Kitchen garden ideas: 13 easy ways to get started
There’s been no better time than now to begin brainstorming designs for a kitchen garden. The grow-your-own movement is on a roll like never before, and you’ll know why once you’ve tried your tomatoes straight off the vine or a freshly plucked sweetcorn cob warmed by the sun.
Homegrown food provides more of a sense of accomplishment and tastes better. Planting and caring for your crops may be very relaxing, and harvesting your fresh vegetables can be extremely rewarding.
Plus, you can grow organic food, making it a better choice for your health. Also, you won’t believe how simple it is to grow fresh salad greens, herbs, and hot chili peppers to spice up your meals.
The key is to grow various low-yield crops that collectively yield a high return. Avoid fussy vegetables like celery and cauliflower in favor of cut-and-come-again salad greens, spicy herb plants, savory leafy greens, super-sweet peas still in the pod, and pots of ripe, juicy strawberries.
Not concerned with the lack of room. There are many ways to get resourceful with your gardening, whether you want to grow vertically by stacking pots or making a living roof on your shed.
KITCHEN GARDEN IDEAS – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
According to Artisan Landscapes’ Jamie Innes, a horticulturist who studied at London’s esteemed Kew Gardens, “growing your own” is more than just a hobby; it’s a way of life. It combines concerns for one’s physical well-being, the environment, and a desire to feel closer to nature. It’s a sign of dedication that you’re willing to put down your phone and focus on something other than the usual pressures of modern life.
Whether you’re just starting or an experienced gardener, we hope our compilation of the top kitchen garden ideas will inspire the kitchen of your new outdoor living area.
1. DIVIDING YOUR SPACE WILL CREATE A POTAGER’S GARDEN
The standard vegetable garden design incorporates a raised bed grid connected by paved walkways. A potager is a formal term for this type of garden layout. Separate into four zones, connected by paths if possible, and include a tiny, circular bed in the center.
Sarah Raven, a plant, says the four beds are divided among several plant families. First, separate your new potatoes, beets, and carrots into their respective sections. Vegetables like beans and peas benefit from the second (known as legumes). One for leafy greens like chard and spinach, another for salad and herbs, and a third for various vegetables.
2. CREATE AN ENTRANCE INTO A KITCHEN GARDEN
You can utilize these gadgets as part of your design to divide your kitchen garden ideas from the rest of your space, which is one of the many benefits of gardening in a confined area and the horizontal gardening space.
Climbing plants like beans and pumpkins can be supported by arches and pergolas so that more room can be used for planting crops at ground level. Great Dixter’s Aaron Bertelsen opines that “space constraints can lead to innovation.”
Wall-mounted planters and shelves, as well as pots arranged on rungs of a ladder or a set of stairs, are all viable options. If you suspend pots from a window box, you may quickly increase the room you have for plants.
3. NOURISH VEGETABLES IN CONTAINERS
Remember that most vegetables grow in portable pots that may be shifted to fill any available space. Gardening in raised beds or enormous pots is a simple choice for growing vegetables. Grow your fresh produce in these year-round mini-gardens.
4. CHOOSE CROPS THAT LOOK GOOD TOO
Vegetables that are both simple to grow and visually appealing on social media platforms like Instagram receive a big thumbs up from us. Plant them in the kitchen garden, but also consider placing them amid flowers or in containers as a decorative accent.
Swiss chard is the best-tasting type and provides a consistent supply of leaves all year round; it is also commonly grown as an aesthetic plant due to its attractive ruby red and golden stems.
In addition to globes, beetroot is a beautiful plant that requires little effort to grow and has edible, striking red-veined leaves.
Strawberries, tomatoes, peas, and herbs in their natural forms are also essential.
5. OPT FOR EASY LEAVES
Say “Cut and Replay” Spicy Japanese mizuna, with its serrated green and purple leaves, mild-flavored mustard greens, and crinkly rocket are just a few examples of the many types of salad leaves that can be cultivated year-round to ensure a steady supply.
If you sow leaves in the spring and again in the fall, you’ll have enough for two or three months, meaning you can ditch the bagged type for good. During the summer, you can also eat red-veined sorrel and lettuce leaves (rather than lettuce ‘heads’).
The leaves will keep falling for as long as you pluck them.
6. CREATE YOUR OWN HERB GARDEN
Herb gardens are an easy win for improving your kitchen garden because they require little upkeep, look nice, and fill the air with a calming garden.
Rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and mint are the simplest to grow. Even in the most basic soils, you can leave them to start to work.
Despite preferring damper circumstances, basil, parsley, and chives are all rather simple to grow.
Plant each one in its pot, or create a raised bed herb garden with old bricks or edging tiles.
7. GO FOR GLAMOR
Trusses of shiny, fully ripe tomatoes are an absolute must. Tomatoes are surprisingly simple to grow in your garden. To add a hint of the Mediterranean market stall to your kitchen garden, plant a huge ribbed variety like ‘Costoluto Fiorentino’ in a sheltered south-facing position.
Tumbling Tom Red and Balconi Red cherry tomatoes, for example, are tiny and would look great spilling out of a window box or basket, so keep them in mind if you’re short on growing space. Beginning in March, it’s simple to grow your seedlings inside on a windowsill.
Tomato tomatoes require consistent attention, including watering, staking, nipping off side shoots, and feeding. However, the benefits will be well worth the effort.
