GROUND BREAKING FOOD GARDENS – Book Review
73 Plans that will change the way you grow your garden
Niki Jabbour. Storey Publishing. 272 pages. Full-Color Illustrations. Paperback: $19.95.
In 2009, when the Obama family planted a kitchen garden at the White House, it re-ignited a trend that had been largely dormant for the past century. The simple act of tilling up the lawn and sowing seeds inspired thousands of families to dig up their own back yards and plant vegetable gardens.
For some, growing food is a welcome alternative to the high cost of packaged foods purchased in supermarkets. For others, it is a way of life that provides healthy exercise, and engages all of the senses through a rich tapestry of colors, fragrance, and flavors.
In Niki Jabbour’s new book, Ground Breaking Food Gardens, you will find 73 themed edible garden designs, each submitted by recognized garden experts from around the country. Novice and experienced gardener will draw inspiration from the charming watercolor illustrations, detailed garden plans with specific plant selections, and Jabbour’s easy writing style.
It is unusual for a garden book to have such a collaborative effort, yet the result is a comprehensive garden design book for every imaginable edible garden. Jabbour writes compelling copy in each design chapter, that reflects the essence of the gardener and explains the qualities that make each design unique.
“Because edible gardening is such a large part of my like, I am always looking for new techniques, designs and ideas to grow more food.” She writes. In her introduction, Jabbour writes, “ if you get no more out of this book than the message that food can be grown anywhere, then I will feel that I’ve done my job.” Indeed, this book is a gem, and reinforces the idea that growing and designing a food gardens with an eye for beauty, might just be the wave of the future.
This book is a celebration of how far most of have come from the long straight rows of a traditional “Victory Garden” in favor of creating gardens that are artful, practical and just plain satisfying.
———————-
Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of The Complete Kitchen Garden ( Stewart, Tabori and Chang 2011) and lectures on kitchen garden designs. Visit: ellenogden.com
