Kitchen Garden Design Class

The Art of Growing Food is a six-week design class series to help you start your design on paper. This class covers design, soil and plants, and how to set up structures for comfort and beauty.

Simplify Your Kitchen Garden Design

Free introductory workshops. Sign up here.

The Art of Growing Food workshop is about designing a vegetable garden to give it a European kitchen garden flair. Working with templates from my books, and my six steps to successful design, participants will learn the principles of classic design with practical tools for growing the most flavorful food.

What’s the format?

The Art of Growing Food class is a virtual class, taught on zoom with a platform for sharing with other students and resources. There are weekly assignments to keep students organized and moving forward with their personalized designs. I teach the class by combining a lecture format with photos to show the many design possibilities, with hands-on working sessions and sharing on the virtual platform in small groups. Each class will look at specific design challenges and develop solutions for individual landscapes.

What will the participants learn?

We review design, how to read a seed catalog, and organic garden principles for healthy soil. With a focus on growing food, participants will increase their understanding of what they can do to transform an ordinary vegetable garden into something extraordinary. The goal is to simplify and engage all the senses and to elevate their garden into more than just a place to grow food.

Is the workshop appropriate for new gardeners?

This workshop is ideal for new gardeners, and also experienced gardeners. We will cover the basics such as how to design on paper using graph paper, rulers, and tracing paper to draw the design. Then we take it from paper to the actual garden–if it is spring or summer this means going outside with stakes and twine. Experienced gardeners will get to see their garden with fresh eyes and make changes that add to their enjoyment.

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Reviews from students:

Hi Ellen-

Thanks so much for the wonderful Kitchen Garden Design Workshop!  Your presentation really helped me focus on how to develop a design for my landscape.  It was incredibly insightful to draw out the existing garden beds in my backyard!  Doing a sketch helped me understand how I could add to and enhance my garden.  Your templates were just what I needed to create a design.  Hope you don’t mind the gushing…but I loved your new book, too!  Thanks, again, for a delightful class!    –

All the best to you-
Ann H.

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Hi Ellen,

Thank you so much. I honestly can’t say enough about your class, it’s just been so enjoyable! Your willingness to share and teach are certainly helping me to be a better gardener. It’s been interesting to see the other gardeners and to hear their process as well.  I’m just so eager to get out and dig! Thanks again for all the great resources.

Warmly,
Karen T.

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Hi Ellen,
Just a quick thank you for leading the kitchen garden class offered through Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

I so enjoyed the session content and your engaging style. I’m going back through my notes and imagining what this year’s garden will bring.  No matter the harvest, the planning process is a hopeful one. Much needed after a long year!

With appreciation,
Deb H.