The Ornamental Kitchen Garden

by Geoff Hamilton

This book offers a practical guide to a new style of gardening. In fact, it is not a new style but a return to traditional methods - found in gardens all over the world from medieval monasteries to Victorian kitchen gardens - when fruit, flowers and vegetables were planted in the same beds in a delightful and productive mix. Not only does this sort of garden look good and provide constant variety all year round, but it is ideally suited to small gardens as well as large. It attracts plenty of wildlife - especially birds and insects - which helps to keep pests under control, while the different species growing side by side make the most of the soil. Geoff Hamilton, BBC TV's popular gardening expert and the presenter of "The Ornamental Kitchen Garden" television series on which the book is based, tells you everything you need to know to create an ornamental kitchen garden from scratch, or to transform an existing garden. He explains, with the help of drawings, how to plan your garden with paths, beds, patio and garden pool. Using step-by-step photos and easy-to-follow drawings, he shows how to make all the essential components: brick and scree paths, arbours and pergolas, cold frames, cloches and compost bins, as well as how to lay lawns. He gives detailed descriptions of the decorative plants - perennials and annuals, bulbs and herbs, climbers, vegetables, ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit trees and bushes - some old favourties and some the latest varieties - which would be most suitable for this sort of garden, explaining how to cultivate them and to propagate further plants. A chapter on the seasons has colour photographs for the months of spring, summer and autumn illustrating many of the plants flowering or fruiting at the time, accompanied by month-by-month reminders of jobs to be done.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Horticulture

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Geoffrey Stephen Hamilton (15 August 1936 – 4 August 1996) was an English gardener, broadcaster and author, best known as presenter of BBC television's Gardeners' World in the 1980s and 1990s.

Reviews

[Rose Gardener · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about Geoff Hamilton, and grew up with him being the face of Gardeners World. This has his no nonsense practical advice in his characteristic kindly paternal style...yes I'm nostalgic and biased probably. His ability to make stuff yourself cheaply always impressed me though, and here he makes an excellent cold frame, a victorian style cloche or a rose arbour etc. It is an old book, 1990, but stands up well, as he was ahead of his time really. If you had never seen a plant before you could get going with this book, it is affordable and domestic in scale and the advice is sound and relevant. I keep the book because it reminds me of Geoff.

[Lime · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally got this book for one cent (plus shipping), and as such it was a great bargain. It is absolutely packed with information, and it's great for anyone who enjoyed the TV series of the same name, or for those interested in growing food and flowers together. Beautiful and informative sections on garden design, construction, fruits, veggies, and flowers are all here along with some technical chapters on propagation and pest control. It was written for the British garden and so some of the techniques are not applicable to North American gardeners, however. It gives plans with measurements for building garden structures such as cold frames and pergolas as well. I love this book!

[Kacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decided to refresh myself on Geoff's ideas before the big annual seed sort-out. I now have a plan for the 2026 allotment, and after reading The Bees (which I was kindly given for Christmas), it will involve a lot more flowers!