(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to --, Fine, Form, Function, and, in on 2007-01-10, 21:00:00

Any healthy, well-tended vegetable garden is beautiful, but some are works of art, and the one at the Chateau de Villandry in France's Loire Valley is considered the Mona Lisa of potagers. It forms only one part of the formal grounds that grace this Renaissance castle, but, on its own, it is a pilgrimage site for kitchen gardeners. More than 40 kinds of vegetables, from peppers to pumpkins, are set out in tidy square plots edged with boxwood, each a flawless composition of complementary textures, forms and colors that change with the seasons. Inspired by gardens of the 15th century, it is like a 100,000-square-foot bejeweled altar cloth, spread over the land in homage to the fruits of the earth.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to Joy, Tidings, and, compost, of on 2006-11-29, 21:00:00

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . a truckload of well-aged horse manure.

(Via washingtonpost.com - A Cook's Garden by Barbara Damrosch)

Posted by admin to Bean, Beauty, The, and on 2006-07-05, 20:00:00

If there were a prize for the most versatile vegetable, the scarlet runner bean would be a serious contender, even though it's hardly a garden staple. It may be best known as a children's plant. Kids are often encouraged to make a tepee out of bean poles and sow scarlet runners at the base of each. This is a great project for a small gardener -- the seeds are easy to plant, quick to sprout and fast-growing. By midsummer, a tent of dark green vines has magically appeared, adorned with clusters of scarlet flowers, a secret hideout of his or her own creation.