Rosemary Verey’s Kitchen Garden

More than a humble vegetable plot, a potager is both beautiful and productive. The loveliest such kitchen garden I have ever seen is that of the late British gardener, Rosemary Verey. I visited the garden at Barnsley House after Ms. Verey’s death, when it was in the process of being converted into a boutique hotel.

Verey’s potager is a classically structured garden that also manages to be utterly charming by including flowers, trees, shrubs, as well as herbs and vegetables. The centerpieces of the garden are espaliered apple trees in the form of goblets. Though methodically planned, paths in the garden feature varying patterns and are made with used bricks and other materials that Ms. Verey sourced from local building sites.

Verey wrote several books on garden making. For further reading, Rosemary Verey’s Good Planting Plans illuminates her approach to gardening and garden design.