That's a huge job! That said, we have shadowbox fencing on two sides of our garden, interrupted on one side by an arbor where we grow grapes and have benches for seating when we need a shady spot to shuck beans or rest. On the other two sides we have livestock fence, with a strand of electric fencing 24' out and 28' high, just where the deer would set up to jump. It has kept them out for years; we just turn it on at night and that seems to do the trick. On the other sides there is too much activity with people and dogs for the deer to want to come in that way.

Our potager is seeming too large to take proper care of these days, so I am going to try to use some of it for other purposes. You do want to be able to stay a bit flexible. I am probably going to plant either strawberries or flowers in the row next to the raspberries, for instance, so I have fewer rows for vegetables. Our potager has brick walks leading to a patio where the greenhouse is located, and then 30' rows with 18' woodchip paths between them. I interplant with flowers and grow flowers around the patio and the greenhouse, too. But I don't have the raised beds or the pots.

It will be fun to see other responses.

Here is a link that might be useful:

That should have read 24" and 28" on the electric fencing, not feet!

What an ambitious undertaking this is going to be - enough to make me wonder whether you might want to consider creating a beautiful path between your current garden and the new sunny spot, rather than moving all the plants/trees and heavy materials that create the garden.

What is the reason you need to move the whole garden? Do you want a larger garden, or a generally more favorable planting space? If what you need is more sunny space, a meandering path between your "old" garden and your space out front (that you could enlarge) might be delightful, with seating along it. Seats to sit and enjoy your garden, rest bowls of veggies on while picking, etc. are invaluable, I have found.

Otherwise, if you really need to move everything, I would say from my mistakes that you want your paths to be at least 3' wide and low maintenance - pea gravel over weedblock fabric has worked great for me - and your beds to be no more than 3' wide. Don't plant anything that you're not excited about growing/using; and plant what you do plant with plenty of space around each plant (another lesson I learned this year), especially tomatoes and peppers!

Plant the vining plants together in their own bed, preferably on an outside edge bed of the garden. Otherwise you can end up with a gigunda squash plant that
covers more backyard than the grass.

I have found that small plants amidst the veggies and perennials are as important as any ornaments. I use marigolds and alyssum. I have just a few ornaments in my potager - a lantern, a small garden flag, and a few metal fairies that are small enough to be a surprise when you see them! A tiny Irish welcome sign on the gate, and a (free curbside) ladder painted pale yellow that the cucumbers are growing on. And there are two vintage metal patio chairs painted a very bright blue. I plan to add a cairn (stacked stones) at the entrance.

As far as interplanting goes, I made some mistakes this year in interplanting flowers and veggies too closely together, so I would not do that again. Keeping in mind how tall each plant will eventually get is important.

We don't have any deer here (7 miles north of Boston) so I can't be helpful on that topic. Maybe the meandering path idea couldn't be done with deer fence, I don't know. But good luck on whatever you end up doing, it sounds like you have a great crew of help (I'm envious!!)

Donna

My First piece of advice is to plan plan plan before you even begin the transition.

design it out on paper, then mock in the basics in the space and walk around living the design before you decide to keep that vision.

google image protagers to get ideas of what other have done, or just copy mrtoad's design, lol, as his is incredibly beautiful!

I would make it as large an area as possible, incorporating lots of flowers, seating, peaceful places to rest.

Once you are sure of your vision, it might be best to piece meal it. Once bed at a time, or one area at a time. Try to enjoy the creative rather than miserable forcing yourself to do it all quickly. If next year you are split half int he new, half in the old - no big deal, right? Enjoy it all, the planning the transition, don't make yourself miserable.

If I had a large space, surrounded by deer fencing, I would probably have grapes and fruit trees along the perimeter, interplanted with lots of shrub roses and lavender...maybe some other herbs, too.

In the middle, I would have the vegetables and interplant those with cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums and load of alyssum. In the center, it would be lovely to have a covered seating area, maybe an arbor or pergola, if the garden is big enough to still have lots of sun for the veggies in the middle. This would be a wonderful place for clematis, honeysuckle and/or climbing roses. A shaded, fragrant place for a table and chairs...for tea or just to sit and enjoy the garden...is a wonderful luxury :)

I think T-bird has excellent advice, both about planning and "trying out" planned features as much as is possible, and about doing a section at a time without too much pressure on getting it all done asap. Her advice to focus on enjoying the creative aspects of the process is also really wise.

