Table Of Contentgroundbreaking Food Gardens
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ing
Groundbreak
Food Gardens
73
Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden
niki Jabbour
ß
Storey Publishing
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The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Sarah Guare and Carleen Madigan
Art direction by Cynthia N. McFarland
Book design by Alethea Morrison
Cover illustrations by © Anne Smith
Cover background texture by © wragg/iStockphoto.com
Author photo by Raylene Sampson
Interior illustrations by © Anne Smith, iii, iv, vii, viii, 1, 4, 17, 21, 29, 34, 37, 39 (bottom), 40, 47,
50, 53, 57, 62, 64, 74, 75, 79, 81, 82, 93, 97, 99, 103, 108, 109 (right), 110, 115, 120, 130, 138, 146, 151
(right), 158, 164, 168–169, 172, 175, 184, 186 (bottom), 197, 211, 213, 214, 217 (bottom), 218 (top),
220–221, 222, 225, 226, 233, 236, 238–239, 240, 244, 245, 264; © Elayne Sears, 15, 18, 22, 24
(top), 27, 32, 38, 41, 44, 51, 58, 65, 72–73, 91, 105, 111, 118, 128, 129, 135, 139, 140, 153, 157, 160, 180,
182–183, 189, 192, 194, 207 (top), 228–229, 242, 243; © Mary Ellen Carsley, 24 (bottom), 33,
35, 39 (top), 45, 55, 63, 78, 85, 87, 89, 95, 101, 109 (left), 113, 119, 121, 122, 125, 130–131, 137, 141,
143, 147, 149, 150, 151 (left), 159, 162–163, 165, 171, 173, 177, 179, 186–187, 195, 198, 199, 203, 207
(bottom), 209, 212, 215, 216, 217 (top), 218 (bottom), 223, 227, 231, 234
Illustrations edited by Ilona Sherratt
Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications
© 2014 by Niki Jabbour
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate
credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other — without written permission from
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The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are
made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any
liability in connection with the use of this information.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
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c o n t e n t s
Introduction Formal Herb Garden
1 KaTe CoPSeY 62
About the Contributors Chile Lover’s Garden
5 dave deWiTT 64
Urban Farmscape Starter Kitchen Garden
PaTTi Marie Travioli 14 roGer doiron 67
Culinary Herbs for Beginners Lasagna Gardening
SideBar: 70
SuSan aPPleGeT HurST 17
Formal Kitchen Garden
ellen eCKer oGden 71
Pollinator-Friendly Raised Bed
Grocery Garden
Paul ZaMMiT 21 JenKS farMer 74
Beautiful Balcony Edibles Backyard Orchard
andrea BellaMY 25 ColBY eierMan 77
Southern-Style Backyard Farm Front-Yard Foraging
SaraH elTon 80
CarolYn Binder 28
Canner’s Garden
daniel GaSTeiGer 82
Edibles on a Patio
donna BalZer 31
Slow-Food Garden
laura HenderSon 86
American Potager
Jennifer r. BarTleY 34
Power Foods
dan JaSon 90
Eggs & Everything
JeSSi BlooM 37
Heirloom Sampler
Marie iannoTTi 93
Fig-Pig Patio
STeven BiGGS 40
Wildlife-Friendly Garden
TaMMi HarTunG 96
Critter Control
Karen CHaPMan 43
Hanging Gutters
JaYMe JenKinS 100
Eat Your Yard
nan K. CHaSe 46
Modern Truck Garden
leSlie land 103
Partially Shaded Vegetables
MarJorie HarriS 49
Vintage Victory Garden
laManda JoY 108
Windy City Harvest
SideBar: 52
Asian Vegetables
WendY KianG-SPraY 110
Small Space Beds
THe CHiCaGo BoTaniC Garden 53
Garden Squares for Kids
Karen lieBreiCH and
The Circle of Life
eMMa CooPer 56 JuTTa WaGner 114
Sunburst Veggie Garden Urban Homestead
SHaWna Coronado 59 THereSa loe 117
Living Walls Teaming with Microbes
SideBar: 61 Jeff loWenfelS 120
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Urban Shade Garden Pallet Garden
Kathy Martin 124 Joe Lamp’L 191
Edible Knot Garden “Good Bug” Garden
Karen atKins 127 Jessica WaLLiser 194
Vertical Vegetables Elizabethan Garden
rhonda MassinghaM hart 130 stephen Westcott-Gratton 197
Culinary Courtyard An Easy Way to Expand Your Existing
rachel Mathews 134 sidebar:
Garden
200
Concrete & Steel Garden
laura Mathews 138
Forager’s Garden
eLLen Zachos 201
Front-Yard Suburban Farm
chris Mclaughlin 142
Water-Wise Herbs & More
nan sterman 204
Southern Spring Garden
dee nash 145
Beat the Grocery Bill
mark cuLLen 208
Founding Fathers Garden
teresa o’connor 148
Fall & Winter Vegetables
niki Jabbour 211
Terraced Hillside
BarBara Pleasant 152
52 Weeks of Salad
micheLLe chapman 214
Edible Hedge
charlie nardozzi 155
Edible School Garden
benJamin eichorn 219
Italian Heritage Garden
doug oster 158
Backyard Brewer’s
rebecca kneen 222
Community Plot
Michael nolan 161
OTTO Pizza Garden
toby adams and annie novak 225
Edible Cutting Garden
deBra Prinzing 164
Year-Round Front-Yard Garden
Biodynamic Farm
Mac Mead 167 rebecca sWeet 228
Garlic Sampler Edible Campus
liz PriMeau 172 vikram bhatt 232
Rooftop Farm Backyard Beekeeper’s Garden
colin Mccrate and hilary dahl 175 kenny point 236
Gourmet Containers Best-Tasting Tomatoes
renee shePherd and craiG LehouLLier 240
Beth BenjaMin 178
Resources
245
Cocktail Garden
aMy stewart and susan Morrison 181
Plant List
246
Chicago Hot-Dog Garden
aManda thoMsen 185
Index
253
Upcycled Edible Patio
jean ann Van KreVelen 188
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As always, thank you to my cold-frame-building,
manure-shoveling, kale-eating husband, Dany,
who never asks why we need another garden bed.
