How to Grow your own Kitchen Garden

Ever thought of how healthy and fresh food would be when grown in your backyard? You can grow fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for delicious, healthy meals in your kitchen garden. A kitchen garden doesn’t have to be necessarily right outside the kitchen door, but the closer it is, the better.

Here is a list of few things to pay attention to while planning your own kitchen garden:

Select a right position

An open, sunny spot is ideal that enjoys the morning sunlight, around six to eight hours daily. To grow quickly and well, vegetables need as much light as possible, so track the sun throughout the day to see where shadows fall. Choose the spot where the sun shines the strongest and the longest.

If you have a choice between a sunny spot and a close one, pick the sunny one. The best location for a new garden is one receiving full sunlight (at least six hours per day), and one where the soil drains well. A good site is if no puddles remain after a few hours of good rain.

Soil preps

If possible, test the pH levels of the soil in the chosen spot for vegetable garden to see if it is more acid or alkaline which can vary in different spots and this will help to select crops. Soils generally vary from clay to sand, but all will need the addition of organic matter to retain moisture and nutrients. Clay soil needs breaking up and takes longer to warm up so suits later crops, whereas light soils are good for early vegetables but require large quantities of manure and compost to avoid water draining away too rapidly. The ideal is loose, crumbly loam, which absorbs and has good water holding capacity and is well aerated and drains freely.

Sow and plant

Seeds are the lowest cost may work best. You can pop seed trays inside on a windowsill, then pot on seedlings into the garden. Many vegetable seeds can be sown directly in situ once the soil warms up.
Plan small and successive sowings and plantings every alternate week for a yearlong harvest. Edge plots with contrasting plants, including herbs and flowers, which will cover bare spots as the season progresses.

Time to harvest

After harvesting, use fast fillers, such as salad greens. Many of the latter self-sow and can be used easily to fill gaps when required.
If you want to sow broad beans, peas, carrots, onions, the first potatoes and salad crops, February is the best time. Green salads can also be grown year round, and many of the most expensive to buy at the shops, such as rocket and baby leaves, but are the easiest to grow.

Final Preps for the Garden Site

If you’re thinking to start kitchen garden on a patch of lawn, you can build up from the ground with raised beds, or plant directly in the ground. Building raised beds is a good idea if your soil is poor or doesn’t drain well. You can try the look of containers made from wood, stone or corrugated metal. This is usually more expensive, however, and requires more work initially than planting in the ground. Ensure that you don’t have grass and weeds coming up in your garden.

What you can grow?

Your kitchen garden can be as interesting as your imagination allows it to be. You can grow radish, broad leaf mustard, chilli, beans, pumpkins, mint, coriander, peas, tomatoes, salad leaves, beans, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, apples, gooseberries, strawberries and more.

Over to you

If you’ve never tasted garden-fresh vegetables, you will be mesmerised by the sweet, juicy flavors and vibrant textures. Moreover, they will be chemical and pesticide free. There’s absolutely nothing quite like fresh veggies grown in your own kitchen garden, nurtured by your love.