I don't care for beds so wide you have to walk in them to plant, weed, and harvest. It compacts the soil. And as pretty as a central object is if you can't maneuver around it with a wheelbarrow I think it's sort of foolish.

Lavenderlass,

Your post is a breath of fresh air! I'm here in snow/ice encrusted Massachusetts and although I just ordered some vegetable seeds, my 2011 potager seems years away!

What a gorgeous (and that word is hardly adequate) garden. Something to aspire to!! (Obviously mine will never be like that one, but hope springs eternal!:))I have gotten a lot of ideas from the photos you shared. I have gravel paths in my garden also and am planning to expand, so these photos will be helpful in doing that.

Great to see the diagrams as well as the photos too. It's always helpful to see those.

Thank you so much for sharing -

Donna

Such fun to look at. I love to google potagers and get ideas too. Planting diagrams are always such a bonus.

Natal is right, though, about the bed size and the pot right smack in the middle. A more practical but similar look would be to make the beds 2.5 x 8 with a foot wide path up the center. The center obelisks would have to go but it would still look great.

I love lavender as an edging. I used it when my potager was strictly a square foot garden. But, the lavender wasn't happy (maybe too much water). I moved it to a full sun sloping site and it's been much happier. Now, I try to keep perennials out of the veggie beds so I don't worry about disturbing them during bed prep and clean-up.

I agree, the central feature is a little tight...but that would not be as much of a problem, if they cut the inside corners off the bed...closest to the pot.

In my kitchen garden, I have four small beds that I'm planning to add...with a little birdbath in the middle. I want to be able to walk around it, so I'm cutting a little off each bed, closest to the center. We'll see how it works, but it looks good in the plan.

Donna- I just ordered seeds, too! :)

Here are a few examples of a central feature with paths around it.

{{gwi:1151403}}

{{gwi:1151404}}

Both pretty designs, but I am pretty sure Oscar did not care about such things as getting his wheelbarrow around things or walking on beds, that was up to the gardeners, as long as all looked pretty and nice!

Lavenderlass, I am using elements of both the things you have posted. I really like the second set of stone edged beds you have posted...eventually I will change from my front wooden beds to something more like this, I think.
I'm working on a circular version of the potager with what looks like a pleached tunnel? I want a tunnel system but a little more open, I think (because they way mine will be oriented might block too much sun). Probably not trees but vines, still much the same effect. I've been working on it for two years and have gotten stuck as they may need to use the area I began planting to stage vehicles for the back yard drainage project :(

Love looking at designs! The one with the stone beds and border all around is quite wonderful.What is it about these gardens that speak to me?

My husband is continually reminding my that these huge, fabulous gardens that I drool over in books and magazines have a team of gardeners to maintain them!

Here's my center circle freshly planted in May (only mini-roses and lavender):

and here it is at the end of July (added basils, sweet alyssum, lemon gem marigold and a sunflower -- I thought it was a dwarf)
{{gwi:1151406}}

Well, I guess you'll have to imagine my center circle until I can figure out why the pictures aren't showing:)