2013 ALE: The Potager Garden at Stonebridge Mansion

W.D. Wells & Associates, Inc. https://www.facebook.com/wdwells.inc Project Entry: The Potager Garden at Stonebridge Mansion 2013 PLNA Awards for Landscape Excellence Winner Category: Theme Garden Award Level: Bronze Project Description: The Potager Garden at Stonebridge Mansion was completed as part ofthe Oxford Arts Alliance 2011Decorator's Showcase. The Garden is a fun and productive garden featuring culinary & medicinal herbs, vegetables, and sustainable gardening concepts. Many sustainable practices can be seen throughout the project such as a compost bin, a rain water harvesting system, and use of many native herbs and vegetables. A Potager is a French term for an ornamental vegetable garden or kitchen garden. We made sure to keep that in mind as we designed the space. By using a number of herbs that have both culinary and medicinal use we are trying to encourage the public to find more sustainable, home grown options for their own food and medicine. The project also features a vertical herbal wall which is a new idea taking shape in the industry. The wall allows you to provide herbs and vegetables with an optimum growing environment while saving an exorbitant amount of space. It gives people with limited space or poor growing conditions, such as people who live in cities an opportunity to grow their own herbs and vegetables. In addition to the herb wall, vegetables such as lettuce, spinach,beans,tomatoes, and many more can be seen throughout the garden. The garden is located adjacent to the kitchen of the residence to further enhance the garden to table idea. We hope that after seeing this fun themed garden people can both enjoy the space,but also try to apply many of the practices we show to their own landscape. We encouraged visitors to stroll through,or sit awhile in our garden, and learn about rain water harvesting, food crops,vertical gardening,and more! Plant List: Botanical Name (Common Name) 16 - Buxus microphylla 'Franklin's Gem' (Franklin's Gem Boxwood) 1 - Nandina domestica (Heavenly Bamboo) 3 - Dicentra eximia (Bleeding Heart) 5 - Hellebourous orienta/is (Lenten Rose) 8 - Vaccinium corymbost"1J (Highbush B;ueberry) 4 - Hellianthus anuus (Sunflower) 15 - Calendula officina/is (Marigold) 30 - Assorted Vegetables 30 - Assorted Herbs Photo Credit: W.D. Wells & Associates, Inc.