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Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook

Average customer rating:

Gardener's inspiration
Really, a smallish coffee table book
Semi-formal vegetable garden?
A great read on vegetable garden design. Buy It.

Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook
Jennifer Bartley
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guide to Kitchen Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful and Functional Culinary Garden (Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides)
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The Kitchen Garden

ASIN: 0881927724

Book Description

Most gardeners know how rewarding it is to harvest ripe, sun-warmed tomatoes or pungent herbs straight from the garden. But those pleasures can be multiplied a hundredfold by creating a garden that is not only productive, but also a beautiful, well-integrated part of the home landscape. In this handsome volume, Jennifer Bartley shows how the traditional features of the classic kitchen garden, or potager, can be adapted to contemporary American needs and conditions. The book is informed by her conviction that the nurturing, preparing, and eating of fresh, home-grown vegetables contributes enormously both to our ties with the natural world and our ties to each other. Copiously illustrated with photographs and with the author's delightful watercolors, Designing the New Kitchen Garden offers the perfect blend of inspiration and practical guidance.

Customer Reviews:

Gardener's inspiration.......2007-03-28

This book is filled with beautiful pictures and explanations that inspire and educate. Ms. Bartley has her own garden and I felt that I benefited from her own experience. After reading this book, I was ready to place a potager's garden in my own back yard.

Really, a smallish coffee table book.......2007-03-17

The sub-title for this book might be "A landscape designer dabbles prettily in vegetables" The book is beautifully produced, although I found the strong raking light in some of the photographs actually obscured the plants.

The chapter of historical background is almost worth the price of admission itself (if you're interested in history and the history of gardening) Although somewhat preciously phrased, the author does remind us of the connection of spirit, body, and garden, something we may forget when we in the middle of a vicious battle with cabbage loopers.

But the excursions into real gardens felt to me like a fantasy. If these gardens are meant to be inspiring, they failed with me. Every page I turned reminded me that these gardens are big, and clearly cost a lot of money to build and maintain. I never had a clear sense of the good eating that should be coming out of these gardens. And of course, nothing ever seems to go wrong in these gardens; there is no sense of how the gardeners have learned and evolved their gardens over time.

For a book ostensibly about "American" potager gardening, most of the country was omitted. Including midwest, southern, and western garden would have been a big help.

The design chapter starts off on the wrong foot by discussing a potager garden that was never built. Even worse, it was never built in a large urban space with which few of us will ever have to contend, so I fail to see the point. The second garden design discussed, designed for a small restaurant, also has not been built. The third garden is the author's own, now giving me the uncomfortable feeling that the entire book is a vanity project.

When the winter weather keeps you indoors, this will not a bad book to page through; just don't let it be the only book on your shelf about potager gardening.

Semi-formal vegetable garden?.......2006-08-17

The concept of edible landscaping is given a boost toward a practical and beautiful kitchen garden in this book. The history behind kitchen gardens ("potagers", that is gardens designed around culinary use rather than solely appearance) is interesting and lively, and the sections on a few modern garden case studies is useful.

The book stumbles a bit in assuming you already know elements of design, and doesn't discuss the practical considerations of some of them. The examples of "shade mapping" could use a little explanation alongside the drawings; I found them confusing. And there's very little discussion of what to plant when -- presumably you'll decide these on your own with various seed catalogs spread around you, if you can find catalogs that detail things such as plant height and habit, colors and seasons. I haven't found many vegetable seed catalogs that spend time on these sorts of topics, and I was hoping this book would provide some illumination.

Still, there are plenty of suggestions and examples for making your vegetable garden a place of beauty as well as a producer of foods and herbs for your kitchen. My personal leanings are toward the concept that a vegetable garden is beautiful if you can see the significant amount of food you'll be eating from it and so regular plots of densely packed plants are just fine; but I'm sure my spouse will enjoy the more formal look the veggies and herbs will take on in next year's garden as a result of this book.

