Gardening like a Cook: Everything in Place. Mise en place is a French phase defined the Culinary Institute of America as “everything in place,” used in professional kitchens to organize and arrange the ingredients. Herbs and spices, freshly chopped fresh and par boiled vegetables, sauces and stocks. Setting up a lot of little bowls with […]
Kitchen Garden Designs
True Kitchen Gardens
I like to suggest that gardeners plant a kitchen garden near the kitchen door, but if you can actually bring it into your kitchen, well, you’ve got the real thing. Here are some images I found inspiring. While not entirely practical, but I sure like the idea of integrating growing food into our daily cuisine […]
Savory Summer Recipes
The best part of growing a kitchen garden is that you don’t have to stop at the supermarket on your way home from work. Instead, you can pick up your harvest basket and pluck lettuce and tomatoes on your way into the house. There is nothing more exciting than harvesting those first ripe tomatoes, eggplants, […]
Listen to your peas
It always takes a little while for me to decide where to plant the peas. There is no doubt about it, the thrill of the first emerald green shoots emerging from the soft soil, is almost as exhilarating as the taste of the sweet pods that will follow in early July. But it never lasts. […]
The Paint Box Garden
I’ll be the first to admit that I have never been a fan of raised bed gardens, until recently. Last spring when I designed a garden for White Flower Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut, we looked at my portfolio of designs and they chose the Paint Box garden, featured in my new book The Complete Kitchen […]
Sticks and Twine.
I am preparing to teach a 3 day garden workshop to be held at the Rowe Center in Rowe, Massachusetts. The class will focus on new ways to plant a kitchen garden, starting with the basic foundations of garden site and design, to include lessons on paths, beds, soil and plant materials. At the end […]
Earth Engine Composters
In my small yard, hiding the compost pile isn’t easy. That’s why I said goodbye to a funky black plastic composter, in favor of a more aesthetic design. My new cedar composter from Steve’s Earth Engines is a year old, and has aged to a gentle patina that fits easily into my backyard garden landscape, […]
Ellen Ogden’s Kitchen Garden Design Class
Sunday was the final day of my kitchen garden class. The group started in March, the first of a five class series to learn about creative kitchen garden design and how-to plant. In our first class, we sketched out garden designs on paper, followed by a wish list of seeds and plants. For some, it […]
Garden Art
There is a thin line between garden art and junk, yet there is no doubt it’s a personal matter. One of my favorite garden designers is Tara Dillard, who follows the European garden trends and knows just the right color blue/green to paint the patio furniture, or the latest on pillar candles for outdoor lighting. […]
