Plans for the Garden

My mom moved to the farm a few years ago, and one of the big reasons was to have a larger garden space. She has always loved to garden! So, she was very disappointed last year when health problems prevented her from being outside as much as she would have liked.  Then, we had an unexpected and incredibly devastating hailstorm/tornado combination.  It wiped out almost everything in the garden...including the weeds!

Luckily, it did not harm the perennials or shrubs, so this year we plan a major overhaul of the gardens.  We had started redoing our vegetable garden, which is a combination of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and even flowers.  I'd love to have more roses in it, but between the deer and the winters, we usually keep the roses a little closer to the house.

What we are going to do is change our plans a bit and try something a little more structured.  A potager is French for kitchen garden, which is actually a formal design to contain an often chaotic mix of all types of plants that either provide food for us or attract pollinators to the garden.

We have apple trees that came with the farm, but we've been adding raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and other fruits.  Blueberries turned out to be popular with the deer, but we're going to try again inside the fence this time. Here's our plan, with the berries in colors of purples and reds, with the greens for vegetables.  Some are perennials, but most are annuals.  Our growing season is fairly short, but we have a very warm and dry summer...so things do tend to grow quickly with a little extra care and water. 

Here are some lovely images from Pixabay, as well as our plan for the garden. It may not be finished this year, but we're hoping to make a good start.  Oh, the little black grids are metal arbors and arches we already have.  What are your plans for the garden?