Ina Garten Urges You To Design Your Vegetable Garden This Way

Planting a garden is not something you do on a whim if you want it to be successful. It takes a little planning, but if you need a gardening muse with a green thumb to put you on the right path, borrow a page from Ina Garten's gardening playbook. In an Instagram post showcasing her tomatoes for creamy tomato soup, the Barefoot Contessa revealed that her walled "secret" garden at her East Hampton home has a layout that is a thoughtful grid. 

Garten's garden starts with four tomato plant beds in the shape of a square. They are surrounded by low, meticulously kept boxwood hedges. In the center of this grid created by these tomato plants is a small bird bath that adds a whimsical, yet practical element to the space. A gravel walkway surrounds the plants, while narrow plant beds create a perimeter along the fence, which has a beautiful, but simple trellis for her roses to climb. The garden is completely enclosed, offering true privacy. The design creates an escape that anyone with a green thumb would love. Aesthetically, it is symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, while providing easy access to the fruits and herbs like parsley, sage, chives, thyme, and tarragon that tend to end up in recipes.

Ina Garten's outdoor haven also features fig trees. The cookbook author loves to use the leaves from these trees for her serving platters and on cheese plates for a simple, yet natural garnish. She also grows lavender, which, during a tour of the grounds with Nathan Lane for the Today Show, she confessed she does not like to use in cooking. So, don't expect to be served any honey lavender ice cream or trendy tea and lavender lattes if you score an invite from the cookbook author.   

Garten's garden is pretty special, but if you don't have the space for something like this, she suggests you can still have pots of herbs growing on the windowsill. She notes that basil and tarragon are perfect for a kitchen garden. This way, you will always have fresh herbs at your disposal when you are making Garten's weeknight chicken dinner that takes just 30 minutes to make or her roasted salmon with herbs.