Kitchen Garden Planner (Country Home) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Cathy Barash (Editor), Jo Kellum (Co-editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From the editors of Country Home magazine. As hardworking as it is beautiful, this book intricately profiles the designs and plantings of kitchen gardens in rural, urban and small-town settings nationwide. 13 projects inspire and help every gardener. Approached to kitchen gardens vary - from simple containers to raised garden beds. More than 400 color photographs capture garden overviews plus interesting vignettes. Each project features a color illustration of the design, with a key that clearly identifies plants. Mail order sources for all plants.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Country Home; 1st edition (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0696209233
• ISBN-13: 978-0696209239
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,098,393 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Potager Planning!, March 23, 2000

By A Customer

The concept of a potager, or kitchen garden appeals to me greatly. I very much want my garden to be ornamental as well as edible. Somewhat similar to the idea of "edible landscaping", potagers often intermingle vegetables, herbs, and flowers, sometimes planting them in geometric shapes. Sort of a more formal, yet informal garden. Colorful. Interesting. Not your garden-variety garden. I've been looking for online articles and for books on potagers, which seem to be popular in England, but hard to find in the United States. I haven't been able to find much information on them.

Country Home's Kitchen Garden Planner by Darrell Trout is just what I was looking for. It takes the reader through mini-tours of thirteen different American potagers, with text, photographs, and a plan (illustrated map) for each garden. A few of the individual plant varieties are somewhat unusual, but they described and keyed to commercial sources. The one defect that I found was that a couple of the sources seem to be omitted from the index, or perhaps there was a typo, a minor flaw in an otherwise exciting book. The last chapter talks about basic gardening in general. I only wish there was more on potagers in the Midwest where I live. Then again, where I live, there is wheat as far as the eye can see and not much else.

I really like this book. I wanted ideas for designing a potager and this book has given me lots of ideas. It is strong on the visuals, which I wanted, but also has informative text. Plus, I can just copy or modify one of the garden designs in the book to suit my needs, personal preferences, and growing zone until my own style evolves.