Because why wouldn’t you plant tulips in the vegetable garden? The petals are edible!
The past few months have been bananas as far as seed sales are concerned, and I have had no chance at all to consider plans for our own gardens, let alone start seeds, until this past week. Now that orders have returned to a manageable pace, I'm digging out well-worn inspiration, like the ‘Edible Landscaping' books by Rosalind Creasy. These books, along with ‘The Art of French Vegetable Gardening' by Louisa Jones, taught me that there are no rules with regard to gardening. Rather than a “vegetable garden" and a “flower garden" there is just The Garden. Plant what you like, how you like, as long as your plants are growing where they will like. And though I have read through all of these books cover to cover dozens of times, I still find new ideas each time I flip through them. I have literally hundreds of books on gardening, and these are the ones that I most often return to and recommend.
In addition to gardening books, I am inspired by cookbooks. There are favorites that I return to every year, such as ‘Japanese Farm Food' by Nancy Singleton Hachisu. The many vegetable recipes in this book have inspired my gardening far more than many gardening books have, and the photography is sublime. More recently, ‘Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania' by Irina Georgescu has reignited my interest in seasonal foraged foods, thanks to recipes like Urzici cu usturoi (nettle fricassée), as well as given me new ideas for stalwarts like zucchini and eggplant (no small feat). The writing is eloquent and beautiful, but never precious or pretentious (as the aforementioned NSH is sometimes wont to be). The recipes themselves are simple and good. Even if I might never go to Romania, I can grow Romania.
Of the more contemporary gardening books that focus primarily on vegetables themselves, Niki Jabbour's ‘Veggie Garden Remix' is an unexpected delight. Fairly expansive but concise and featuring realistic photos, I would think it far more useful and inspiring to a new gardener than, say, Rodale's Organic Gardening (which is a classic and absolutely necessary but there are just so.. many.. words..!). ‘Veggie Garden Remix’ is perhaps the compendium of vegetables that is to young gardeners today what Vilmorin's ‘The Vegetable Garden' was to gardeners in the 19th century. Not so exhaustive or informative, especially with regard to culture, but still one of the best modern iterations I've seen.
One of my favorite imaginative garden designs by Rosalind Creasy.
Finally, I have to mention author Lee Reich, whose books have been of the utmost importance to me since moving from the Midwest to the Northeast. His work should be required reading among new gardeners in the Hudson Valley and New England. Less about what to grow than how to grow, but ultimately that knowledge and experience is what makes (or breaks) a gardener. I've spent more time in bed with ‘A Northeast Gardener's Year' than I have with anything else and have no regrets.
