The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg

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You can start planning a kitchen garden at any time, but it is best waiting until spring before you start planting. 'You can start planting your kitchen garden whenever the temperature starts rising and you are past the frost day which usually is after the third week of April. You can start planting the seeds of your produce indoors toward the last weeks of winter, this way you'll have more mature plants ready to be planted outside during spring,' says landscape designer Jonathan Fargion. Here we grow vegetables, fruit and herbs which are used at our restaurants and sold to the public. The Kitchen Garden is home to an array of heritage and modern cultivars, plus we are trialling new crops.

Vegetable gardens, on the other hand, are usually more functional, expansive and industrious spaces where large numbers of vegetables are grown. Vegetable gardens can range from a few feet to acres. How do you plan a kitchen garden? Wilson, C. A. (ed.) (1998). The Country House Kitchen Garden 1600–1950: How Produce Was Grown and How it Was Used. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-1423-9. Beetroot– is easy to grow from seed, in the ground or a pot. Sow directly into the soil in April to July, in medium to light, neutral to slightly alkaline soil that has not been recently manured. Keep well watered and weeded. Round varieties will be ready to harvest from 11 weeks. Golf ball size are tender and delicious and the leaves can be used as an alternative to spinach or in salads. Salad leaves– and lettuces are easy to grow from seed in the ground or containers, and give a high yield. Cut-and-come-again salads give a succession of leaves, from five to eight weeks after sowing – an economic alternative to expensive salad bags in shops and much fresher and tastier. They like fertile, moisture-retentive soil. Sow more every four to six weeks for a continuous supply.WIND PROTECTION– is also important when planning a kitchen garden, so hedging, fencing or hurdles can be used to shelter plants from the wind. Added to which, these can help you to maximize every space by growing crops up the vertical surfaces, such as espaliered vegetables or fruit, or peas, beans and cucumbers up climbing frames.

A symbol of American self-sufficiency and the colonial homestead, practical kitchen gardens were the center of home life in early America. In Europe, especially Britain, the difficulties in food supply during World War II resulted in a huge, if temporary, upsurge in growing vegetables in small gardens, with much encouragement from the government Ministry of Food. In modern gardening, there has been interest in integrating the growing of food plants within a mainly ornamental garden; fruit trees and cooking herbs are the simplest and most popular expression of this. [4] Visibility [ edit ] Part of the potager du roi at Versailles, with steps for mounting the wall at bottom right. In Gera, a baroque orangery forms the western end of the Küchengarten (kitchen garden), which is the local pleasure garden. SUN– for crops to grow well they ideally need morning sun and around six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day. My main responsibilities are the growing cut flowers, looking after our vast array of fruit and keeping our ornamental standards high. I also work with our various community groups, leading them as volunteers, giving demonstrations or just making them feel at home in the garden. Stephen Histed, image by Gregor Petrikovič How did you become a kitchen gardener? I’m really looking forward to the prospect of being able to make small edits and developments with our planting to really show off the space. I’m also currently looking at ways in which we can introduce open water to the garden as this has a huge benefit for local biodiversity. We have a really clear vision of making a garden that benefits community and wildlife whilst using sustainable and organic approaches and is conscious of the impacts climate change will continue to make, and I’m really excited to be a part of that journey. Meet Lauren Jennings

What is grown in a kitchen garden?

And while that is a garden, that's not really representative of a kitchen garden. Not the rows and rows, not the digging and endless work. That's more of what I call a vegetable garden, a veggie patch, or a row garden. Microorganisms use a glue-like substance to create tiny pores in soil aggregates. This increases the soil’s saturation porosity. Saturation porosity is the air trapped in the soil when it’s flooded. CARROTS can be sown in March or April in the open. For sweet, small carrots, sow every few weeks from early spring to late summer for a harvest from June to November. Plant in full sun for earlies, or part shade for main crop varieties, with plenty of organic matter dug in.

Whether you have a balcony, a small plot, or a sprawling allotment, we believe that everyone can grow their own fresh and nutritious food. With Kitchen Garden, you’ll be equipped with all the knowledge and inspiration you need to get started and to grow your own delicious bounty. These can then be overwintered indoors on a sunny windowsill or in a greenhouse before being planted in the garden in the spring when the risk of frost has passed.

You can integrate a small selection of edibles among herbs and flowers, moving crops and flowers in rotation. A wide variety of herbs, such as rosemary, chives and sage, are an attractive addition in any garden. Citrus and melons could be part of the kitchen garden also, if the conditions of soil and climate were such as to support their growth. If you prefer a more informal look opt for a vegetable patch amongst cottage garden ideas, with a mix of crops, flowers and shrubs. You can grow edibles anywhere – you don’t need a dedicated plot. A potager garden, initially, was a garden for leeks, potatoes, and the like, produce to be used in broths. That was then; now, a potager or kitchen garden is a space where you can grow whatever edible plants that take your fancy, even some soft fruit like strawberries.

Use mulch to insulate the soil, limit weed growth, and minimize moisture loss by evaporation. Mulch also helps prevent soil compaction. Herbs, such as mint, thyme, parsley and sage, are expensive to buy but easy to grow, and many are perennial so will keep supplying your kitchen year after year. Apples– Bare-root fruit trees can be planted from November to March. Self-fertile trees will produce fruit without the need of another tree to pollinate it. Soak roots, then plant in a sheltered, sunny position, ideally in well-drained sandy loam soil. In a small space, train them against a wall or fence as an espalier. You can also buy espaliered trees in pots at garden centres throughout the year. Water well for the first few years and expect to harvest in a couple of years, depending on the variety. Even small gardens can have apples as step-overs, espaliered, on arches, or columns in containers. Roots, like humans, cannot survive in an anaerobic environment. The weight of water expels air from the soil, but nature, if allowed to, has ways of preventing this from happening.In a garden, one can think, dream and forget the world. Edith Wharton A Basic Guide to Starting a Multi-Bed Vegetable Garden The USDA has an excellent seasonal guide for Nothern hemisphere gardeners. For Southern Hemisphere kitchen gardens, switch summer and winter, spring and fall. The lists include fruit planting. To view the full job advert, please visit: https://englishcountrygardeners.co.uk/job/gardening-jobs-skilled-gardener-dunfries-and-galloway/ Look for color: When choosing varieties to grow, look for ones with particularly attractive features, such as colorful leaves and stems, including Beetroot ‘Bull’s Blood’, or unusual leaves like curly kales that come in a fantastic array of colors, such as kale ‘Candy Floss’. Make use of vegetables with unusual flower colors, such as broad bean ‘Crimson Flowered’ and runner bean ‘Celebration’ or ‘Painted Lady’. Plants are chosen as much for their functionality as for their color and form. [10] Many are trained to grow upward. A well-designed potager can provide food as well as cut flowers and herbs for the home with very little maintenance. [4] Potagers can disguise their function of providing for a home in a wide array of forms—from the cottage garden to the formality of a knot garden.