8. GROW LUSH BERRIES
Strawberries cultivated at home, warmed by the sun, picked fresh off the bush, and eaten immediately taste different from those purchased in stores.
Find a sunny place, use rich compost, and cover with a cloche if it’s going to rain a lot, and they’ll grow. Growing them in a raised bed makes for simple upkeep, and the resulting “runners” can be potted up and used to ensure continued self-sufficiency.
We recommend trying ‘Cambridge Favourite’ or ‘Elvira,’ two tasty types.
9. TRY EASY RAISED BEDS
Gardening in raised beds or enormous pots is a simple choice for growing vegetables. Use them as individual vegetable gardens to grow your harvest whenever you like. Having a plant right at eye level makes tending to it a breeze because you can see everything happening. Any vegetable you can imagine can be grown in this manner.
If you’re looking for raised garden bed ideas, fennel like this will flourish in a sunny location, reaching heights of up to two meters, providing height and visual interest to your kitchen garden. Fennel is attractive in the fall when its feathery foliage and floating yellow flowerheads bloom, and it is also a tasty herb. Plant the seeds directly in the ground outside in June to August and then just let nature grow its course.
10. USE VERTICAL SPACE
Consider vertical gardening if you have a small garden or can only work with a balcony or terrace. Not only can you plant fruit trees, but you can also grow most types of vegetables! They happily climb up sunny walls and fences and can be trained into a fan shape (espalier) with wires.
The espalier method of training apple and pear trees is widely used because it allows the fruit to be grown in smaller areas. A fig tree is a good choice if you already have a specific, sunny location. Due to its bendable branches, it is an excellent option for this type of landscaping.
The most common type is called “Brown Turkey,” while “Violetta” and “Brunswick” also do well.
11. ENRICH THE SOIL
Vegetables require more soil nutrients than flowers to produce good yields. Add well-rotted manure or compost to your soil to nourish it, then top it off with fertilizers.
Knowing what kind of soil your vegetables appreciate is essential before planting them. These gorgeous carrots, for instance, require sandy, well-drained soil to grow successfully.
An application of general-purpose fertilizer should be made a week before planting and well raking in. Consider the occasional supplement as a necessary evil for your vegetables.
12. ADD COLOR AND DRAMA
You can get a dozen fruits from each chili plant if you grow them in a sunny window box or large pot toward the end of summer. Since one pot is usually sufficient, they take up little room but accomplish a lot. When they turn a vibrant red, they are pretty stunning to look at.
The heat can range from scalding to scorching, so pick what you prefer. Hungarian Hot Wax is a very productive variety, with harvests occurring in the warmer parts of the year (about March through May).
The seeds should be started indoors in March and then transplanted once they reach a height of around 10 centimeters and the first flowers have appeared. To maintain productivity, they require both full sun and shade.
13. GET A GREENHOUSE
If you want your kitchen garden to produce, you must move it under cover. A greenhouse allows you to start growing earlier in the year and grow more produce (including more unusual possibilities like melons).
Adding a heated greenhouse or greenhouse-like structure to your garden can give you a leg up on the competition when it comes to growing your food, whether you envision an elaborate Victorian-style glasshouse or prefer the more minimalist choice of one of the newest lean-tos or grow houses.
There are many options, ranging from classic to modern, so you can find something that works in your home, no matter the dimensions. Then you can sit back and grow, watching your garden expand.
HOW DO YOU DESIGN A KITCHEN GARDEN?
Identify your desired level of formality or casualness before proceeding.
Use raised beds and paved pathways to create a tidy and organized arrangement for your traditional vegetable garden. The term ‘potager’ is often used to refer to gardens designed in this manner of formality.
If you like the casual look of a vegetable garden with a variety of crops planted among flowers and shrubs, often referred to as a “cottage” garden, this is a good option because it does not require any hard landscaping and is more adaptable as you can change it up from year to year depending on what you want to grow.
Grow things up walls, fences, and trellises to make the most of vertical and horizontal space. It would be best to look for any sun traps that can provide an ideal growing environment by chance. Also, remember that the closer your patch is to the kitchen, the easier it will be to maintain.
HOW DO I PLAN A SMALL KITCHEN GARDEN?
Think about what you want to eat, list the vegetables you’d like to grow, and then figure out how big of a garden you can fit and where the ideal place to plant them is. The next step is to figure out how to make room for whatever you decide to do once you’ve settled on what and where.
Remember that most vegetables grow in portable pots that may be shifted to fill any available space.
Here comes the section about plants! Vegetables are classified into three categories based on their structural similarity to the vegetable’s parent: legumes (beans, peas), brassicas (kale, radishes, etc.), and roots (beetroot, garlic, and so on).
However, if you use pots instead, you won’t have to worry about this.
WHAT CAN YOU GROW IN A KITCHEN GARDEN?
Make “maximum returns for little work” your philosophy.
A herb garden is a great place to begin, and having a steady supply of “cut and come again” leaves will ensure that your salad dish is never empty.
Chard, spinach and cavolo nero are just a few examples of leafy greens that are simple to grow and provide a steady harvest.
Check out these companion planting charts to see which plants get along great. Vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, spinach, and onions get along well, whereas beans do better when planted alongside peas and chard.
Remember that you are not limited to just using bowls and pots for your blending needs. If you’re strapped for the room, you might also try growing some miniature fruit trees in pots.
But ultimately, the decision rests with you; pick something you enjoy doing and are willing to put in the time and effort for.
