Designing the New Kitchen Garden

An American Potager Handbook

Most gardeners know how rewarding it is to harvest ripe, sun-warmed tomatoes or pungent herbs straight from the garden. But those pleasures can be multiplied a hundredfold by creating a garden that is not only productive, but also a beautiful, well-integrated part of the home landscape. In this handsome volume, Jennifer Bartley shows how the traditional features of the classic kitchen garden, or potager, can be adapted to contemporary American needs and conditions. The book is informed by her conviction that the nurturing, preparing, and eating of fresh, home-grown vegetables contributes enormously both to our ties with the natural world and our ties to each other. Copiously illustrated with photographs and with the author's delightful watercolors, Designing the New Kitchen Garden offers the perfect blend of inspiration and practical guidance.

Media reviews of this book:

"Throughout the book you'll find many easily made, charming garden structures, from blanching devices for rhubarb to wonderful tepees and wattle fencing. I can't wait to use them all in my own garden. Nearly every one of the chapters made me desperate to rush outside and get busy. I read this 222-page, information-packed book in one sitting."

—Vern Nelson, Oregonian, May 25, 2006

"Jennifer Bartley shares with us her love of gardening and of growing her own food. She takes us on a journey where food is an adventure from seed to table. She shows us in this book the history of living simply and being dependent on the land for not just food, but for a balancing of body, spirit, and soul."

—Ursula Sabia Sukinik, Washington Gardener, March/April 2008

"My new favorite book from Timber Press. ... It is a great book that is helping me learn about what I am doing."

—Linda Cobb, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, February 27, 2007

"Keeping out destructive wildlife, creating winter interest, incorporating texture, color, and mood into the room partitions (walls, doorway and floor), and balancing the chaos of plants with the orderliness of structure; Bartley offers suggestions that will help the designer achieve all of these goals."

—Bobbie Schwartz, Buckeye, November 2006

"Check out the stunning examples in this 222-page hardback, and then consider a new edible approach using some of this book's suggestions such as enclosing the kitchen garden and planting in modules instead of straight rows."

—George Weigel, Harrisburg Patriot-News, July 6, 2006

Customer reviews of this book:

"This book has inspired and educated me greatly."

—Lynn S. from Mechanicsburg, Ohio, April 22, 2008

"I love this book!"

—Patti B. from Menlo Park, California, May 8, 2007

"It is a wonderful book — full of interesting information and great ideas."

—Maureen Y. from Chelsea, Vermont, February 26, 2007

"Very nice!"

—Annette J. from Escondido, California, February 22, 2007

"Beautifully crafted and full of useful information. Thank you!"

—Robin K. from Belfast, Maine, February 9, 2007

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An excerpt from this book:

What is a potager? Translated literally from French, potage means a soup of broth with vegetables. For Europeans, le potager has come to mean simply a vegetable garden (jardin des légumes). But the term potager carries with it a much deeper historical tradition. This meaning stretches back to the Middle Ages when all of Western civilization — literature, history, and science — was hanging by a slender thread, hidden behind the high stone walls of medieval monasteries. These cultural outposts were small, isolated, and largely self-sufficient. For the most part, the monks and nuns grew their own food, herbs, and medicines ...

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