Tony O’Neill , expert gardener and best - selling author of the famous “ Simplify Vegetable Gardening , ” “ compost Masterclass , ” and “ Your First Vegetable Garden , ” combines lifelong passion and expert knowledge to simplify horticulture . His mission ? Helping you cultivate a roaring garden . More on Tony O’Neill
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Conceptualized during the World Wars , victory gardens were a reservoir of solid food for troops and citizens . Millions of kitchen gardens sprang up and bug out a ethnical shift where 77 % of Americans grew some of their food for thought , and Brits acquire about 154 million kilograms annually .
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What is a Kitchen Garden?
A kitchen garden also called a potager garden , can be spacious or pocket-sized as long as the elemental purpose is growing a provision of vegetables and herbs for the pot . TheMerriam - Websterdictionary specify a potager ( noun ) as a James Cook whose specialties are soup , broth , and bouillon ( a clear veteran soup made usually from lean bitch ) .
A potager garden , ab initio , was a garden for leeks , potatoes , and the like , bring on to be used in broths . That was then ; now , a potager or kitchen garden is a space where you may arise whatever edible plant life that take your fancy , even some soft fruit like strawberries .
size of it is less important than a supply that meets the cook ’s requirements . The aim is to use your kitchen garden to ply some of your kitchen ’s needs ( if not all ) .
The size of it of your kitchen garden depends on your available growing space . It ’s effective to start small and succeed , expanding as you get comfortable growing your food .
A garden to take the air in and immensity to dream in — what more could he ask ?
The Growing Popularity of Kitchen Gardens
During and after the COVID pandemic , there was a huge kitchen garden revivification , with seeded player sales doubling . According to the recent National Gardening Survey , 39 % of Americans had vegetable garden in 2018 , up to 77 % in 2021 .
The older multiplication ( 35 % ) is the most prolific kitchen garden growers , but the younger contemporaries ( 29 % ) is rapidly catching up , dramatise kitchen gardening . A kitchen garden is imperative in a world where food cost are step up and major planet Earth is groaning under the load of commercial-grade land techniques .
Nothing beat out the taste ( and nutrition ) of homegrown constitutional food . If you have not yet done so , now is the ideal fourth dimension to start up a kitchen garden . This article covers all the steps require to grow your own ( # GYOFood ) .
Starting a Kitchen Vegetable Garden
have ’s feign you ’re a novice and what to start a kitchen garden to cut your grocer ’s bill without fall behind entree to pleasant-tasting produce . You may have heard how in force gardening is for genial wellness ; we all need ego - care . So , here are ten steps you may stick to in starting a kitchen garden :
Step One: Start a Container Kitchen Garden Outdoors
The best fashion to learn any skill is by practice and failing forward . It ’s no dissimilar for vegetable horticulture . In your first kitchen garden task , you will :
Step Two: Start a Gardening Journal
This may seem unrelated to kitchen garden growing , but it will serve you in future years and may even become your book on kitchen horticulture or vegetable gardening .
habituate your horticulture journal to tape events , inspiration , and learning . Topics like “ plant life to maturate , ” “ Edible Flowers , ” and “ Companion Plants That Work ” can all be added , and many more . immortalise the progress of tomato plant plants and sweet pea .
build the habit of recording your work in your kitchen garden , using your code and abbreviations . It ’s not meant to be a War and Peace from the onset , but it will have corking value as the years pass and you become a master gardener .
afterward you may include everything about growing fruit Tree and plants in unlike season in your hardiness zone .
As your kitchen garden expands , or even earlier , keep a phonograph record of
Keeping a garden journal help you keep track of your learning in growing a kitchen garden . You may never be a landscape painting clothes designer , but evenFrederick Law Olmsted , the New York Central Park co - designer , startle by hold back a garden diary .
The greatest natural endowment of the garden is the regaining of the five senses .
Step Three: Consider What You Want to Grow in Your Kitchen Garden
If you ’re an experienced nurseryman , you may want to start here . Your garden diary is already a hoarded wealth trove of localise gardening knowledge .
During the first class , while growing your first kitchen garden , use your garden diary to tag the veg you buy . We ’re starting to plan our 2d year of kitchen garden expansion — move to set up bed .
Start using a individual raised seam ; the size bet on your available space . If you ’re considering building a wooden raised bed , ascertain out myarticleon why you should consider alternatives .
TheUSDAhas an first-class seasonal guide for Nothern hemisphere gardeners . For Southern Hemisphere kitchen gardens , switch summer and wintertime , spring and declination . The lists admit fruit planting .
According to the USDA Economic Research Services , the per - caput consumption of fresh veggies in 2021 was as follow ; I ’ve set it in descending lodge :
One of the many reward of grow your kitchen garden is your freedom to break off from conventionally grown plant . You may require to
Whichever fresh veggies you institute in your kitchen garden , check out the vegetable growing incision of the Simplify Gardening situation for help .
Step Four: Expand Your Kitchen Garden to Raised Beds
Raised bed have several advantages over flat beds , so let ’s consider a few .
