Product Description

Magnificent kitchen gardens are a long-standing tradition in France. Every region has its own characteristic examples that--depending on the climate, terrain, and design--boast a profusion of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and herbs. Family knowledge is carefully handed down for the benefit of each new generation. In this wonderful celebration of the French kitchen garden, old-fashioned techniques and obscure produce are rediscovered. An illuminating text and brilliant color photographs uncover vegetable patches alongside chateaux or abbeys, gourmet gardens planted by master chefs, romantic gardens tended by parish priests, and lovely ornamental idylls. Four main sections, covering stately homes, grassroots gardening, dreams and utopias, and vegetable produce, conjure up the rich history and extraordinary variety of the French countryside from Paris to the Alps. The extravagance of the kitchen garden at Mongenan, highly praised by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the mosaic-like patterns of the allotments at Ivry, and labyrinthine cultivated gardens at Amiens are just a few examples of these most original, most secret, most spectacular, and most poetic of kitchen gardens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453618 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 191 pages

Customer Reviews

French garden beauty
The french seem to know how to enjoy life. They have even created their kitchen gardens as works of art. I looked long to find a good book on potagers with pictures of real french gardens after reading "Four-Season Harvest" by E. Coleman. And here they are!

More of a coffee table book of beautiful photos of gardens then a how to/design book. But still full of great ideas that will get you motivated and reworking your garden immediately.

These gardens are very functional and very lovely. Not as structured as others, which I rather liked.