Cowgirl Culture: Kitchen Garden Inspiration

Kitchen Gardens! How much fun is the idea of walking out into your beautiful sunny kitchen garden and picking up something for dinner? No check out lines or plastic baggies - just peace and perfection!

I spent many hours sitting in an old apricot tree eating fresh apricots right off the tree. Simply wonderful! At the Ozona ranch, I enjoyed home grown apricots, pomegranates and grapes! Oh, and did I mention how much fun it was to eat mulberries off of the mulberry tree while on your horse on a hot Texas afternoon?

Because I want to recreate some of these memories for my girls AND create some new ones of picking fresh cut flowers for the table - we are working on our new kitchen garden this spring.

So after spending some winter hours looking for inspiration these are the top picks:

1st Inspiration: The kitchen garden at Velvet and Linen. I love the symmetry of the four vegetable beds and how organized it is! The pea gravel with herbs lining the beds is wonderful.

The use of a focal point and pots that look appealing yet functional.

Also, if you read her post here, she lists the things she has learned during the first year in her kitchen garden.

2nd Inspiration: It's Complicated (the movie)
Yes, I am another one of the Nancy Meyer's groupies! LOL!! I loved the kitchen garden featured in the movie. I remember all of the negative feedback where gardeners were critiquing the garden because it was TOO perfect! Well, I personally loved it. I am a, "Shoot for the moon, land on a star" kind of girl so I liked the inspiration! It is just a movie anyway! Notice the amazing trees in teh background! Sigh... I think I just want to walk around with one of those baskets too!

Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon, Universal Studios

3rd Inspiration: The Garden at The Polished Pebble: I really enjoyed the post (here) at the Polished Pebble where Kelley says that she enjoyed the movie and the gardens and that she thinks kitchen gardens CAN be beautiful. Read the post here because it also includes the before and afters of her wonderful garden! She also has many wonderful photos of her beautiful roses and vegetables!

4th: BHG Rose Garden Planting Plan:
Finally, I love roses! My favorite are antique roses in the landscape but when it comes to having roses for the vase - I love the roses that come from hybrid teas! So I want the kitchen garden to be a place that I can feel free to buy any rose and plant. So, along the west side of the house I will have this rose garden.