The Ornamental Vegetable Garden

Louis the XIV commissioned a landscape gardener to design the Potager de Roi at Versailles. Many of the fruit and vegetable pruning systems developed by this gardener are still in use today. This beautiful book illustrates the design and planting of the ornamental vegetable garden, where aesthetics and practicality combine to create edible gardens.

For those who aspire to grow a herb or vegetable garden that is not only practical but a work of beauty as well. This book offers practical and attractive guides to planning, designing, creating, constructing and planting an ornamental vegetable and herb garden, both on a large and small scale.

"Demystifies growing vegetables and explains how a vegetable garden can be as beautiful to look at as it is productive, healthy, and economic to use." -- Back cover.

In this lavish book illustrates the design and planting of a potager, esthetics and practicality combine to create a space that is both beautiful to look at and produces a delicious bounty. The book offers practical information on design and planting; construction such as laying pathways and edging, building raised beds and compost bins, and erecting espalier frames and plant supports; plans for traditional ground layouts and advice on style and design, hedges and enclosures. In this age of smaller gardens, the book includes a special section on the creation of a tiny space or "no soil" garden, with a range of vegetables suitable for container planting. Essential horticultural practices such as crop rotation, green manures, composting, and continuity of produce are examined and incorporated with simplicity and practicality, as are concepts such as companion planting and organic management. Above all, this book champions the concept that growing food need not be a strictly utilitarian process, but one that is also highly creative.

In an effort to beautify traditional vegetable gardens, landscape architects and gardeners are finding inspiration in the European vegetable gardens of the 17th century. "Feast Your Eyes" examines the historical antecedents of this modern movement. 106 illustrations. 16 photos.

Today's hottest horticultural trend is vegetable gardening--and the newest crop of vegetable gardens is a treat for the eye as well as the palate. The proof is evident on every page of the first full-color celebration of the ornamental vegetable gardens of America. 250 full-color photos. Size C. 192 pp. Author tour & national publicity. 20,000 print.

Have a beautiful garden that's as pleasing to the eye as it is to the stomach! A glorious gallery of thriving ornamental kitchen gardens, Will inspire beginning and avid gardeners to grow produce in decorative patterns. All the secrets of success are revealed -- how to use color, texture and form; make the most of viewpoints and perspective; introduce unusual crops; and more.