A raised - bed kitchen garden is a planting quad higher than the surrounding ground . put up bed keep walk weeds out of your garden soil , minimize grunge crunch , better drainage , and act as as a barrier against gadfly like slug and escargot .
During grievous rainwater , the slope of the enkindle bed safeguard your prized garden soil from eroding or rinse off . Some of its advantage are as travel along :
The primary welfare of edifice put up beds is it allows you to grow your kitchen garden in a tailored stain mix that extend an optimal growing surround . The soil used to construct the raised bed is typically clean , fluffier , holds more water , and contains more food .
I excuse for the drift ; no universally suitable soil live for all plant . Some plant , like tomatoes , grow faster in fast - draining territory but produce better in slower - draining soil . Others , like lettuce , can handle acidic soil well than other plant .
Still , the oecumenical mind is to ensure your plant root word have ready admission to food , urine , and O . Let ’s look at these separately :
Roots , like humans , can not survive in an anaerobic environment . The weight of water expels broadcast from the soil , but nature , if allowed to , has ways of prevent this from go on .
Microorganisms use a glue - same meaning to create tiny pores in ground congeries . This increase the soil ’s vividness porousness . Saturation porosity is the aviation trapped in the soil when it ’s flooded .
TheUniversity of MarylandExtension has a bang-up article on soil drain . Here ’s a summary :
Your kitchen garden plant require a consistent pee supply to produce fresh veggie . A drip irrigation system forbid leaves from nonplus wet , cut down the risk of pathogen spreading and foliar disease .
While some plants like wet / dry cycle ( waiting for the soil to dry some before watering ) , shallow - settle vegetables like beet , broccoli , Daucus carota sativa , Brassica oleracea botrytis , Apium graveolens dulce , greens & herb , onion , pepper , radish , and spinach need systematically dampish soil .
Kitchen garden dirt must render plants with their required plant nutrients , and each works has its specific prerequisite , mainly of atomic number 7 ( N ) , phosphorus ( P ) , and K ( K ) , but also boron , Mg and Fe .
It ’s advisable to take samples of your soil and have it tested . Test results will advise you on what food are insufficient and what to bestow to your mature crop . The test also gives you a CEC reading , the garden dirt ’s cation exchange capacity .
CEC is essential as it ply the grower with the soil ’s power to defend nutrients in a bioavailable body politic . The higher the constitutional mental object , the more the soil can give the roots the ask nutrients . A low-pitched CEC allows nutrients to wash away out .
Step Five: Start Planning Your Kitchen Garden
We take off our kitchen garden in pots , graduated to a raided bed , and now we ’re planning to plant a vegetable garden consisting of several bed – it all depend on how much space you ’ve got or want to make useable .
Our plan includes cultivating border flower bed to attract good louse to protect our kitchen garden from common pests , including aphids ( the principal disease spreaders in veg garden ) . Grow crops under covers to protect them from pests in a compact space .
In a garden , one can think , dream and blank out the world .
vegetable are grouped into four groups that affect how they should be managed .
Cool - season or affectionate - season kitchen garden plants . Most plant ca n’t stand the mid - summertime heat ; summertime harvesting garden plants get laid it .
There are 16 garden plant families , but the eight most prominent veg family include most of the plants .
at last , there ’s the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) pest and diseasemanagement pigeonholing . These are align to the families , but a chemical group like fruit vegetables will include Abelmoschus esculentus .
FAQs Kitchen Gardening for Beginners
What vegetables are suitable for beginner gardeners?
Starting modest is vital for founder gardeners . regard planting easy - to - grow crops like loot , tomato , dark-green bean , carrots , and herb like basil and Mint . These offer a bounty of overbold ingredient for your kitchen while building your horticulture skills for future endeavors .
How do you layout a kitchen garden?
To layout a kitchen garden , consider space , Sunday , desired plants , and efficient utilisation of space through comrade planting , succession planting , and intercropping . Accommodate piss and alimentary needs , ensure proper drain , and make a functional and beautiful garden .
How do you make a vegetable garden for beginners?
Start with beginner - friendly crop that suit your climate and growing conditions : research seeds , soil prep , light , and water penury . commit in tools , composting , and irrigation . With patience and learning , you ’ll grow a bountiful kitchen garden .
What are kitchen garden principles?
Kitchen garden principles involve a harmonious balance of cultivate fresh , organic vegetables and herb in an expeditiously designed , compact quad , often in the backyard , for well-off admission to nutritious and scrumptious element . These gardens aim to cater a sustainable food source while promoting good for you living and reducing dependence on commercial agriculture .
What are the disadvantages of a kitchen garden?
A kitchen garden ask criminal maintenance and preparation , can be regard by cuss and disease , and may not bring home the bacon enough produce for entire sustainment . Considering these potential drawback alongside the benefits of fresh , organic produce and improve mental health is substantive .
In Summary
In culmination , a kitchen garden revitalization is happening as increase food prices force people to start a vegetable plot to arise a few vegetables . you’re able to grow vegetables in small garden if you provide some fertile soil .
I wish you all the best in starting or boom your kitchen garden . Enjoy !
