Connecticut Kitchen Garden

With patience, hard work — and an impressive master plan — Pamela Page transformed a rocky lot in Bethel, Connecticut, into a gorgeously abundant organic kitchen garden.

Pamela in the Garden

Pamela Page's expansive, 90- by 55-foot fenced-in plot initially overwhelmed her. "But it's amazing how fast I filled in every square inch of dirt," she says. "Within two years, I was already dreaming of what I could grow if only I had more space."

 

Early Gardening Roots

As an undergraduate, Page spent several semesters in France; she fell in love with the luscious produce that Provençal villagers raised in tidy potagers and the wild greens they gathered in meadows. Her husband Igor Jozsa, an inventive cook, learned to revere seasonal ingredients during his boyhood in Italy.

Nasturtiums and Flowering Kale

In their early years together, the couple scoured Manhattan specialty shops for vegetables and fruits to serve at dinner parties, yet even the fanciest groceries underwhelmed their nostalgic palates. "Short of moving back to Europe permanently," Page asked, "how could we get just-picked Tuscan kale or an exquisite Charentais melon?" The answer: Grow their own.

 

Pear Trees

The couple, who co-own an architectural firm, call their eight and a half acres Ho Hum Hollow, but thumb-twiddling isn't on the agenda. Besides building a new house, Page and Jozsa hacked through poison ivy, pried up basketball-size stones from the earth, and hauled manure to "bring back the land."

 

Garden Work

Exuberant hosts, Page and Jozsa entertain every weekend. When visitors bemoan the toil a kitchen garden must demand, Page nods silently. It's a charade, she admits: "I try to look very tired and don't let on that when I garden, I'm hardly working. I listen to bees, sniff the mock oranges, stretch, and look. I'm learning, playing, having the time of my life. Gardening is one-third science, one-third art, one-third Peace Corps."

Edible Flowers

She still orders seeds in winter and starts them indoors in February, because it's the only way to cultivate rare or heirloom varieties that local places don't stock. "If you buy run-of-the-mill transplants, you're limited, and the point of this garden is that it's limitless. I've grown three-dozen different tomatoes, a dozen pepper varieties, a half-dozen types of cucumber, okra, and beans — in a single season." Not to mention edible flowers (and inedible iris, peonies, and dahlias that tempt the eye).

Baroque Salad

"The head gardener for King William III of England insisted that a 'sallet' contain no fewer than 35 ingredients," says Page. "So far, I only have 27!"

See the ingredients for Page's Baroque salad.

Trellis

"There's no need to buy expensive trellises," says Page, who dreamed up this DIY version, made from rot-resistant­ cedar, for her tomatoes.

 

Fence

To deter pesky groundhogs and rabbits, Page fortified the perimeter of her post-and-rail fence by digging a trench and installing chicken wire about three feet below the surface along the edge.

 

Entertaining in the Garden

At dusk, while Jozsa is prepping dinner, Page invites guests to harvest greens for a salad or raspberries for dessert. "It makes everything worthwhile to see the excitement on visitors' faces when they come back with full baskets. They're like kids."

  From Country Living Magazine