Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I like the idea of a potager vs. the typical American harvest garden; a potager/garden that produces food in a staggered fashion is better suited to me as an urban gardener who doesn't want to put up jars of vegetables for the winter, but rather wants something fresh for lunch and dinner throughout the year. This is a well-written, practical guide to growing a potager of one's own.

I've probably read this charming little book celebrating the joys of the French style "potager" garden at least 100 times. It is Georgeanne Brennan's personal and instructional account of the four season garden lifestyle she learned while living in the French countryside. The story is put forth in a way that makes a gentle, yet deep and lasting impression as the potager philosophy emerges through interactions with her rural neighbors. It is an important year around gardening approach that, to my view, makes a powerful contrast with the American Harvest style garden, generally planted once a year in the spring and dormant over the winter. I have her to thank for my fabulous winter garden and the inspiration for my own potager. This style of gardening makes great use of small spaces and is easily managed with biodynamic and sustainable practices. For this reason, and the gentle revelation of the potager philosophy, which enhances the harvest garden approach, I think this book belongs in the library of every American gardener, as we have much to learn from this centuries old tradition. French country cooking is also demystified as the moving melange of the seasons, revealed in the watercolor illustrations of the garden design for each season. A must for cooks and gardeners!

In a word, joyful! The author celebrates the interconnectness of nature and food, encouraging us to reconnect with the earth, the uniqueness of each season, to relish creation. This book is not an in-depth how-to manual per se, rather a method of discovering or rediscovering the relationship between nature, food, and spirit. Beautiful artwork sets off the wonderful prose.

I love this book. It is packed with great tips and good illustrations. I like the style of the author. Reading this is like getting gardening ideas from a friend. I have had this book for more than a few years and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in vegetable and flower/herb gardening.