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I've been planning my raised beds and was going to turn the whole garden over to them (it's only a little garden)
I love the look of veg plots so don't feel too sad to not have any decorative garden left but I was wondering about those cottage gardens, or potager gardens that you sometimes see in books where there are flower beds mixed in with vegetables and herbs, all mingled in together in a seemingly random way rather than in rows.

Does anyone have any experience of this style of gardening, have any ideas about basic principles or any books to recommend?

thanks

Two mini stakes with a rope tied between them. Stick one end in the ground, unravel until you reach your required length and stick the other stake in,providing a planting guide.

There's a lot to be said for straight lines (equal space, easier weeding, equal irrigation, etc..), but I'd like to try a keyhole veg plot one day. It's a permaculture technique that makes the most of available space, where paths into the beds form the shape of a keyhole, to avoid excessive walking on cultivated areas.

It could provide the English cottage garden look, if that's what you're after.

My lines start of straight but turn wiggly ... I know thats no help

I sow seeds in straight lines.

They come up anywhere. I don't mind.

Mike

Mother Nature does not grow in straight lines, so why need we?

I started out with straight lines in our raised beds last season but found things did better planted in 'patches'. If carrots are to be thinned to 3" and a foot between rows I just did a foot wide band of thinly sown seeds. For one example. Also mixed flowers in here and there. By Fall it was all higgley-piggley but beautiful. I did find some plants got shaded out but it isnt hard to figure out who needs lots of space/staking and who wont bear competition. So, I would say to definitely go for it. Plant with abandon and expect to replant when needed. Try to get lots of complimentary colors and textures going. Have fun with it.

YMMV

DeneciePie

I reckon you can do straight lines in a larger garden or on an allotment but our garden is small and backyard is smaller
I tried to do square foot gardening in the slightly raised beds - but some plants need more space than others so it's more crazy paving than patchwork quilt, at the edges we have some permanent bushes and trees but can find space here and there for a few of one thing or another. just need to remember what is where

The 'Cottage' garden look of mixed veg and flowers can be harder work than the approach of separate flower and veg patches. You will require a greater depth of gardening knowledge to make it work i.e. to achieve crop rotation, ensure plants aren't being over shadowed, swamp others, remembering what you plant and where, etc.

It can also be fiddly working between established plants, particularly a cherished flower or vegetable come to that.

However, there are benefits to mixing flowers and veg in an informal manner - it just depends on the degree to which you take it. Indeed the Victorian walled garden, which one might regard as the epitome of rigid demarcation of veg and flowers, with regimented rows of vegetables, were good examples of the mixing of flowers and veg. The Victorian walled vegetable garden was a colourful place, full of flowers. Now it must be admitted that most of the flowers were restricted to the edges of the vegetable beds, but none the less, they were there.

One benefit you get from mixing flowers and veg is companion planting i.e. planting strong smelling flowers to deter pests. In a similar vein, pests are confused as rather than a mono-culture of vegetables laid out in rows, the vegetables are hidden in and amongst flowers.

Best bet is to experiment. Start low key, say blocks of vegetables with a few flowers round the edges. If this works out, mix and match a bit more.

I have frequently planted fruit (gooseberries, strawberries, etc) and herbs in the flower beds. Got to watch the strawberries though. They can run riot with their runners.

Angus

I've tried the scattering the seeds randomly approach but have gone back to the straight lines for some crops. It is much easier (and quicker) to hoe betwixt rows for things like onions and root veg whereas courgettes/squash once planted tend to grow randomly anyway.

I have a neighbour on the lottie who plants in circles! Don't know why, don't like asking!
But he has a nice ring of PSB!

i try to do the straight line thingy, cus i have a hard time telling young plsnts from weeds if i dont.
however , that being said i have had great success with "volunteer" squash and tomato seedlings that got missed when we rototilled the garden and they came up where they wanted, so we just left them to their own devices, as we figured they must like the spots that they were in, we had a great crop of produce from them so now my motto is "if it roots there, leave it there."

I tend more towards the grid method John Jeavons describes in his books. I don't actually have a grid - I think he suggests 1" chicken wire so that you can space accordingly - I just do it by eye.

The best thing about it is you can plant closer together by this method and up here everything benefits. They support each other better in the high winds we regularly get.

most of my veg this year was in pots as i acquired and overgrown mess of a garden and there was no way of getting the garden cut back and planted in time for the start of the growing season, it actually worked out really well, had lots of large pots and i could move them about to get the best sun and all. the stuff i actually managed to grow in the ground though was more of a scattered mess lol still i actually produced some decent veggies

Im growing everything in straight lines on my alotment to help me with crop rotation and seed ordering. Except sweetcorn, this im growing in a 5x5 block to aid polination. Im just going to plug any gaps with flowers.