Here are some cool videos that illustrate some of the different type of vegetable garden layouts, or designs, used in the past. The series on the English garden shows the wide range of things they grew in horrible English weather, and some of the lengths they had to go to to do it. The French Kitchen Garden (or Potager) video has some interesting aspects that can be adapted to a home or community garden setting. Note that what appear to be raised bed vegetable gardens are actually gardens bordered by short, dense, clipped hedges, usually boxwood.
An example of a an extreme French Garden at the chateau of Villandry, Loire Valley, France (click to enlarge)...
The photogarapher writes, "The Renaissance vegetable garden has nine squares of equal size but with different geometrical patterns. These squares are planted with vegetables of contrasting colours, which give the impression of a multi-coloured chequerboard.
"French 16th century gardeners combined the French monastic idea of growing vegetables in geometric patterns with the Italian monastic idea of ornamental features such as fountains, bowers and flower beds, by using the roses and vegetables newly arrived from the Americas. They called it the "ornamental kitchen garden" (photo by Preserveando)
There is an entire series following the garden above through a full year. Rather than embed all the videos, here are links to the rest of the serie's episodes, or at least part of each episode:
Here is another English Country Garden (click for a larger view) (Nomesaki photo).
The theme in English gardens seems to be "Sure, it will fit...". I believe this has been the norm for centuries, and indeed is the reason for the Kew GArdens - at least one of each..
Terms used to describe them often include phrases such as "riot of color", "packed in" and other terms not suitable for public airing...
