A giving garden

The quarter-acre organic kitchen garden and orchard was designed as a temporary garden for a designer show house last spring.  "I am a veteran at creating these types of temporary 'show' gardens, having participated in regional flower shows and designer show houses for the past eight years," Cohan says. "I like to do them because it gives me free rein to do exactly what I please; I become my own client."  In this particular case, the garden was intended from the beginning to be an active and producing organic vegetable garden, whose produce was donated to a local food pantry.

Designed in the potager style, Cohan's intent was that the garden not only be a food production area, but also a family living space. Distinct zones were created for growing, relaxation and play.  An entertaining space was directly off the home’s kitchen, and wide pea gravel paths, a small orchard, a cutting garden, a potting area and a bocce court were part of the design. Pictured are a pair of faux bois chairs in the orchard's long grass.

Care was taken to ensure that appropriate crops were not only ornamental, but had a short seed-to-harvest cycle, as the garden was only in existence from March 1-May 31. In some cases, raised beds had to be planted before they were actually completed to meet the harvest date.  Peas were planted the first week of March, and the pee-teepee was the first element completed.

All vegetables were grown from seed, directly sown in the raised beds. The cutting garden was comprised largely of transplants from the original garden. A small retaining wall of recycled stone was built to create two separate flat spaces: one for the garden; the other for the orchard. Pictured are the herb garden's frost-proof terra cotta pots that Cohan incorporated into the design, which were loaned by Seibert & Rice.

Because of the charitable nature of the project, partners were solicited to help offset the costs of building the garden. Everyone involved in the project donated their time — including a local organic farmer who helped transplant seedlings and harvest weekly during the show house. Organic soil was provided by APLD's sponsor Monrovia via a local nursery, which also donated all of the fruit trees for the orchard. Lumber came from a national lumber chain, Dykes Lumber Co. 

Even Whole Foods Market and a local vegan chef got in the act, preparing food from the garden as a tasting menu on a Saturday afternoon.

The project was well received by the community. More than 20,000 people visited it in a month, and most importantly, Cohan says, the food pantry received 350 lbs. of fresh vegetables.