Kitchen gardens can be as beautiful as any other part of the garden says leading garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. 'If we are moving towards more austere times, we should all be turning to our kitchen gardens and potagers for the perfect combination of both food and beauty.'

Arabella has designed kitchens gardens around the world ranging from huge walled gardens for stately homes to tiny cottage plots. 'There is always room for an espalier apple, a few vegetables or a pyramid of sweet peas - but the key, as always, is in the detail' she asserts.

It doesn't matter whether the kitchen garden is 10 acres or tiny corner, Arabella designs each space with the huge attention to detail that is her trademark. Every finial, post, bed edge and path are carefully crafted; vegetables form patterns often interspersed with cut flowers, waves of blending lavenders or brightly hued dahlias. Fruit trees are often goblet-shaped, pleached, espaliered or fanned whilst currants, peaches, gooseberries and blackberries form fantastic shapes up kitchen walls.

Fruit cages, greenhouses, conservatories, pumpkin beds, asparagus beds, sweet pea walks, peony cutting beds, cutting beds - the list continues of the infinite possibilities for the kitchen garden and Arabella's message is a serious one that perhaps we should all think more about making our gardens produce more - and in doing so, create something of great beauty also.

Many of Arabella's kitchen gardens are in private homes but some such as Belmont House, Faversham, Kent (See www.belmont-house.org) re open to the public. Some of the elements she uses in her kitchen gardens are available from her web site as is her range of furniture, ideal for that special kitchen garden seat.