Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook

by Jennifer R. Bartley

A beautiful and bountiful food garden starts here. 

The pleasures of growing your own food can be multiplied by creating a garden that is not only productive, but also a beautiful, well-integrated part of your home landscape. In Designing the New Kitchen Garden , Jennifer Bartley shows how the traditional features of the classic kitchen garden, or potager, can be adapted to contemporary needs and conditions. Throughout, the book is informed by Bartley’s conviction that the nurturing, preparing, and eating of home-grown vegetables greatly enhances our connection to the natural world. Copiously illustrated with photographs and with the author's delightful watercolors,  Designing the New Kitchen Garden  is the perfect blend of inspiration and practical guidance.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Food, Horticulture

222 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't consider myself much of a Francophile, but this book really captured my attention with the photos of French potagers. The focus here is garden design, which is why I picked it up. I know a lot about the mechanics of gardening but my knowledge is lacking in design considerations and principles. Bartley provides good background and guidance for creating beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, functional kitchen gardens that look as good as they taste. The neat lay-out of design principles was useful and informative. There is good guidance and advice for how to approach your own design process and then how to work through the plan. There is a section of sample gardens where you can see the principles at work. Useful topics for any gardener are covered here - crop rotation, organic gardening, open-pollinated seeds - which may be unfamiliar to someone coming from a background of formal, ornamental gardening. There is a section on the history of kitchen gardens, focusing on European and monastic gardens. Overall, I think this book is best suited for someone who has a background in ornamental gardening & wants to transition to growing some food. The designs and examples are not the best way to maximize your food production in a small space, but they are quite beautiful. The focus is more on aesthetics than maximum production, which is great. Personally, I hope to find a balance between ornamental and utilitarian food production styles, but this book goes a long way with plenty of inspiration and good information. Since this is a library book, I found myself madly taking notes before the due date, copying plant lists and counterpoint examples. This is the kind of book that would be a good long-term reference if you are creating a potager. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I would read a gardening book cover to cover, but I loved this book. She gives a great history of the kitchen garden and some inspiring ideas for creating your own kitchen garden. It has lists of different types of plants to use, but doesn't give a lot of detail on the actual techinicalities of planting a garden.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since the pandemic has canceled our vacation, I've decided to invest the money in installing a potager garden in my backyard.

This is comprehensive book on the history of the jardin potager, tips for plant choices and design ideas.

The pictures are plentiful and the prose is well written.

Highly recommended.

[Mindy Burroughs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expanding the definition of a garden, just by reading it I can tell it has already changed the way I will see my garden in the future. Very inspiring.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book for garden inspiration. This is one for my permanent personal library.

[Julie Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written differently than most garden "how to" books. Jennifer Bartley's writing style flows easily and I found myself drawn into her garden. I value her knowledge on plant material and to how she incorporates the plants into a garden which is an extention of herself. I too, believe this

[Kimberly Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - I thoroughly enjoyed reading the history of potager, but the book seemed less practical in terms of actual design than I had hoped. I got the feeling there was "one way to do it right" and any plot varying by much would be deemed "inauthentic." My potager will be wholly inauthentic by these terms, and yet perfect for our plot and preferences. (LOL I hope!)
The many close-up photographs weren't very helpful from a design standpoint, and the actual plans and drawings did not seem as if they would scale down to smaller suburban / urban plots.
Bartley gave great data on the crops she likes to grow, but didn't branch out much farther. I'd rather have a little information on okra than details on a plethora of basils.
Most helpful for this journeyman veggie grower was the little chart on crop rotation.
There was little to no practical instruction on how to clear a plot, build fencing, raised beds, & paths, the pros and cons of various trellises and plans for building them, irrigation methods, pest control, fertilizers & composting, etc.
Very much a beautiful coffee-table book & "philosophy of food" treatise, but not a practical how-to guide.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book two stars because it isn't precisely a how-to book, though it does give some solid advice and suggestions. Nor is it strictly a picture book, though it does contain some beautiful pictures of old and/or famous gardens as well as some modern-day ones.

Eh, thinking about it, I gave it three stars after all. It's a lovely book, just not what I was looking for. What I wanted was direction on HOW to create a kitchen garden, and this is more of a series of articles about other peoples' gardens. So I'd say that this is not a practical book for someone new to gardening, although the pictures will be inspiring. And perhaps once they've been gardening for a little while, they'll find themselves coming back to American Potager and thinking oh yes, I can do that...

That's what I'm hoping for myself, at any rate.

[January · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. If you're an experienced vegetable gardener, most of this book will be tiresome talk of gardening basics like cool-season vs. warm-season crops and the difference between annuals and perennials and the virtues of compost.

I did very much enjoy the education and photos in the first chapter describing historical examples of kitchen gardens and the few examples of modern kitchen gardens later on. The photos were too small and low quality to make too much out, though. Sadly, I think I've gotten more kitchen garden inspiration from Google image searches. I was really hoping this book would dive deeper into the subject, but alas...

