Nature's cues help to mark time for us. With warmer days and more sunshine, we prepare our potager or kitchen garden for the upcoming season.

Time is marked and measured in different ways. Clocks and calendars help us to organize our everyday lives; but, time is also captured in the shift of colors for each season. Here in southwest France, the fresh greens of spring are replacing the dull gray shades of winter. Days are growing longer and sunshine streams through our front door noting the passing hours across the stone floor. The rains have slowed and the garden beds are waiting to be turned and planted. Nature's cues are telling me that it's time to attend to the potager. In France, the potager or kitchen garden has been an important part of country life for centuries. It is the connection between nature and the simple meals we prepare with fresh flavors of the season. Since it will be a few months before we're in our new home, I'm planting a few spring items in our current garden. Our new potager will be small. Even so, I'll figure out how to fit all my heart's desires into several sections, each having seasonal plantings. There will be a culinary garden, salad garden, tea garden, dye garden, cutting garden, and medicinal garden. Everyone's garden can be adapted to suit their own needs. Think of it as your personal potager. The biggest difference between the garden I had in suburban Ohio and a French potager is that the latter is cyclical rather than linear. You plan each of the seasons for planting instead of thinking of the garden as planting in the spring and harvesting in late summer. As one crop finishes its harvest, the space is cleared, the ground turned, compost added, and something else is planted for the next season. I like to do simple blocks of color to create possible garden designs. These are plants that can go into the ground now. All the colors came from my handmade inks. These year-round gardens are designed to supply your kitchen on a daily basis. They can be small, just a few rows, or one-foot squares. They can be planted in raised beds or containers. They can also be as large as you can manage. The premise of a potager, no matter the size, is that as you harvest what is in season and plant something for the next season. Spring Early vegetables require cool weather and water to grow and remain tender. When time passes and the days become hot, the leaf vegetables become tough and the root vegetables become pithy and fibrous. Now is the time to plant lettuce, arugula, carrots, leeks, radishes, peas, kale, parsley, and chives. By mid-April in southern France, I can plant beets, zucchini, and even tomatoes compared to waiting until mid-May in Ohio. Summer Hot days warm the soil and produce fruit. Water is important and since our days are dry come June and July, I pick my crops very carefully. No melons this year. They are too hungry for precious water and require way more space than I can give them. Le Gers just south of us grows some of the finest melons in the world. I'll leave it to the experts to grow them and I'll buy my melons at the market. A win-win for both me and the farmer. Instead of cantaloupes, I plant my basil, peppers, and eggplant.  I tend to sow small amounts of basil over several weeks, rather than a large patch that requires way too much pesto for my family. (Hint: Basil hates to be transplanted. Sow directly into your garden when the soil is warm.) Autumn The fall garden is surprisingly prolific. Any gaps from spring plantings are filled with more lettuce, arugula, spinach, radishes, leeks, broccoli rabe, kale, and onions. I don't tend to grow cauliflower or cabbages because of pest issues and water demands. Again, I head to our local market for those veggies. Grow those items that you love to eat, are difficult to find, or are expensive to purchase. Winter The winter section of the potager consists of seeds, bulbs, and tubers that can be planted depending upon your climate from mid-fall through early winter. Fava beans, garlic, and shallots go into my garden before Christmas. The kale keeps giving well into early spring when it then begins to produce seed in its second year. Plus, I cannot get enough of radish pods. In fact, I grow radishes for the pods and not the actual radishes. If the winter is mild, they'll produce throughout December. How we shape our days around time, where we invest our energy and place our focus, reveals what is most important to us. Microgreens are quick to harvest. I fill little "holes" in my potager every season with plants that I'll snip in just two weeks. I use them to top my sandwiches and add to my salads. In summer, I tuck certain seeds like heat-sensitive lettuce under plants like my bushy peppers to provide them shade. When you have a tiny garden, every bit of space is needed. Plus, a full garden keeps the weeds at bay. Well. . . in theory. Other suggestions for your potager: Plan your kitchen garden close to the house where it will be most convenient. Make it a decorative as well as utilitarian space. Think about adding dwarf fruit trees, flowers, and shrubs along with your veggies and herbs. Consider how the light enters the garden and place tall plants such as artichokes to the back. Texture and color all come into play in the final plan. Carefully consider the hardscape because fences, gates, rock walls are not easily changed. Perrenials, too, need some thought for they will be your garden for years to come. What plants self-sow easily? Be mindful of gathering seed heads if you don't want your mustard taking over the back garden. Keep a record of your garden to refer to what worked well in years before and what needs to be changed. Know that your potager will be ever-changing and oh so personal. In and Out of the Garden by Sara Midda is my favorite garden journal. I just found another copy in a thrift store and will begin with fresh pages when I plant at Les Glandines. Time. It governs our everyday lives. We keep track of it, waste it, and wish we had more of it. It goes fast when we're having fun and slow when we're not. This past year has challenged our sense of time. How often I would think, "What day is it?" I missed my "normal" weekly cues. And just as my internal clock is adjusting to the time change since returning from Florida, France moves her clocks forward this weekend. I do like that added hour of sunlight to work in the garden in the evening. Reminding me that the way we spend our time shows us where our passions lie.    Take time to work, play, and sit still this weekend.    À bientôt mon amie, Karen 💕🌱🇫🇷