Growing Squares: A Kitchen Garden

It's an interesting twist when the outdoors has a little bit of structure so that it feels like an extension of the indoors. That's the case with this kitchen garden in Santa Monica:

It's actually a grid of nine raised planters full of vegetables and herbs. And the centermost square is filled with water and a recirculating fountain. Made of concrete, the beds have a little more finished touch than your typical garden. We've love to have this right outside our kitchen door for bringing foods straight from garden to table! Read more about this project, designed by Kathleen Ferguson Landscapes, at Sunset magazine.

Do you have a kitchen garden? Is it right next to your kitchen or do you have to trek a bit? How do you like the one we've featured here?

(Image: Sunset)

Comments (13)

where does a gardener walk or stand between these squares? in my garden, which has 4'x4' raised wooden beds that look a lot like this, we allow a 2' aisle between beds... and even then, the tomato plants take over the space!

I don't think you would need to walk or stand between them. All of the planted squares are on the outside. The only annoying thing would be fixing any issues with the fountain, but i'm sure you could lay a board across the raised edges without disrupting the plants.

P.S. I think it's really gorgeous.

This is absolutely beautiful. I hope I have a backyard that will accomodate a design like this someday!

This image inspired my garden beds. I didn't quite have the same amount of space, so I did 4 squares with one being a fountain, and did them in wood instead of concrete (lining the fountain with the heavy duty pond liner). I left about 18 inches between the boxes which is great for walking around them to get at the peppers, tomatoes, kale, whatever's planted. You can see a sort of half-finished, faraway shot fo the area toward the bottom of this post:

http://www.maddhatterslab.com/decorationinspiration/patio/the-backyard-is-full-of-color/

I'm really impressed by the fruit tree in the back-- it looks like it's just about ready!

I agree that there should be walkways. Even if one could technically reach the inside edge of all of the boxes by leaning over, that isn't so easy when the plants are at their most giant.

We have our herb garden closest to the house, the rest of the raised beds are just a little trek to the corner of the yard: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanastewart/5876718276/in/photostream

Is it important to build raised beds for (food) gardening out of non toxic materials??
Like, cedar instead of pressure treated wood that is imbedded with chemicals...just wondering.

@taherold: Yes, it is. Pressure-treated wood can leach those chemicals into the soil, and then into food, especially root crops (carrots, beets, radishes, etc). Cedar, concrete, cinderblocks, etc, are great for raised beds.

I love the blue square in front, the square with small plants, and then the pool/fountain. Gorgeous.

But unless the plants are relentlessly pruned, it will become terribly overgrown.

Really lovely, but I'm not sure how much actual food you could get out of a garden that size, and they seem to have devoted a lot of space to flowers, which of course makes it prettier, but also less productive. You could definitely fit a lot of herbs, there, though, which may be their main goal. Also, that squash/cucumber plant looks very young--mine looked just like that, too, right before they grew out of their box, into the yard, and killed all the grass.

I love raised beds...these ones made of cement are so stylish and elegant...

@petworthy, I thought the same thing, until I looked at the scale of the plants. I think these are each only about a square foot, so the whole would be the same or less than your 4'x4' bed.