In the French Kitchen Garden: The Joys of Cultivating a Potager

by Georgeanne Brennan

Book Overview

A guide to cultivating a traditional French kitchen garden, which can be used to supply ingredients for simple French country meals all year round. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811820343
• ISBN13: 9780811820349
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (CA)
• Length: 119 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great illustrations!

Love the details! Very helpful illustrations in preparing for each seasonal garden plot. Will continue to return to in years to come!

wonderful book

I like the idea of a potager vs. the typical American harvest garden; a potager/garden that produces food in a staggered fashion is better suited to me as an urban gardener who doesn't want to put up jars of vegetables for the winter, but rather wants something fresh for lunch and dinner throughout the year. This is a well-written, practical guide to growing a potager of one's own.

One of my favorite go-to gardening books....

I love this book. It is packed with great tips and good illustrations. I like the style of the author. Reading this is like getting gardening ideas from a friend. I have had this book for more than a few years and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in vegetable and flower/herb gardening.

An inspirational treasure that will move you to the garden

I've probably read this charming little book celebrating the joys of the French style "potager" garden at least 100 times. It is Georgeanne Brennan's personal and instructional account of the four season garden lifestyle she learned while living in the French countryside. The story is put forth in a way that makes a gentle, yet deep and lasting impression as the potager philosophy emerges through interactions with her rural neighbors. It is an important year around gardening approach that, to my view, makes a powerful contrast with the American Harvest style garden, generally planted once a year in the spring and dormant over the winter. I have her to thank for my fabulous winter garden and the inspiration for my own potager. This style of gardening makes great use of small spaces and is easily managed with biodynamic and sustainable practices. For this reason, and the gentle revelation of the potager philosophy, which enhances the harvest garden approach, I think this book belongs in the library of every American gardener, as we have much to learn from this centuries old tradition. French country cooking is also demystified as the moving melange of the seasons, revealed in the watercolor illustrations of the garden design for each season. A must for cooks and gardeners!

Great Illustrtations & Explanations

My wonderful husband just bought this for me for my birthday and my thumbs are glowing green. (Oh, to be an Alaskan and have a gardening book bestowed up on me in the dead of winter!) The author explains many ideas for gardening in great detail, often explaining what could happen if you do things different ways (for instance, what happens when radishes are grown in hot soil in warm climates vs. in cooler ones.) The illustrations are also efficient in that they are in water colour and show detail where needed and show adequate lay-out.

A delightful read, and some sound advice

If you are lucky enough to ever meet Gerogeanne Brennan, you know that she is the real thing: down to earth, a gourmand who gardens. You can trust that Brennan speaks from her experience, not from the experience of her "experts."In this book Brennan does something unusal that you do not usually find in gardening books, especially ones that are geared for begining gardeners. There are no lists of 10 fool proof plants, nor strict instructions to plant something a specific way on an absolute date or face certain failure. (Honestly, why Martha thinks you have to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day is beyond me.) Brennan instead wants you to understand the philosophy of the potager, and then make your own rules.Brennan suggests what you might want to plant in each of the four seasons (wherever you happen to live) and tells you what typically would be planted in a true French potager at the same season; Brennan gives you sources to find these plants; Brennan even gives you an idea of what size pot you would need if you are restricted to balconey gardening. Very thoughtful. Though I have not tried any of the recipes in this book, they are similar to others you can find in her well-received cook books.The book itself is small and well made; the paper is heavy. It feels good in your hand. The illustrations are charming without being too cute, and often they illustrate a garden layout that actually makes sense. And of course Brennan's writing is rich and clear.This is a good book for a beginning gardener. You will not be dissappointed.