And to Alex and Isabelle, who remind me to look
closely at the garden to see the amazing world of
butterflies, toads, hummingbirds, ladybugs, and,
unfortunately, the occasional slug.
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acknowledgments
With a book like Groundbreaking Food Gardens, which includes 73 garden
plans, it’s obvious that this wasn’t a solo effort. I would therefore like to
extend a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of the 72 contributors
who took time out of their busy schedules and lives to come up with an
edible garden design for this book. I have been incredibly inspired by their
passion for growing food and the innovative designs they created. I also
appreciate their patience and willingness to answer my many (many!) pesky
questions about their experiences and garden plans.
As always, I am very grateful to the fine folks at Storey Publishing for their
hard work and continued support — art director Cynthia McFarland;
creative director Alethea Morrison; illustration coordinator Ilona Sherratt;
and artists Anne Smith, Elayne Sears, and Mary Ellen Carsley, who brought
the gardens to life.
This book would not have happened if not for the vision and encouragement
of editor extraordinaire Carleen Madigan. And Sarah Guare, my blue-ribbon
editor, who took my piles of plans and descriptions and skillfully turned
them into this book.
Finally, thank you to my mother, Joyce; parents-in-law, Kamal and Noha;
sisters and brothers, Lisa and Jason, Jean-Louise and Nick, Leah, and Tony;
and my nieces and nephews, Ryan and Lucy, Sophia and Mya, and Brayden
and Jackson, who are always happy to play in the garden.
viii
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Introduction
T
here are many reasons to grow your own food, or at least a portion of it. Like many gardeners, i was
hooked at an early age. Working beside my mother in the garden, i was enchanted by the simple
act of planting a seed. in my young eyes, seeds seemed little more than lifeless kernels, but once
tucked into the earth they quickly sprouted, and before long the harvest followed. When we picked
our vegetables — typically just before we intended to eat them — they were packed with flavor and
tasted nothing like the limp grocery store veggies we ate the other nine months of the year.
Today I grow much of my family’s Because edible gardening is such a reserved for grass. In today’s increas-
food, producing an organic bounty large part of my life, I am always look- ingly eco-conscious world, more and
from our 2,000-square-foot garden. ing for new techniques, designs, and more gardens are sneaking from the
Over the years I’ve learned to stretch ideas to grow more food. With this in back to the front yard. Although I
my harvest season to 365 days, which mind, I dedicated 18 months of my don’t expect everyone to dig up the
reduces our dependence on the “long- life to tracking (stalking?) avid gar- entire front property to grow food
distance” vegetables found at our deners, garden writers, professional (like Shawna Coronado), you may
local supermarket. The ability to horticulturists, television and radio decide to incorporate food plants
harvest from our winter cold frames hosts, garden bloggers, managers of that are both beautiful and produc-
and mini hoop tunnels from Decem- botanical gardens, university staff, tive into your front garden beds (like
ber through March — in Canada — is and community gardeners across Kenny Point). Who knows, you may
incredibly rewarding. Even if my North America and the United King- even inspire the neighbors!
children won’t eat all of the vegeta- dom to find out how and why they Those whose only garden space is
bles and herbs (c’mon, Swiss chard grow their own food. The result of a windy rooftop or a concrete balcony
is delicious!), they know where their that research is this book, which can produce a bumper crop of organic
food comes from and how it grows. spotlights the rapidly growing trend food using plans that focus on “diffi-
of food gardening, offering 73 plans cult” sites, such as the ornamental
for edibles that I hope will inspire you edible balcony garden by Andrea Bel-
to think differently about where and lamy, the author of Sugar Snaps and
how you can grow food. Strawberries and the blogger behind
the popular site Heavy Petal. Or per-
haps you’ll find inspiration from Jean
Gardens by Theme
Ann Van Krevelen, co-author of Gro-
As you flip through this book, you’ll cery Gardening and the blogger at
find that the garden plans are all Gardener to Farmer. Jean Ann shows
extremely varied in size, shape, style, us how to jazz up a large deck or patio
and location. Some are even placed in with delicious homegrown veggies,
the front yard, an area traditionally herbs, and fruits. Renee Shepherd
1
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