Do you want a vegetable garden that people -- non-gardening people -- would actually want to walk through? Are you capable of designing a beautiful layout but need a nudge in the right directions? Then this is a good book for you. I'd have prefered more meat in it, so to speak, particularly for the $35 I spent on it.

A great read on vegetable garden design. Buy It........2006-08-05

`Designing the New Kitchen Garden, An American Potager Handbook' by professional garden design consultant, Jennifer R. Bartley is a very serious book, absolutely perfect for the zone 6 snowbound gardener to buy in December, when nothing is growing, and it's even too cold to start hardscaping projects.

What I mean here is that not only does the book give very serious guidance on how to build a potager garden, it gives oodles of historical perspective on how the potager garden design evolved from pre-Christian times, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with it's flowering in the monastary and royal gardens of France.

One thing to point out early in this review is that the book covers practically nothing about things culinary, in spite of the fact that various methods for categorizing this book put it cheek and jowl with books on culinary subjects, which is how I happened to run across it. But as long as I'm on the subject, its important to note that a good reference on gardening techniques must almost by definition have lots of interesting text and pictures for the armchair. While you can always cook, you cannot always garden, and in temperate climes, there will always be many months of down time. This book is the perfect antidote. In fact, as good as this book is, it is almost completely composed of material for thinking and planning and not about digging, laying stone, or planting. The `Designing' of the title must be taken very seriously. There are no recipes here for laying a gravel walk or laying out a herringbone brick path. Go to your Home Depot manuals and hardscaping texts for theses skills. On the other hand, there is a great collection of ideas one may not have normally thought of, should you have the proper venue to lay out the kind of garden discussed in this book.

I must say that the `potager' of the subtitle is the French word for `kitchen garden', which is how this book landed alongside texts on herbs and vegetables. But, the fact that this notion is originally French has as much or more to do with the subject as the `vegetable' part of the notion. The book does not really discuss your garden variety `victory garden'. It really takes on the design of formal gardens which are build to be grand orniments to the spirit as well as resources for the body.

All in all, this book is a kind of knot joining many different strands of ideas, including design for pleasant sights, design for culinary application, design for historical interest, and design for a refuge for the soul. To these ends, it covers a fair number of rather esoteric techniques such as esplanade and pergola design.

Just like the fact that it does not cover a lot of culinary material, it also does not cover a lot of horticultural material. There are no references in the index, for example, on `mulch', `weeding', or `pruning'. It does, however, cover `Christian Symbols', `Roman garden', and `Holy Roman Empire'.

It also gives a list of gardens one can visit, and I'm surprised that neither Longwood Gardens nor the Winthertur Museum are listed. There is a bibliography which I believe should include Amanda Hesser's `The Gardener and the Cook'. Aside from these miniscule nits, this is a great book for sparking wonder and ideas for the gardener.

In the French Kitchen Garden: The Joys of Cultivating a Potager

Average customer rating:

Great value for the price....
Great Illustrtations & Explanations
A delightful read, and some sound advice

In the French Kitchen Garden: The Joys of Cultivating a Potager
Georgeanne Brennan
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811820343

Amazon.com

Georgeanne Brennan became enamored of the concept of the potager, or kitchen garden, while living in the south of France, and has created potagers everywhere she's lived in the nearly three decades since then. The potager, explains Brennan, is more than a garden: it's a chance to observe the seasons, a provider of ingredients for signature local dishes, and a great social democratizer that keeps neighbors in touch as they share their bounty with each other.

