Rooted Garden Creates Chef's Garden for the Briar Club of Houston

In 2019, Rooted Garden was honored with the opportunity to create a chef’s garden for Executive Chef, Michael Powell, at the Briar Club of Houston.

The Briar Club Inspires its Members with a Garden to Table Experience

The Briar Club of Houston chose to set their chef’s kitchen garden at the heart of the Club’s activity, so that tennis players, restaurant guests and families on the lawn could look on the kitchen garden and see what’s growing each and every season.

Chef Michael Powell was already growing a lot of his own herbs and greens for use in his local and seasonal dishes but with a kitchen garden that was front and center of the Briar Club, members could now be inspired to see what was growing each and every month of the year.

The Briar Club of Houston Has a Rich History in the City

In The Briar Club's early days, the Santamaria family ran the club as The Coral Club, with Uncle Vince at the helm and Grandma Fannie Santamaria cooking for the Members, especially her famous raviolis. Inspired to expand the Club with major facilities like a pool and tennis courts, a motivated group of Coral Club members self-named "the baker's dozen" created a charter with Mr. Santamaria to form The Briar Club, a glowing vision of recreation and sports for their families within a steadily growing campus.

The Briar Club Has Been Growing in Houston for More than 50 Years

During the 1950's, The Briar Club as we now know it truly began to take shape. The first pool was built. An initial code of conduct was established. Monthly dues were instituted, as well as a check system for the purchase of food and beverages. Furniture for the cocktail lounge was purchased from Suniland Furniture. In 1956, Al Chivers was hired as manager, remaining in that position for over twenty-five years.

Two decades of family fun flew by at the Club from 2000 to 2020, as the times and trends changed. Membership continued to grow, and as renovations were completed, many Briar Club Members began to see a new vision for their Club, just as the "baker's dozen" did in 1949. From this vision, and many hours of hard work from the Board of Directors and Committees, the Briar Club Master Plan Project was born. Plans for the project included a new fitness center and spa, a covered sports pavilion, a brand new clubhouse with all-new dining and event spaces, expanded swimming pools, additional tennis courts, youth facilities and a parking garage with an adjacent skywalk. The Master Plan Project was completed in 2016 with the opening of our Family Resort Pool, with additional touches being added into 2017.

In 2018, the Briar Club began new work on their landscape working with Tellepsen for the major part of the landscape and Rooted Garden for their chef’s kitchen garden.

The Briar Club’s Chef’s Garden Creates a Garden to Table Experience for Members

With experience creating meals inspired by local and seasonal ingredients, Chef Michael Powell, was eager to have even more harvests from the Club’s garden.

Rooted Garden utilized its classic Formal Potager design for the Club’s new kitchen garden. This design added more than 250 square feet of gardening space for Chef Michael Powell and his staff.

Rooted Garden also created custom arch trellises to tie to the beautiful architecture of the Briar Club’s central building, suggesting that the kitchen garden had always been there.

The Briar Club’s Chef’s Garden Grows a Year Round Supply of Organic Herbs

Rooted Garden’s goal is to help all our clients grow a year round supply of herbs in their kitchen gardens. And because of the large scale of the Briar Club’s garden, this was more than possible for Chef Michael Powell.

Planted in the center of the formal potager is a large Bay Laurel-producing weekly harvests of Bay that can be used in many of the chef’s dishes for Club members.

The edges and borders of the garden are planted with perennial herbs like oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage and chives-making it possible for weekly harvests of each herb throughout the entire year in Houston.

Briar Club of Houston Inspires Its Members

As the Briar Club grows its own Chef’s Garden, the Club has inspired many of its members to begin their own kitchen garden as well.

Over the last few years, the Briar Club has hosted numerous Workshops with Rooted Garden, both on salad gardening and herb gardening, allowing members to ‘dig in’ and start their own herb or salad garden too.

Many of the Briar Club members have since worked with Rooted Garden to create a kitchen garden in their own homes as well.

The Briar Club of Houston is Leading the Garden to Table Movement

While many restaurants or clubs aim to prepare and serve more seasonal and locally inspired dishes, the Briar Club of Houston is certainly leading the way in showcasing the possibilities of what grows well in Houston and how the garden can be part of our everyday lives, whether we’re on our way to tennis, meeting up with friends or neighbors or simply looking for a few moments of peace and quiet in the middle of a busy day.

The Briar Club’s Garden is Growing Year Round

Rooted Garden boasts the possibility to garden year round in Houston and the Briar Club shows that’s possible.

In the winter garden in Houston, the Briar Club’s garden grows greens like kale, lettuce, and arugula as well as carrots, radishes, and sugar snap peas.

Herbs continue to grow through the winter in the garden as well.

The Briar Club of Houston’s Garden Thrives in Spring

During the spring season, the Briar Club’s garden grows loads of tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash and zucchini.

Herbs like basil can grow alongside perennial favorites of rosemary and oregano during this season too.

The Briar Club of Houston’s Garden Grows Through Houston’s Hot Summer

Even in the heat of the summer season, the Briar Club’s garden grows okra, shiso, eggplant, hot peppers and tomatillos-and continues to be full of delicious and fresh herbs as well.

The Briar Club of Houston’s Garden Grows Through the Fall Season

After growing lots of plants through the spring and summer, the Briar Club’s garden grows through the fall as well.

During the months of September, October, and November, the garden can produce cherry tomatoes, small peppers and beans again for the chef and the Club’s members.

Rooted Garden Celebrates Houston’s Garden to Table Movement

When our founder, Nicole Burke, first started. gardening in Houston, she was shocked to discover the fact that gardening was possible twelve months of the year in Houston.

It was this surprise that led her to start Rooted Garden in 2015 with the vision that everyone in Houston would be growing a little of their own food by 2030.

Now, six years in, Rooted Garden is so honored to work with clients like the Briar Club of Houston that showcase the growing possibilities in Houston’s unique climate.

We’re so thankful for the Briar Club’s members and their trust in Rooted Garden to create a Chef’s Garden for their beautiful club.

Rooted Garden Creates 300 Kitchen Gardens in Houston

2021 marked Rooted Garden’s creation of more than 300 kitchen gardens in Houston, Texas. And we’re just getting started. We’d love to design and install a garden to table experience for you-whether you’d like a kitchen garden in your own residential backyard or you’re hoping to create a kitchen garden for your business, restaurant or club.

All our garden designs begin with a Consultation and you can book one with us this season here.

Many thanks to the Briar Club of Houston and their partnership on their Chef’s Garden. Thank you for being a leader in Houston’s Garden to Table Movement.