With the indoor garden potted up and well on it’s way, my thoughts turn toward the artistic element of gardening. Admittedly, I’m not a “straight rows evenly spaced” kind of girl. I’m an “intensively planted, more is better, well-organized” kind of girl. In other words I’m a cottage gardener or a potager planter. (Either works as I am both English and French.) I credit my love of white picket fences, towering lilies and hollyhocks and vegetables in the daisies to my Welsh roots; my love of herbs, design and ordered chaos to my French side.
Looking upon the pots of herbs and vegetables growing under the lights has me itching to create a garden “picture” as the plants mature. As the plants fill in their pots on the shelves, the leaves and blossoms will create a sort of portrait that is easily arranged by shifting and re-arranging pots as well as adding new plants. A single potted nasturtium trailing in front of the nodding blossoms of “White Egg” eggplant, or sweet basil and marigolds surrounding a dwarf “Silvery Fir Tree” tomato. The combinations are as exciting to choose as the plants themselves, I’ll have an indoor potager!
I’ll use the seed packets for a visual layout. In my outdoor garden emotion out-ranks wisdom and I pretty much plant according to what pleases me. (And then I add a few more here and there.) I believe gardens should be a reflection of the one who plants them, that’s what makes each one so unique! I should have realized I would want the indoor garden to be beautiful as well as functional and planted accordingly. Arranging indoors will be easier with no digging required, though; that’s a bonus… and who knows? Maybe I’ll discover a winning combination to use next summer outdoors!