One of the main features of a potager is that it is intended as a year-round garden, rather than just a summer, or harvest, garden. To that end, Brennan explains which plants do well in different seasons and how to stagger the plantings during seasonal transition periods so as to use the space efficiently throughout the year. The garden itself can be quite small--9 feet by 12 feet can keep a family of four in fresh produce. Like a potager, this guide is small and sweet. It's attractively illustrated with Melissa Sweet's watercolors, and includes 25 easy recipes that make stars of simple, fresh ingredients. --Barrie Trinkle

Book Description

The tradition of the kitchen garden, or potager, has for centuries been a cornerstone of the French country way of life-a year-round communion between the kitchen and the garden culminating in simple, gratifying meals prepared fresh with the flavors of the season. Taking up where the very popular Potager left off, In the French Kitchen Garden is a lovingly written, beautifully illustrated guide to cultivating a potager. Georgeanne Brennan imparts her passion for the potager while offering advice on adapting a kitchen garden to any climate or space. Punctuated with impromptu recipes for delicious dishes incorporating the fresh produce of each season, this book encourages everyone to adopt ?the creative, relaxed style of the French country cook.

Customer Reviews:

Great value for the price...........2003-03-23

At first glance you might think IN THE FRENCH KITCHEN GARDEN is nothing more than a good door prize. This pretty little book is not very expensive and whereas cheap and beautiful often suggests a void, FKG is packed with all sorts of good ideas for creating your own little kitchen garden. From Ms. Brennan's perspective, the French kitchen garden is a soup garden or potager where one grows vegetables, herbs, strawberries, melons and "cutting flowers, such as zinnias and nasturtiums." She also suggests that although the proper garden would not include trees which shade vegetable plants and flowers and reduce production, occasionally, one includes a fig tree or some other small fruit tree. Generally, the produce grown in the potager is consumed as the season progresses (soup to soup so to speak) with nothing leftover for canning or preserving although some items such as winter squash and potatoes might be stored in a cool dry place for a short while.

The concept of a year-round garden is European, and therefore a foreign idea for most Americans whose only spring crop consists of daffodils. So among other contributions, Brennan encourages the reader/gardener and/or novice potager to think differently about the use of space heretofore only used to grow a few tomato plants and pole beans. I have been a 3 season flower gardener most of my life (spring-summer-fall) but in recent years have attempted to have a good-looking winter garden. My winter "crop" has been more structural than not, consisting of dried grasses, dried sedum and other "interesting" plant forms that are decaying and bird friendly. Ms Brennan has inspired me to rethink my approach and seek out more information about four-season vegetable gardening. Winter for example is a great time to plant onion sets and grow leafy items in a cold frame. If you're thinking about growing the old-style Victory Garden, or want to know more about the soup garden, Brennan's book is a good place to begin.

Great Illustrtations & Explanations.......2002-01-13

My wonderful husband just bought this for me for my birthday and my thumbs are glowing green. (Oh, to be an Alaskan and have a gardening book bestowed up on me in the dead of winter!) The author explains many ideas for gardening in great detail, often explaining what could happen if you do things different ways (for instance, what happens when radishes are grown in hot soil in warm climates vs. in cooler ones.) The illustrations are also efficient in that they are in water colour and show detail where needed and show adequate lay-out.

A delightful read, and some sound advice.......1999-04-24

If you are lucky enough to ever meet Gerogeanne Brennan, you know that she is the real thing: down to earth, a gourmand who gardens. You can trust that Brennan speaks from her experience, not from the experience of her "experts."

In this book Brennan does something unusal that you do not usually find in gardening books, especially ones that are geared for begining gardeners. There are no lists of 10 fool proof plants, nor strict instructions to plant something a specific way on an absolute date or face certain failure. (Honestly, why Martha thinks you have to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day is beyond me.) Brennan instead wants you to understand the philosophy of the potager, and then make your own rules.

Brennan suggests what you might want to plant in each of the four seasons (wherever you happen to live) and tells you what typically would be planted in a true French potager at the same season; Brennan gives you sources to find these plants; Brennan even gives you an idea of what size pot you would need if you are restricted to balconey gardening. Very thoughtful. Though I have not tried any of the recipes in this book, they are similar to others you can find in her well-received cook books.

The book itself is small and well made; the paper is heavy. It feels good in your hand. The illustrations are charming without being too cute, and often they illustrate a garden layout that actually makes sense. And of course Brennan's writing is rich and clear.

