Kitchen garden from scratch
This Old House Magazine|Summer 2022
A handy, productive home vegetable patch is more popular than ever. Planned and built right, it can even enhance the look of your home. Here's how one pro delivers on all counts—and you can, too
SAL VAGLICA
Kitchen garden from scratch

In the pursuit of a bumper crop of vegetables, too often an edible garden's aesthetics fall by the wayside. For Nicole Burke, founder of Rooted Garden, a company that designs, installs, and maintains edible gardens in and around Houston, the backbone of the modern kitchen garden is a series of raised beds, fitted with trellises and gravel pathways, which add to both its beauty and utility. Inspired by the classic French potager, which weaves edibles with ornamentals in a design that complements the house, she wants her gardens to invite walking over for a better look. After all, the more inviting the garden, the likelier you are to spend time harvesting and maintaining it.

Burke is on a mission to make gardening easier and more appealing, so more people will get growing. To that end, she also teaches online courses (gardenary.com) and recently distilled what she's learned from nearly seven years of working with homeowners-and building more than 300 gardens-in a book, Kitchen Garden Revival. “I realized there is this stigma around growing food” she says of the step-by-step plan she lays out for creating an edible garden that's as attractive as it is bountiful. "While all the other aspects of the landscape were pretty, many homeowners didn't think food gardens were, so I set out to undo that and make it the most beautiful part of the landscape.”

The self-taught Burke's accessible style comes in part from having learned from some of the same rookie mistakes she's seen clients make-from filling beds with poor soil, which only leads to lots of time spent troubleshooting later, to not leveling garden beds beforehand, then watching a rainstorm wash just-planted seeds to the lowest corners.

Up ahead: key ingredients in Burke's recipe for gardening success and lessons learned from her years in the trenches.

STEP ONE

Find the sun

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2022-Ausgabe von This Old House Magazine.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2022-Ausgabe von This Old House Magazine.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS THIS OLD HOUSE MAGAZINEAlle anzeigen
Mobile kitchen island
This Old House Magazine

Mobile kitchen island

TOH DIY expert Jenn Largesse shows how to build a rolling kitchen cart with a butcher-block top

time-read
3 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Bathtub tray
This Old House Magazine

Bathtub tray

TOH general contractor Tom Silva and TOH host Kevin O'Connor construct a slatted zebrawood caddy to hold grooming essentials, a book, and even a glass of wine, for those who like a long soak

time-read
3 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Navigating the rise in mortgage rates
This Old House Magazine

Navigating the rise in mortgage rates

Looking to buy—or refinance—and feeling frustrated by lenders’ sky-high interest rates? Here’s how to get the best deal

time-read
4 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Graceful grasses
This Old House Magazine

Graceful grasses

With dramatic foliage and distinctive plumes, ornamental grasses come in sizes to suit virtually any garden

time-read
7 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
A better asphalt driveway
This Old House Magazine

A better asphalt driveway

It's long-lasting and recyclable, and it weathers extreme temperatures. You can repair small cracks and divots in asphalt, too. Here's what you need to know to get-and maintain-a great-looking asphalt driveway

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Modernizing a mid-century house
This Old House Magazine

Modernizing a mid-century house

A family turns to TOH to renovate a 1960 house that had been awkwardly expanded over time. Their goal: to create a contemporary, energy-efficient, open-plan home that is fully accessible for a son with mobility issues

time-read
4 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Making a house her own
This Old House Magazine

Making a house her own

Renovating in stages over nearly two decades, a homeowner transforms a once forlorn bungalow into a cozy, very personal space

time-read
6 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
A little house that lives large
This Old House Magazine

A little house that lives large

A reimagined interior and second-story addition double the living area inside a narrow shotgun house, while respecting its historical roots

time-read
4 Minuten  |
Fall 2023
Before & After: Bath Fit for a Queen Anne
This Old House Magazine

Before & After: Bath Fit for a Queen Anne

Classic meets modern in this primary-suite retreat

time-read
1 min  |
Fall 2023
Before & After: Kitchen Moving a wall makes it work
This Old House Magazine

Before & After: Kitchen Moving a wall makes it work

Grabbing a few feet from the adjacent dining room yields major layout improvements

time-read
2 Minuten  |
Fall 2023