American Potager

hedge apples and pomegranates

 

 

 

 

    We gave a baby shower for my daughter and invited close friends and family to the formal tea. The arrangements for the table and at the front door couldn't have been simpler- nor less expensive. Sure, we bought the pomegranates at the grocery store because they don't grow here in central Ohio. Everything else came from the garden.                                                                                      

    Hedge apples come from Osage-orange trees; small, dense trees planted as hedge rows throughout the Midwest. The trees are not particularly attractive and they do have thorns. To some the wrinkled fruits will be a nuisance. To me they produce simple and elegant decorations for the home. The chartreuse fruit is extremely fragrant and a bowlful is heavenly.

gate details for the potager

    I have been working on an estate project in the south for a while now. I couldn't have imagined two years ago that my reply to an e-mail would blossom into the creation of a significant garden.  "Do you travel to design gardens?" was the simple question that has led to a partnership with the owner in creating a series of outdoor garden rooms with edible and mixed perennial and shrub borders. American Potager, LLC created the master plan for the site, the detailed planting plan and designed the walls, arbors and gates. Local craftsman have built the gates, the custom bronze hardware and the ball-bearing hinges to support the massive weight. A local contractor has been remarkable in implementing the design.

    Last week I was on site as we installed phase one of the planting plan. When the boxwood hedge was planted in the potager I couldn't help smiling. This new garden looked as if it had been there for a long time.

   

american cranberry bush viburnum

    Viburnum trilobum 'Bailey's Compact' is planted right outside my potager picket fence. I am impatiently waiting for these native shrubs to grow into a nice hedge. I am also impatiently waiting for the shrubs to produce berries. I can't quite understand it.... no bright red edible berries.... this season or last. Is the tag wrong? Do I need another American cranberry bush viburnum? Until I get it sorted out I am enjoying the vibrant fall color. My last post was about green walls. This plant creates seasonal red walls for the kitchen garden if you are architecturally or spatially inclined.

green walls

    I have been mulling over a design problem for a while now. We have been designing an estate garden in the south. The client has a brick colonial home and we are incorporating a formal potager with shrub and perennial borders. We are locating the greenhouse and designing the walls, fences, gates, storage buildings and compost bins. It is a tricky site and one of the issues has been how to screen the property while maintaining the formality, attention to detail and aesthetic we have created on the rest of the site.

    In an odd triangle of left over space we have created a green triangle room. These are the conceptual drawings from my sketchbook of this vision. The green room will truly be a secret garden with two entrances. The tall wood gates will need to be wide enough for a wheelbarrow to pass through yet solid like a door to screen views. Inside the green room will be the double compost bin. The green room is adjacent to the kitchen garden and will be a work room to support the edible garden.

    I have decided on two types of evergreens for two different areas. The green triangle room needs a plant that that can be sheared into a dense, formal evergreen hedge maintained at a height of eight to ten feet. Prunus caroliniana 'Monus' or Bright 'n tight Carolina cherry laurel is a cultivar that is narrower than the species and will be ideal. It's also native to the southeast and has small black cherries to attract birds. This green hedge will join another hedge planted along the property line for privacy. I have decided on a very reliable holly, Ilex x 'Nellie R. Stevens'. Nellie R. Stevens holly will provide the height needed for this part of the wall. It eventually will grow twenty feet high to block out the views into the neighbors property. This hedge will also be sheered to create a formal green background. This part of the wall is meant to be a backdrop for the dogwoods, flowering shrubs and perennials that will be planted in front of it.

Speaking at the GWA Symposium in Raleigh

Thursday September 24 @ 10:15

    I will be speaking on The Seasonal Useful and Edible Garden at the 2009 annual Garden Writers Association meeting. I will be showing photographs and talking about inspirational edible gardens from around the world. This presentation borrows some design ideas from the French on creating the potager- a kitchen garden with vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs. We will look at creating a useful garden in all seasons and touch on ways to use shrubs, perennials and annuals to create the space of the garden, supply something for the table or attract beneficial insects throughout the year.

   

   

roasted tomatoes

    It used to be just the cherry tomatoes that I roasted, but this is so sweet and savory I am cutting up every paste, heirloom, yellow, black or red tomato I can harvest.  I throw them in a heavy dutch oven with a little coarse salt, good olive oil and dried thyme, put them in the oven on high heat and let them roast for half an hour or so. I then turn off the heat and let them sit in the warm oven for a few hours- sometimes overnight if I'm not too impatient. When the roasted tomatoes are cool I add a little more olive oil and some lemon juice and a few sprigs of chopped fresh thyme.This has been a staple in our fridge this summer and best with a favorite cheese on crackers or pita. Try it as a salad dressing with greens and goat cheese.

a little squash blossom snack

    I have the cure to the zucchini epidemic. Eat the blossoms. Here is a little snack I just cooked up- fried squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese. The photo shows the recipe:

5 oz. of goat cheese
2 cloves garlic
1 small Hungarian pepper
Small handful of flat leaf Italian parsley

Chop the garlic, pepper and parsley in the food processor. Add in the goat cheese and blend until well mixed. Stick it in the refrigerator while you do the rest.

Batter:
1 cup flour
1 cup (a wee bit more) beer
dash salt

Mix well.

To stuff:
Gently open up the blossom and remove the stamen by pinching it off with your fingers. You may actually rip the blossom open but that's o.k. Stuff the blossoms with the chilled goat cheese mixture.
Dip in the batter and fry in 2 inches of hot peanut oil. Brown on one side for a few minutes and turn with tongs to brown the other side. Serve immediately.

Plant peas when the daffodils bloom. Harvest peas when the peonies bloom.

    We've been snacking on peas in the garden. Sometimes we just run outside simply to pick a few and eat them raw. They are of course, best this way. The 'Sugar Annes' are very sweet, and meant to be eaten in their entirety- shells and all.  Last night we had some carmelized shallots with pasta and pea shoots. With some raw peas on the side. Peonies and pea shoots for the vase.

 

what's blooming in my garden?

    Wait, wait, wait for spring in the Midwest and then blink it is gone. So this is a way for me to remember. The peonies have been blooming for two weeks and though the most recent thunderstorm has sent them bowing to the ground there are many still to cut.
    I ran to the garden to pick a quick arrangement for the table. This is what's in bloom this week. This moment. Peonies, of course. 'May Night' Salvia, 'Huskers Red' beard tongue, alliums, and 'Walker's Low' Nepeta.

It's time for May wine.

    I made May wine last year for the first time. It's a lovely spring drink to serve guests. You need to open and use a whole bottle of wine (or more). It just makes sense to share it with friends. Here's how I made it.    
    I picked some sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) flowers and leaves. (Of course, it goes without saying that I don't use pesticides, so no worries on using the home grown herbs.) I dried a bunch of leaves in the microwave. The flavors intensify when you use dried leaves.
    I poured a bottle of Riesling wine in a container. It just made sense to use a German wine since this recipe is of German origin. Any white wine you love will do. I added the dried sweet woodruff leaves, covered the container and chilled it for a few hours.
    I then strained the wine into glasses. Garnished with strawberries, fresh sweet woodruff leaves with sweet woodruff flowers and bright purple-blue borage flowers.