[Kylin Larsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pretty book with lots of history on the origin of the kitchen garden. Not very useful for the beginner on how to take a big plot of land and um, turn it into a kitchen garden. Oh well.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
I’m not sure of the target market for this book. The information is minimal so it’s not great for gardeners with a basic understanding of gardening. It also doesn’t have enough information for a beginner. The pictures are fine but not good enough for a coffee table book for dreamers either. It does have some decent information on a few specific gardens. It’s a good book to borrow from the library and take a quick look through but I wouldn’t recommend buying it.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history was fascinating. For example, apparently the decline of British food and the incline (?) of French food can be attributed to garden design. The British fashion became to move gardens out of view in favor of the formal garden. However the French potager style was to keep the chaos of the garden always in view of the house and ridiculously easy to access from the kitchen.

As far as actual garden info, not sure I learned a ton. But I guess this was more of a garden design book.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous gorgeous book! I dream of gardens like these.

[Whitney Stanfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

great design and very informative

[Fiona Humphries · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the detail in the designs - well worth buying for them alone. Some of the planting information can be found elsewhere but the design and layout parts I have not found elsewhere.

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic, skimmed it.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deserves 4.5 stars. Very useful, with detailed and lovely maps and pictures. I also appreciated the basic history of potagers included in the first chapters. (She even includes a sub-section on my most favorite potager in all the world: the Potager du Roi at Versailles.) I'm sure I'll return to this book again and again--a lovely escape in a long winter, with good plans and lists of plants.

Just two fairly small critiques: first, a couple of the garden designs at the back of the book are very, very large: professional scale, nowhere near "kitchen garden" scale. I would have liked to see more variety in size and regional kitchen gardens. Second, there's just far too much passive voice and annoying passive sentences in this book. Bartley needs a good editor to help make her sentences active more often.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author has the vegetable garden of my dreams...brick paths, raised beds, pretty fence, cute gate...oh how I pine for that garden sometimes.

This book has some great designs and illustrations for gardens. As someone who designs gardens for people it's always fun to read other people's takes on the process. She has an interesting intro about the history of potager gardens in Europe - time for a study tour!

But, 'tis the season of garden work, not garden reading, so I think I am done with gardening books until winter.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly beautiful pictures in this book. This doesn't cover growing techniques, but it focuses on the design of the garden. It has a ton of great ideas, and layouts. It also shows pictures of real "potagers" - kitchen gardens.

This book got me excited about gardening, and that is a very difficult thing to do. I think when we are ready to plant a garden, it will definitely model one of these gardens.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous book of garden ideas! I am sooo inspired to not only set up my garden following some of her designs, but to also incorporate the idea of making the garden beautiful and useful all at the same time. The designs are a nice fit with Mel Bartholemew's 'Square Foot Gardening'. This is an idea book more than a how-to book, though there is some useful how-to information sprinkled here and there, as well as a great crop rotation plan for one of the designs.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that explores the history of kitchen gardens, potagers, and then proceeds to describe how to create one including specific principles to follow. I found the book, very interesting although much I was already familiar with. At the end the author explores several contemporary examples and how they were created and their specific features. I was very happy to be reminded of "Principle #3; Consider the bird's eye view"!

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best gardening book I've read this year. I met Jennifer Bartley while at the Garden Writers Assoc. symposium, and she told me a bit about the book's background. It began as her Master's Thesis, and you can tell it from the depth of her writing. I loved the history of the gardens and am making plans to move my vegetable garden and reshape it because of this book. Worth every penny.

[penny shima glanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combine a gardening history book with gorgeous photos and useful hints and summary charts and you will receive 222 pages of hard covered inspiration. This is not a book for the gardener looking for an easy fill in the blank guide. This is an educational resource that will help you learn and design the kitchen garden that works for you and your space.

[Lise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Bartley's beautiful 'Designing the New Kitchen Garden' inspired the design of my own potager and sparked a new obsession with vegetable gardening. See the pictures of my kitchen garden at this link:

http://www.roomzaar.com/rate-my-space...

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book laid out some thorough research on the history of kitchen gardens, complete with photos of recreations, historical images, and pictures and designs of modern gardens based on potagers of the past. It would be useful for anyone looking to design a permanent garden to make growing edible plants fit in with a more decorative garden space.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the more complete gardening books that I've encountered. I'm big on the idea of using edibles as ornamentals, and this author takes you from start to finish--the pages are filled with fascinating history, design advice, and how-to's from seed to frost. Beautiful!

[Macy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book. There is a great overview of the history of kitchen gardens as well as modern examples. Some of the things would be prohibitively expensive for most people, but inspiring nonetheless.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic for those wanting help in designing a lovely space. I'm all for the no grass/ yes path type of garden. Since we eat maily veggies and fruits the ideas for transforming an empty space into a useful, beautiful garden is very appealing.

[Anri · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Potager" means "kitchen garden" in French. For someone who is interested in gardening, especially edible gardens, this is a great book to learn about how to design formal vegetable gardens and their history.

[Tamara]

Definitely more of a "read it" than a "flip through it" book.

Includes mockups for gardens, but nothing that can be translated for a container garden. Would be better for people with large plots of land to work with.