The Art of French Vegetable Gardening - Hardcover

Jones, Louisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1885183097 ISBN 13: 9781885183095

Publisher: Artisan, 1995

Synopsis

The French, who are known for their style in all things, have long brought their artistry to bear on vegetable gardening, turning plots that could be merely utilitarian into gardens of real beauty. The Art of French Vegetable Gardening explores this rich and varied tradition in a way that is both inspirational and practical. Combining 175 color photographs shot throughout France with an informative text, The Art of French Vegetable Gardening explains how to create different styles of decorative vegetable gardens, from the strict geometries of formal tradition to the happy-intermingling of vegetables with flowers, herbs, and fruit trees beloved by organic gardeners. Each chapter offers useful advice and suggestions—applicable to gardens anywhere—while evoking the rich cultural context of the French potager as lovingly described by Colette, Proust, Gertrude Stein, and many others.

Elements of garden design—including layout, hedging, walls, benches, and vertical accents—are detailed, as are specific vegetables that can provide both beauty and flavor. Other topics include companion planting using herbs and flowers, heirloom and collectors' varieties, and even the vegetable garden in winter. An extensive appendix offers 80 classic Frnech recipes for vegetables, lists of plants American seed sources, and French vegetable gardens open to the public. Practical as well as beautiful, The Art of French Vegetable Gardening is an invaluable sourcebook to return to again and again.

About this title

About the Author

Louisa Jones and her husband began gardening in southern France after buying an old farmstead surrounded by vineyards and fruit trees in 1975. Her exploration of the surrounding region led to her first book, Garderns of Provence, in 1992, followed by Provence: A Country Almanac, Gardens of the French Riviera, and The New Provencal Cuisine. Now she has enlarged her scope to all of France, exploring each region's traditions in the art of vegetable gardening.

From Library Journal

Jones (Gardens of Provence, Abbeville, 1992) has been gardening in France since 1975. Here she presents the potager (the kitchen garden or vegetable plot) as an art form, with culinary use as a secondary consideration. Alluding to garden references by Colette, Henry James, Rousseau, and others, she discusses vegetable gardens in the dimensions of space and time. Jones explains that French gardens are enclosed by walls or hedges and lined with espaliered fruit trees or vines; pathways establish the outlines, with water and vertical features filling in. Appendixes give ideas for designing a potager, seed sources, public gardens, books consulted, and recipe suggestions. Equally important are the 175 full-color photographs, which are simply gorgeous. Le Scanff and Mayer have been photographing gardens for 20 years, and their work appears regularly in European gardening and food magazines. This beautiful book is recommended for public libraries and horticulture collections.?Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Artisan
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1885183097
• ISBN 13: 9781885183095
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208