Sunday 8 April 2012

Top 10 Rules for Growing a Kitchen Garden

Growing fruits and vegetables isn't rocket science, but it does involve science. Here are easy tips to help ensure your success in growing food in the garden!!!!!

Find the sun. Most vegetables want six hours of direct sun a day — and more if they can get it. Exceptions include lettuce and radishes, which can get by with less

Start small. If you're beginning your first garden, help yourself avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed with weeding and general maintenance. You can grow a surprising amount of food in a bed just 10-foot square

Build up your soil. The foundation of a healthy, productive garden is a rich, well-draining, crumbly soil that has good tilth. Liberally add organic matter such as finished compost, bagged humus and straw.


Time your crops. Soil temperatures matter as much as air temperature when you're planting. Even peas, which are spring crops that are resistant to light frost once they're growing, won't germinate when the soil is below 39 degrees


Be ready to supply cover if a late frost hits. Here, early-spring veggies grow under plastic


Mulch, mulch, mulch. You wouldn't think twice about mulching your ornamental beds, so do the same with your veggie and fruit plantings. Keeping a layer of organic mulch over this radicchio's shallow roots helps conserve moisture and suppress weeds


Anticipate animals pests. To a raccoon these young corn plants mean dinner in the making, once the ears are fully developed. Talk to your neighbors and try to learn what pests to expect in your area. With the right kind of fencing, you can deter raccoons, rabbits, groundhogs, deer, dogs and other unwelcome visitors.

Mingle your plants. Too much of the same kind of plant in a grouping sends 'eat here' messages to bad bugs. Here, squash, peppers and beans share the space.


Stay on top of the harvest. Pick produce when it's ready. Removing beans as they mature allows more of the plant's energy to go into supporting the later fruit that forms

You don't have to hide your vegetable garden. Where you can, find a way to integrate your fruit and veggie garden with an area of your yard where you tend to hang out. When the crops are close at hand, you're much more likely to pluck off a bad bug or give a thirsty plant a drink.




The Kitchen Garden!!!!!

Planting Among Vegetables !!!

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) make a very pretty and effective edging plant, but it is unlikely that a large quantity will be needed as this is a cut-and-come-again herb, which regrows quite quickly. Good-sized clumps can be sown among your other vegetables, perhaps in a grid pattern to help remind you of the crop rotation compartments that are so useful in keeping the plot productive. Planted near peas and beans, chives may also help reduce insect pests.

Crop Planning


Short rows of lettuce provide the opportunity to grow many different salads and succession sowing can keep crops producing for most of the year. Try interplanting with small rows of leafy herbs, such as lamb’s and miner's lettuce, chicory (Cichorium), dames rocket (Hesperis matronalis), red orache (Atriplex hortensis var. rubra), and French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), or perhaps garlic chives (Allium tuberosum). If there is the space, grow a large row of comfrey as this makes a superb compost activator and liquid fertilizer.

The Community Plot


The large, dedicated kitchen garden may be a thing of the past, but community plots are very popular again. Many herbs need continual cropping to keep healthy and lush while others just look unattractive when they have been cut or cropped. These are ideal for growing in the vegetable patch, but it is not necessary to grow in rows — clumps and patches can look very attractive. Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum) sown in late spring will rapidly germinate and spread into a sizeable clump. Many cultivars are available and they all have edible flowers and the bright colors attract pollinating bees. Try planting them next to your planned salad bed so you can harvest both at the same time.

How to Create an Ornamental Edible Garden!!!!

Try these tips for making the food section of your garden more attractive!!

Plant a pretty container with a mixture of herbs and edible flowers such as nasturtiums

Mix your edibles with ornamentals. By interplanting a variety of different plants, you'll boost the attractiveness of your vegetable garden and likely reduce the pest problems often seen in big plantings of the same crop


You don't have to give up great taste when you choose a good-looking plant. Many types of lettuces and Swiss chard are as pretty to look at as they are good to eat.

Create attractive hardscaping and use seasonal ornamentals that help take the focus away from the beans, potatoes and other veggies that tend to start looking disheveled as they mature.

















This beautiful little kitchen garden features herbs, fruits and vegetables, arranged with easy-to-harvest accessibility in mind. As summer wears on, and some edible plants begin looking a bit tattered, the semi-formal design and stone path hold the look together.

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