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Education — Lenhardt Library

Digging for Answers

Kitchen Gardens, or do you say "potager"?

The word "potager" comes from the Middle English word pottage, circa 1175–1225, that means something in or from a pot; potage is from the Old French, meaning thick, meatless, vegetable soup. Historically, the term carried with it the ideal of a self-sustaining, isolated garden, such as the medieval herb, medicinal, or monastic garden. Today "potager" means kitchen garden.

Kitchen gardens are undergoing a rebirth, "le renaissance du le potager jardin," due to rising costs of food, concern with food safety, and food sourcing. Other advantages of having your own kitchen garden include being able to grow vegetables year-round and the reward of self-sufficiency.

 

To learn more about kitchen gardening, check out these resources at the Lenhardt Library.

 

	American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America Michelle Obama New York: Crown Publishers, 2012 SB466.U7W4835 2012
	Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook Jennifer R. Bartley Occidental, CA: Metamorphic Press, 2009 S619.T74K67 2009
	The Family Kitchen Garden: How to Plant, Grow, and Cook Together Wagner & Wendland Liebreich Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2005 SB321.L54  2009
	The Kitchen Garden, Month by Month Alan Buckingham New York: DK Press, 2010 SB321.B53 2010
	The Kitchen Gardener's Handbook Jennifer Bartley Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2010 SB321.B285 2010

Articles

"How to Plan Your Perfect Kitchen Garden" by Alys Fowler
Gardens Illustrated, March 2011, Issue 171, pages 64–69
Article offers tips on planning a vegetable garden.

"Kitchen Gardens" by Arne Maynard
Gardens Illustrated, March 2012, Issue 183, pages 88–91
Article offers information on the significance of organizing space and crop rotation for a kitchen garden.

"Proper Potager" by Martin Stern
Northern Gardener, November/December 2010, Vol. 138. Issue 6, pages 36–38
Article focuses on a kitchen garden that combines the pleasure of food and aesthetics.

 

Websites for more information

Kitchen Gardeners International
http://kgi.org/
Nonprofit global network celebrating homegrown foods and promoting their role in a sustainable and secure food system.

Watch Your Garden Grow
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/
Guide to growing, storing, and preparing vegetables, from the University of Illinois Extension.