- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: Taunton Press (Mar 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1561581801
- ISBN-13: 978-1561581801
- Product Dimensions: 27.7 x 21.1 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 953 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,516,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Practicality and beauty come together in traditional kitchen gardens, where a little forethought and planning can turn the humblest of cabbage patches into a delight for the eye. Briefly tracing the history of horticultural design from ancient Roman times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when formal knot gardens and parterres flourished in Europe, through the lush Victorian carpet bedding, the Gertleys show how vegetable gardeners eager to raise their craft to a more ornamental level can poach traditional elements for their own backyard designs. From the tiniest of garden plots, such as a window box or container, to more expansive spaces, the authors provide instructions for achieving both "a visual feast and a surprising amount of produce at harvest time." Everything is here but the seeds?diagrams, plant lists, tips on color harmony and discussions of such dilemmas as dealing with succession planting without spoiling the overall look. If the prose is somewhat utilitarian, the book is commendably thorough, enlivened by vivid photographs that effectively prove the point: visual examples draw on such diverse sources as geometric quilt blocks, family crests, intricate Celtic knots and architectural detail. Elevating the useful to the beautiful has never looked so good, and this guide should help inspire gardeners to bring their vegetable plots out from behind the compost bins and onto center stage.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The difference between vegetable gardens and kitchen gardens, writes Turner in her introduction to Kitchen Gardens, is that "a kitchen garden has style." No more straight boring rows of vegetables: culinary gardens can now be made in a variety of styles and laid out in intricate patterns that include plenty of flowers among the edibles. Recognized garden writers address this style in 17 chapters: Suzy Bales on kitchen gardens in bloom, Renee Shepherd on essential vegetable plants, Cathy Barash on kitchen gardening in the Northeast, and so on. Grouped by theme (design, basic techniques, plant material, region), these short essays provide the inspiration and basic information to get any gardener started. The Gertleys' book concentrates on just one of the possible design styles for a kitchen garden, based on the parterre de broderie, which achieved its ultimate glory at Versailles. Beginning with simple geometric shapes, their designs become increasingly complex as they use Celtic knots, Japanese crests, and quilt patterns as their inspiration. These gardens demand much of their creators, as they must be meticulously laid out, carefully groomed, and even harvested with care in order not to destroy the patterns made by the vegetables. Unfortunately the diagrams for the various garden layouts are hard to decipher, putting an unnecessary burden on the gardener. A better volume to follow up on the ideas of Kitchen Gardens is Susan McClure's Culinary Gardens (LJ 10/1/97). For specialized collections.?Molly Newling, Piscataway P.L.,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
gardens have been an inextricable part of nearly every culture since the dawn of antiquity. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
gardens have been an inextricable part of nearly every culture since the dawn of antiquity. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vegies never looked so good!,
By M Bell (Geelong, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Art of the Kitchen Garden (Hardcover)
I love it. It's beautiful to look at. It is creative and has lots of pictures of techniques and colours etc. You can buy a practicle vegie growing book on when to plant tomatoes and avoiding pests anywhere. This book is about how to grow it to look good. It discusses height of plants, border plants, colour (green and texture leaf), styles for different gardens. You will also love anything you can find on Chateau Villandry - The French Kithcen Garden is amazing. They have a great website too.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gorgeous fantasy of formal vegetables,
By
This review is from: Art of the Kitchen Garden (Hardcover)
A gorgeous fantasy for the gardener who wants everything. Replete with color photographs, charts and plans, the Gertleys' combinations of flowers and vegetables in formal designs satisfy the desire for beauty, productivity and the urge to impress the neighbors.Beginning with an overview of gardens of the past, the authors proceed to design, discussing elements of color, texture and space and offering specific and detailed photos and plans for gardens inspired by anything from quilts to honeycombs to a scaled down version of the kitchen garden at the Chateau de Villandry in France. In addition to detailed designs, the Gertleys offer guidelines and advice for drawing on your own inspiration, from mixing colors and adding elements of texture (organic or artificial) to plant height and arrangement. On the less creative side of things, they discuss planting timing and harvesting, growing from seed and buying seedlings and garden preparation and maintenance. The practical advice is basic; useful but almost an afterthought. Weeds, for instance, don't get mentioned until page 134. The designs, however, are well illustrated - from flourishing result back to graph paper plot and plant placement. This is a book for gardeners with time and ambition and dreamers who just love to look.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I wanted,
By A Customer
This review is from: Art of the Kitchen Garden (Hardcover)
I really wanted a useful book that would help to develop a kitchen garden, but this book is really just a beautiful coffee table book with pictures of lovely gardens.If you want a book that tells you how to go about GROWING things, skip this one.
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