Book Review: The Kitchen Garden

The Kitchen Garden, A Practical Guide to Planning & Planting

This book from the Wayside Gardens Collection belongs on the shelves of those who decide they must have a Kitchen Garden as part of their landscape. While some books of this type (such as 'Herbs' by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead) hybrid recipes and food related chapters with garden information, Andi Clevely's 'The Kitchen Garden' is one book that actually sticks to the gardening aspect of growing food for the kitchen. Kitchen gardens are a bit different from the usual veggie patch and Clevely's book well illustrates that fact. In fact, the illustrations are a real asset of owning this book!

With beautiful pictures of well designed examples, hand drawn ornamentation and how-to directions, 'The Kitchen Garden' is spiced with the colorful additions which make many of today's garden books such a delight to the eyes. The format begins with garden basics and moves into specific plant profiles for vegetables, fruits, and herbs. I liked the clear directions and information given.

If you have many garden books, you may find the coverage of the basics repetitive for you, but I thought this was well done, both easy to access and well-written. The helpful hints and tabled information are added in throughout the book in a visually accessible and pleasing way. It is subtitled as "A Practical Guide to Planning & Planting" and I think that is exactly what it is, with the added value of those lovely photos and illustrations.

If you aren't interested in growing food, or if you need something highly detailed in the practice of improving your produce, or understanding organic gardening methods, you might not fully appreciate the simplicity this book offers. Sometimes, though, clear, to-the-point information garnished with attractive pictures is the perfect garden guide.

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