't recall, were on the west side of the area where it was set up. With the umbrella and tall plants, people could be shaded at midday and in the afternoon and evening. It really encouraged visiting and sharing gardening stories.

That sounds like a great idea! I'm a big believer in having a seating area in any garden. It's so nice to be able to rest and enjoy looking at the fruits of your labor. A shaded area would be even more ideal.

Thank you for all the positive feedback...and the great pictures!

Any other suggestions? I'm thinking of building the arbor 14' x 10' so there's plenty of room for seating. I'm picturing one of those big rustic wood tables about 3' x 6' with plenty of comfortable chairs. I love the idea of the rosemary...any other herb, vegetable or flower suggestions?

Good point about the morning sun, Marlingardener and Naturegirl, I'm going to use some of your ideas in the kids' area :)

My potager is on a steep slope. I am hoping that my sweet husband and his daddy will build me a porch style swing with an arbor over it this summer. I am thinking that vines trained over it will be nice and cool: flowers, veggies, clematis, it could be anything. My only hesitation about grapes would be the fruit draws bees and they (grapes) are very messy at harvest time.

Donnabaskets- Your swing with an arbor sounds wonderful!

Good point about the grapes, but that's one reason I want to put them in the garden and not too close to the house. I also am going to plant lots of sunflowers, which the bees and yellow jackets seem to love :)

Better to have them out there pollinating, than hanging around the house. Some summers it's like an obstacle course to get past the yellow jackets in late August. With the sunflowers and lavender I planted last year, it was MUCH better!

Also, we have a very early frost, often starting the first of September, with a hard frost by mid-September, so I don't think Concord grapes will work. I'm thinking of using Valiant, or maybe St. Theresa grapes. Any suggestions?