Light snow is falling outside the window, covering a thick crust of ice beneath. Filling the bird feeder requires ice grips on my sneakers and ski poles for balance. My pencil hovers over a large piece of graph paper, prepared to draw out my kitchen garden design scheme. But where do ideas come from?
Creating an artful design on paper during mid-winter with a white canvas of snow differs from a wide-open window with a fresh spring breeze. So when I need inspiration, I turn to my garden books. Five shelves of well-worn books began with my first book, Making Things Grow by Thalassa Cruso. A gift from my mother for my sixteenth birthday, when she noticed I was tending a newly acquired Jade plant.
That Jade plant (Crassula ovata) came with me to college, accompanied me to Vermont, and many decades later, passed its offspring along to friends and family from my cuttings from the original. That one small plant, (and that first gifted book) along with the dozens of gardening books I have acquired along the way inspire my writing and designs.
Gazing thru my frosted windows, I return to the basics...my four-square parterre. It is fairly easy to sketch out on paper and I'll use tracing paper to overlay variations of edible plants. While change is never easy, in my garden I like to move things around, making every year's design a little different.
Announcing two ways to learn how to design an artful kitchen garden: join my four-week class or a half-day class at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. Both are coming up soon, so sign up now. Growing beautiful food is like creating a painting just outside your kitchen door.
As Always,
Ellen Ecker Ogden
www.ellenogden.com
Author of The Complete Kitchen Garden and The New Heirloom Garden. Designs, Books, and Classes For Gardeners Who Love to Cook.