This is a good book for a beginning gardener. You will not be dissappointed.

Potager: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style

Average customer rating:

A Feast for All the Senses

Potager: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style
Georgeanne Brennan
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fruits | Cooking by Ingredient | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

In the French Kitchen Garden: The Joys of Cultivating a Potager
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Feast Your Eyes: The Unexpected Beauty of Vegetable Gardens
Edible French Garden (Edible Garden Series, 3)

ASIN: 0811830411

Book Description

With 80,000 of the original sold, Chronicle Books now reissues this cookbook classic with a new cover to introduce it to a new generation of readers. The French country tradition of cooking from a potager, or kitchen garden, has for centuries produced meals that are seasonally fresh, simple, and sparkling with the essential flavors of their carefully grown and prepared ingredients. Here James Beard Award-winning author Georgeanne Brennan captures the full vitality of this age-old cuisine. Arranged by season, Potager features a collection of sixty imaginative recipes made from the very freshest fruits, vegetables, and herbs of nature's bounty. Illustrated with over 100 vivid color photographs of the gardens, the ingredients, and the finished dishes, Potager presents the simplicity and balance of French cuisine at its finest.

Customer Reviews:

A Feast for All the Senses.......2003-02-16

This full-color cookbook is a feast for all of your senses. With luxurious photography and pastel-colored pages, this cookbook will make you long for a potager garden of your own.

The authors were compelled to write this cookbook after twenty years of running Chez Panisse. The authors had a passion for freshness of ingredients that compelled them to snipping fresh rosemary while their neighbors were asleep!

The recipes are organized by seasons:
Spring: The Season of New Growth
Summer: The Season of Full Growth
Fall: The Crossover Season
Winter: The Dormant Season

The Recipes include:
Spring: Onion Pancakes with Dandelion Greens and Bacon, Fettuccine with Pea Pods and Mushrooms, and Fresh Cherry Tart
Summer: Red and Yellow Tomato Platter with Balsamic Vinegar, Cream of Ratatouille Soup with Savory Croutons, and Compote of Peaches and Plums
Fall: Cabbage Leaves Rolled with Roquefort, Pine Nuts, and Jambon Cru, Garlic-Rubbed Roast Chicken with Turnips, Carrots, and Wild Mushrooms, and Persimmon Flan.
Winter: Golden Stew of Pumpkin, Cabbage, and Turmeric with Riso, Civet of Rabbit with Pickled Wild Mushrooms and Caper Toasts, and Tarte Tatin of Quinces and Golden Raisins.

If you enjoy French cooking, and are seeking new tastes and new challenges, you will feast on this cookbook.

Gardens of Plenty: The Art of the Potager Garden

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Gardens of Plenty: The Art of the Potager Garden
Marylyn Abbott
Manufacturer: New Line Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook

ASIN: 1577172752

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Les Potins du potager
Susie Morgenstern
Manufacturer: L'Ecole des loisirs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 2211052126

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Les Legumes Du Potager
Unknown
Manufacturer: Rustica Editions/Editions Fleurus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S5UPIO

Promenades dans le potager du Parnasse: Le droit et les lettres : les relations franco-suedoises dans une persective europeenne (Bibliotheque Beauchesne)

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Promenades dans le potager du Parnasse: Le droit et les lettres : les relations franco-suedoises dans une persective europeenne (Bibliotheque Beauchesne)
Stig Stromholm
Manufacturer: Beauchesne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2701013194

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LE JARDIN POTAGER DE L'AMATEUR
M. Lachaud
Manufacturer: Edutions Bornemann
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Les fiances du jardin potager
Alicia Dujovne Ortiz
Manufacturer: Grasset jeunesse
ProductGroup: Book
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Le Musée des Potagers
Caroline Desnoëttes
Manufacturer: Réunion des musées nationaux
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ASIN: 2711837149

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