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You are here: Home / Garden Tours / Houston Garden Tour: Valerie’s Formal Kitchen Garden

Houston Garden Tour: Valerie’s Formal Kitchen Garden

Written by Jackie D'Elia  |  Published on December 17, 2009

Valerie Tschaar
Valerie Tschaar

Back in November, when the weather was a bit warmer, I had the pleasure to photograph the garden of a good friend of mine, Valerie Tschaar. She lives in West Houston in a lovely, spacious home with her husband and two sons. Valerie is a naturalist at heart and enjoys creating a habitat for wildlife. She’s loves the Farmer’s Market, buying local and being outdoors. She’s a Gardener On Purpose, meaning she has a reason to garden, she enjoys cooking and eating fresh produce. That is why when she and her husband built this home a few years ago, she incorporated a real Kitchen Garden.

valerie-home

Not many would have the courage to plant a vegetable garden that can be seen from the curb in her upscale neighborhood, but Valerie did. She wanted them part of the landscape and I must say she did it with style.

veggies-curb

valerie-driveway

At the end of the beautiful driveway is her Kitchen Garden, which is visible from the street. To the left of the driveway is her lovely kitchen entrance, which has old world charm of a villa in Tuscany.

kitchen-entrance

To the right is a formal kitchen garden filled with herbs, vegetables and boxwoods. This photo was taken from the second story window.

garden-from-above

At the heart of the garden is this geometric circular design. Formal gardens date back to the enlightened society of renaissance Italy. This garden captures both the formality of a European garden while preserving some informality with adjacent beds of tomato plants, eggplant and fruit trees. Anchoring the space are the boxwoods, which are easy to shape to maintain a sense of order, geometry and symmetry.

garden-view-driveway

The addition of stones, edging and gravel outline the space and divide the garden into sections. This adds texture and visual interest to the garden.

ground-view

bedding-edge

At the center of the design is this gorgeous pot overflowing with Rosemary. This anchors the entire space and creates a focal point to draw the eye to the center.

potted-rosemary
potted-rosemary-2

A honey bee stops by.

rosemary-with-bee

In each of the sections are mixed plantings of vegetables and herbs. Many she planted from seed, including carrots, garlic chives, spinach, beets, sorrel, arugula, collards, and mesculan mix. Others were planted from seedlings purchased at the nursery.

mixed-greens-2

Delicious cilantro loves the cool winter weather in Houston.

cilantro

Garlic chives are favorful and easy to grow.

chives-2

Red-tip lettuce adds color and visual interest.

red-tip-lettuce

The beds are slightly raised providing good drainage.

ground-view-2
ground-view-dw

Pretty bright green carrot tops.

carrot-tops

The variety of textures and shapes are at the heart of the garden.

garden-textures
vegetable-leaves

Cabbage loves the cool weather too.

cabbage-leaves

Assorted leafy greens.

green-leaves

Oregano

oregano-stems
garden-section
side-view-1

Adjacent to the formal circular garden is a rectangular shaped bed filled with mounding tomato plants, sweet peas, eggplant and citrus trees, including a variegated lemon, lime, and avocado. The tomatoes include varieties of yellow pear, grape, cherry and roma.

tomato-mound
tomatoes
pear-tomato

Sweet peas and sugar snap peas were also found nearby.

sweet-pea-vine

Eggplant which have such pretty lavender and yellow flowers add interest.

eggplant
eggplant-flower

Here is a beautiful avocado tree that is very happy where it is. With its shiny dark leaves and vertical form it adds a lovely anchor to the end of space.

avocado-tree
avocado-leaves

The front vegetable bed is shaped into a semi-circle and is dappled with plantings of lettuce, edamame, okra, swiss chard, and parsley. I noticed quite a few of the lettuce plantings appeared half eaten. When I asked Valerie if she had any critters munching on her veggies, she said yes. There is a little bunny that visits her garden on a regular basis. I love her attitude about it. She said she just plants extra for the bunny and hopes there will be some left for her family too.

front-vegetable-bed-2

Adjacent to the bed is a grapefruit tree.

view-of-front-bed
mixed-garden

Valerie planted Edamame from seed in the front bed. You can see it growing on the metal trellis. While the actual seeds are delicious, the pods are quite hairy looking.

bean-pods
bean-hairs-2

This bed has a nice assortment of color and texture. The red lettuce tips can be seen from the curb.

front-vegetable-bed-3

View of the garden from her kitchen window.

kitchen-view

Janet Roberts Ireland of Home & Habitat designed the formal herb garden, put in the paths, pot of rosemary and boxwoods. Valerie highly recommends the company and their work. She truly has a space that is livable and can adapt to her needs. Originally it was planted with more herbs, many of which are not there any more as Valerie needed more space for her veggies. That is the beauty of this design. You can change plantings within sections while preserving the formal structure of the garden.

I want to thank Valerie for sharing her garden with us. She has truly created a space that is functional and beautiful. I left feeling inspired to plant some veggies in my front garden beds.

Update: I wrote a follow up post about How to Can Tomatoes from the Garden.

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Filed under: Garden Tours Tagged with: formal gardens, Houston gardens, vegetable gardens

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pam/Digging says

    December 17, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    I recognize that cabbage picture!

    Thanks for the tour. She has a lovely home, and the formal kitchen garden is making me want one too. It’s lovely. With good design, even the neighbors can’t complain about veggies in the front yard, can they?

  2. Catherine says

    December 17, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    What a gorgeous home and garden. I love her formal vegetable garden. Our front yard is full sun and I’ve thought about moving our veggies out there but wondered how it would look. I could only hope it would look as pretty as her’s.

  3. Kiki says

    December 18, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    This is a Fabulous garden!! I love everything..and the european style etc! Thankyou for sharing this post..excellent! Inspiring!

  4. Nell Jean says

    December 19, 2009 at 12:29 am

    Great capture of a terrific garden.

  5. RitaK says

    December 23, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Beautiful garden! Your photography is wonderful! What a treat!

  6. Chelsey says

    November 19, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    I love your friend’s garden! It is everything I would ever want in my own garden, if I had my own house and not an apartment. The pictures are beautiful and your writing captivating! Can’t wait for more.

    • Jacqueline D'Elia says

      November 29, 2010 at 6:23 am

      Thanks Chelsey!

  7. Annie Haven | Authentic Haven Brand says

    June 8, 2011 at 8:44 am

    Thank you so much for the tour of your beautiful home and edible front garden : ) Annie

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