The Southern Kitchen Garden: Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers Essential for the Southern Cook

by William D. Adams, Tom Leroy

A kitchen garden, or potager, is a celebration of the seasons: brimming with vegetables, herbs, flowers, and even fruit trees, it's our link with nature and a source for fresh produce. The kitchen garden has always been an important part of life in the rural south, at times meaning the difference between being well-fed or going to bed hungry. In recent times, the kitchen garden has become fashionable, and now more and more homeowners (in cities, suburbs, as well as the country) are reaping the delicious rewards of growing their own food. A kitchen garden needs little more than a small raised bed, so an aspiring gardener with only a modest backyard will have plenty of room to get started. Have a sprawling yard and an appetitie for an agricultural adventure? The kitchen gardener can try his hand at some produce requiring a little more space: fruit trees, corn, or pumpkins.

Starting with location and soil preparation (where most gardens thrive or fail), authors William D. Adams and Thomas R. LeRoy will take you ste-by-step into the world of the southern kitchen garden. Planting guides for each fruit and vegetable, useful information on propogation and pest-control, recipes scattered throughout, and Adams' own beautiful photography make The Southern Kitchen Garden truly essential reading for all gardeners ready to bring along their produce from seed to the supper table.

Genres: Gardening

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of good info in here, and I like the division of warm versus cool weather gardens. However, the information is a mile wide and an inch deep. In a few places it's two inches deep. This is a good starting place (and probably better the closer you are to Texas) and great for getting ideas, but you're probably going to need to read elsewhere for deeper information.

[M.E. Garber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great for naming specific varieties good for southern gardeners, but living in north Florida as I do, I found a few inaccuracies about what plants/trees we can/should/would-be-crazy-to-try to grow here.