The Food Forward Garden - by Christian Douglas (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Growing food doesn't have to mean sacrificing style. In his debut book, award-winning landscape designer Christian Douglas showcases the myriad ways to use edibles to elevate the design of your outdoor spaces. Visit chef Tyler Florence's property, whose hillside is transformed into a three-tiered terraced bed filled with an abundance of produce year-round. A family's suburban plot that is a forager's paradise, with hidden edible treasures woven into each space and along every path. Plus gardens in small city backyards, edible plots carved into forests and meadows, even a rooftop vegetable garden. But this is not merely a lookbook. By using his own lush garden in Marin County as a studio/classroom, Douglas introduces readers to the essential tools and techniques they need to successfully plant, grow, and harvest a bounty of vegetables, fruits, berries, and herbs. We learn how to evaluate the best lighting and soil conditions, choose plants that will thrive in our climate, and discover the designer's favorite edible swaps for common landscape plants (a persimmon instead of a dogwood, a fig instead of a maple, a hedge of rosemary instead of yew). The food-forward options are limitless"--

Book Synopsis

Discover a high-style approach to vegetable gardening from award-winning landscape designer Christian Douglas.

What if, instead of relegating our vegetable patch to a remote corner of the backyard, we brought it forward? What if we integrated edibles into our decorative landscapes, letting vegetables, herbs, fruits, and berries share prime real estate alongside our patios, pools, even our front walkways? Equal parts inspiration and instruction, and filled with an abundance of ideas and information, The Food Forward Garden is a lushly illustrated guide to how we can make better use of our outdoor spaces without sacrificing style. In this comprehensive manual, award-winning landscape designer Christian Douglas shows us how the intrinsic beauty and seasonal rhythms of edibles bring a new level of purpose, meaning, and stunning visual pleasure to the home garden.

Review Quotes

"The Food Forward Garden: A Complete Guide to Designing and Growing Edible Landscapes by Christian Douglas shows that it's not necessary to reserve a portion of a yard for a vegetable garden. Instead, a home gardener can enhance a yard's beauty by strategically planting fruit trees and vines, vegetables and herbs throughout the landscaping."--California Bountiful Magazine

"Landscape designer Christian Douglas's new book is packed with ideas for beautifully growing vegetables, herbs, and fruit all over your yard."--Better Homes & Gardens

"Christian Douglas shows us the wide range of what he calls 'food forward' gardens, in which the food is brought forward rather than being hidden away in a back vegetable patch. The vegetable garden never looked so good."--Gardenista

"His book is excellently designed and its many colour pictures are superb. Dirtiness and failure are nowhere in evidence, but images of perfection set a standard that will up our aims." --Financial Times

A delectable handbook on incorporating edible plants into the greenery outside one's home. Detailed tours of eight gardens Douglas has designed provide ideas on how to decorate with crops in a variety of locales. . . . A clever mix of kitchen gardening and landscaping.--Publishers Weekly

"It's rare to find someone who has observed so many horticultural traditions around the world and can also bring home the simple pleasure of a backyard tomato. In this book, Christian Douglas does it beautifully."--Stephen Orr, editor in chief, Better Homes & Gardens

"When Christian was done with my ordinary wine country house, I was surrounded by magical, lush, delicious gardens. It has been beyond life-changing to eat the healthiest fare from our own small piece of land in a setting as beautiful as Napa Valley itself. Christian and his team are creative innovators who love to teach us all a better way to live."--Sheri Salata, author, speaker, and producer

"This book combines the satisfaction of growing your own food with real practicality and beauty."--Kim Wilkie, landscape architect

About the Author

Christian Douglas is a landscape designer and the founder of Christian Douglas Design, where he creates extraordinary culinary gardens for private clients, and the Backyard Farm Co., where he and his team of urban farmers teach homeowners around the world how to grow food. Christian was awarded the California Home+Design Award for landscape design and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, California Home+Design, Sunset Magazine and other major publications. Follow him on Instagram at christian_douglas_design