The Edible Garden

November 18, 2013
Fowler’s enthusiasm glows on every page—in the smile on her freckled face, in graphics and hint-filled sidebars, but, mostly, in her words. ““I want it all, the whole far-flung earth and everything in it,” she waxes. Having it all means a garden vibrant with a polyculture of both flowers and vegetables. Tomatoes climbing by roses, carrots grown below herbs, marigolds sown with parsnips. Her reasons are partly environmental, partly aesthetic. Fowler, a TV gardening show star in England, covers Things to Know and Things to Grow (with ideas for seed-saving), plus Reaping Your Harvest (includes recipes). Fowler trained at Kew in England but also worked a community garden in New York City, so although she writes about courgettes (summer squash) and “washing up liquid” (dish soap), she uses both versions of English as well as both countries’ measures (inches and centimeters); however, not all her hints translate to America’s varied climates. Utterly practical, she composts “urban pet poo” to fertilize. The book, a gorgeous tapestry, is an intimate read, gardener to gardener.