The Most Perfect Vegetable Garden, Ever

This is a post from a few years ago but I had a conversation about this vegie garden with someone last week. And since it is Oscar time again, I thought it would be fun to share this info again -

Last night I saw a wonderful film, 'It's Complicated'. I thought the story and the acting were just great but what really blew my socks off was ...the vegetable garden.   

WOW! If they gave out Oscars for best greensman ( and they should) then, hands-down, this year it should go to Dan Odrejko.

I have to quote Deborah Netburn of the the L.A. Times on this garden because she says exactly how I felt about the vegie garden in 'It's Complicated':

" Its lushness, colorfulness, perkiness ... well, it's almost pornographic. One doesn't know whether to envy it, or to be concerned about anyone that eats from it."

Oh yeah! The last vegetable garden - of a sort -  that made such an impression on me was in Woody Allen's 'Sleeper'.   Remember the celery stick?

But back to Meryl Streep's garden. The designer says it is a French 'potager garden', appropriate to the character in the film. Potager gardens are decorative vegetable gardens, contained and normally symmetrical . The plants were all grown in a greenhouse, the tomatoes on the plants were wired to the frame ( I knew it!), and sickly looking plants were removed...too perfect for sure. But hey, this is the movies, for goodness' sakes!

Here is a photo of a potager style garden , taken from Southern Living magazine. I found it in a lovely blog called Lamaisonfou. Check it out. 

An interesting aside, I read that the entire garden in the film was donated to an inner city school.

Btw, the house and grounds  in 'It's Complicated' were also captivating. It is definitely a garden lover's film. Ah, the good life in Santa Barbara...

it doesn't get much better than that, I think.