#The Modern Kitchen Garden: Design. Ideas. Practical Tips: Janelle McCulloch: 9781864704211: Books

Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A Journalist's Picture Book of Potager Gardens July 19, 2011

Format: Hardcover

A self described, "virgin gardener" sets out to offer a "behind-the-hedges" glimpse into 17 of the world's best kitchen gardens. Each kitchen garden has a few pages of background and history, with the majority of dedicated space for each section devoted to pictures, not always of the actual gardens, but more of an artsy look at anything from garden tools, flowers, to the architecture of the outer buildings. How many pictures of cabbage and red swiss chard do you need in a book? I count at least 12.

Each best kitchen garden has one highlighted paragraph of a practical nature, like " Sunlight and Design" ("Full sun is best for vegetable growth"); "Designing for a Narrow Garden"(Try sectioning it into smaller gardens first"); "Creating a Walled Garden" (surround it with high hedges or walls).There is no detail as to the how. This is definitely NOT a how to book.

I am still confused as to why the title is The Modern Kitchen Garden, since some of highlighted kitchen gardens like, The Kings Garden at the Palace of Versailles, are classic, and not modern and have been in so many garden books, I would hardly call it a "behind-the-hedges" look. I did not expect this based on the title.

The last element of each section, is a very rough layout drawing of the kitchen garden presented, with general description of what is grown in some of the beds. Again, there is no detailed description.

The best part of the book is the actual pictures of some of potager gardens, and I was able to get some ideas from looking at the pictures. Again, the lack of any details on construction, materials, etc is disappointing. There was a very intersting picture of a Chef's garden on a roof of a hotel that is vertical, and sort of looks like bookshelves with plants growing on it, but the lack of detail makes it difficult to grasp the entire concept with just one or two pictures. Overall, there are too many artsy pictures NOT of the potager gardens,and a serious lack of detail on "Modern Kitchen Gardens" which is why I purchased the book. Read more