I apologize if my earlier post seemed too skeptical about your idea, I truly was trying to help. You have a terrific ambition to work toward and I congratulate you!

Donna

I agree - plan plan plan. And design it to be flexible. You'll want to be able to rotate beds. You'll want to take into consideration other trees on the property that may grow up and eventually shade out all or parts of the potager.

Closeness to the house is ideal for both working and harvesting.

Sounds like a big job but a fun one with a wonderful reward at the end. Do you have photos of the current set-up?

I'm in the process of expanding my potager from four 5' x 8' raised beds to 7 beds of various sizes, about tripling my planting space. We are adding a 3 foot border inside the perimeter fence for perennial vegs like asparagus and espaliered fruit trees, berry vines, herbs and flowers. Outside the fence there will be another perimeter border for flowers and deer-resistant plants. An arched gate will hold grape vines. Thinking of decomposed granite for the paths, which are 3' wide. I'm creating a 5' x 21' sitting area in the middle, and making my own stained-glass mosaic stepping stones with a huge sunflower design for the "floor".

I've done the opposite--decentralized a large potager into smaller landscape elements. It is backbreaking labor, but if I were to do another potager--which I will, but smaller!!--I would start with the right location. There should be views outwards from the potager from almost every angle. There should also be seamless views from teh house and elswhere in the yard. The old potager was too boxy and squa in the middle of the yard--it didn't really frame any views in or outwards. It was a great production garden though!! I would put the center point at a lower elevation, like a sunken room, maybe a foot deeper or so. I would arrange for 'rooms' within the potager, and use typar to block weeds. I would reuse my provence blue ladders and wrought iron hanging basket stands, but add in the wrought iron tiki torches for keeping out the mosquitoes.

The main thing I would do is make sure I have 3' paths to be able to get the wheelbarrows through the paths!
Many think 2' is good! NOT!
For your back and for easy dumping, go for 3'!!!! Nancy

Plan, plan and then plan some more. My gardening started with just a few tomatoe plants. Then then i got into my head to try sugar snap peas and lettuce in the spring. Good but never get enough production. So I expanded to a huge bed of loose leaf lettuce and spinach. I then tried a small 4 by 7 bed of Yukon gold potatoes. They were so delicious.

So where am I now?
I buy large seed packages from a store in the middle of the Amish farm country. I grow three varieties of potatoes, leeks, strawberries, peepers, string beans, melons, pumpkins, blueberries, onions, garlic. Cucumbers for our home made pickles.

And I grow in cold frames into the fall.

So think about what and how much you want to grow....

Another thing to think about is winter! I know you're in the PNW where it rains A LOT.
I'm in No CA where it rains SOME (compared to you!) LOL
I made my herb garden right next to my back sliding door so I don't have to slog through the mud to get to my herbs in the winter.
I also have a smaller winter garden that I keep right off of the back deck for the same reason. I just have to pop out for a few seconds when it's raining cats and dogs to get to my winter yummies!
I would also research garden design. If you have enough room, go with some different shaped beds (keeping them not more than 3-4' wide), some areas for flowers, pots, herbs (I'm very happy with my herb garden in pots to contain them a bit!)
If you compost, you'll want to keep the compost bin right near the deck/back door for the same winter reasons.
Most of all, keep your yard accessible to bring a truck in!!!!!!!!! We kinda blew that and now have to wheelbarrow all of our soil/manure/compost etc in from our driveway to the garden (about 20 yds or so, but a Pain ITA)
Good luck! Nancy

I echo Nancyjane's comment about path width - just yesterday I tried to pull my garden wagon around a corner into the potager path and whoa! no going any farther. I should have known! Go for 3'!

Also, I agree with others' comments about going with a larger rather than a smaller area from the start, if you can manage it. A potager is a potager no matter the size, but it's easier to lay the whole thing out once, if you think you might want a larger area. I enjoy my garden so much but will probably add on in the fall, to be ready for next year. The more room you have, (if you want to tend it all) the more options it gives you for what, and how, to plant.

Go for it! And have fun.