Growing a Kitchen Garden for Fresh Produce

Just keep scrolling to see some of our very favorite kitchen garden ideas, and get ready to take your meals up a notch when harvest time comes around. Growing vegetables indoors allows you to continue harvesting your favorite foods year-round, even in the coldest seasons. That means the onset of winter doesn’t have to put an end to harvesting vegetables. With the right tools, conditions, vegetable garden ideas, and methods, indoor growing lets you harvest some of your favorite varietals indoors for months before the weather turns favorable again. These include vegetables like carrots, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce. If you’re growing a kitchen garden for the first time, beware the desire to grow all the things.

To soften this more formal approach, opt for grass pathways between the beds. It will add to all the lush green tones in the height of summer, giving your space a soothing vibe. There is no greater sense of accomplishment than sitting down to eat something from your own kitchen garden. When you take that first forkful, it is going to taste like victory.

  1. A hoe, a shovel,  and some kind of plant marker for each crop will be sufficient.
  2. This design can be combined with a matching trellis to help support your fruit trees.
  3. If you’re trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle but find the high cost of good food to be prohibitive, a kitchen garden plot might be the answer.
  4. Growing the best fruit trees and planting the easiest vegetables will reward you with the freshest and tastiest crops to enjoy straight from the ground.
  5. These profiteroles are tiny pastry clouds stuffed with pork rillettes, mustard caviar, Jersey Girl cheese, and a tangy mustard sherry vinaigrette.

Of course there’s the likes of dill and parsley, but keep an eye out for more unusual varieties. Chocolate mint makes a great addition to desserts, whilst Thai basil adds a lovely hint of aniseed to Asian dishes. You don’t have to have acres of space to create a flourishing veg patch, either. While growing vegetables in containers indoors does have its challenges—they’ll take more care and may not yield as much—it is possible to find great success. Start off on the right foot by choosing one of these easy-to-grow indoor varieties, and you’ll go from growing seedlings indoors to harvesting vegetables in no time. ‘Herbs are the perfect plants to grow in your kitchen garden given their versatility and universality in recipes, and you can also grow multiple varieties in a small space.

Bites of cauliflower receive the Buffalo treatment with bleu cheese crumbles and fresh herbs. A 24-hour braised pork belly is even finished with a 60-minute egg prepared sous vide. Situated by the railroad tracks that run alongside a rushing waterfall on Main Street, the store is part beer shop and part eatery. One bite of a Pork Puff could make you forget the selection of nearly 200 beers shelved behind you in wooden cases.

You can also buy small vegetable plants from nurseries to add directly into beds or containers. This is another fabulous idea if you’ve been thinking about growing runner beans, broad beans, or peas this season. For once these crops get underway, they will climb vigorously, and can easily be trained over a small pergola or archway for a show-stopping feature in the center of your veg patch. Sow successionally in the growing season, interplant compatible edibles, and rotate crops to avoid disease building up in the soil.

Planning a kitchen garden

This direct link from our farms to your kitchen means tailored produce can be delivered direct within hours of being harvested. If growing potatoes, plant them out from early spring, they grow best in fertile, slightly acidic, loose soil, and need watering regularly. Containers can also be used to grow many fruit, vegetables or herbs. There are many different types of upcycled and recycled containers that can be put to this use, just ensure that they are big enough for the chosen crop and that the material they are made from is safe for the purpose. Raised garden bed ideas offer good drainage and increase soil temperature and can also act a barrier to pests such as slugs and snails. Line timber beds with black polythene to keep the timber dry and increase longevity.

Before you choose an artificial light, consider how different colors will impact your plant growth. A red light is ideal in the flower stage and will encourage taller growth and leafier plants, while a blue light should be brought in when a plant is in the vegetable stage. There are so many crops to consider, but these are a few that are both easy to grow and easy to use in your efforts to cook at home. If you’re trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle but find the high cost of good food to be prohibitive, a kitchen garden plot might be the answer. Positioning the kitchen garden close to the kitchen allows you to pop out quickly and grab a handful of herbs or a larger harvest as needed. As with all kitchen gardening, choose the right plant for the right place, selecting strong, healthy plants that suit the conditions.

SUN – for crops to grow well they ideally need morning sun and around six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day. LETTUCES are easy to grow and cut-and-come-again leaves will give you a selection for weeks. Enrich the soil with good compost and sow seeds about 1cm deep and at least 2.5cm apart between March and August.

Use a stepladder to showcase your herb garden

Guided by their shared values, it is their ambition to create an action plan that starts a movement to normalize and legalize delicious and freshly prepared cannabis based cuisine. Once you’ve successfully grown some of these easy crops, you’ll probably be inspired to expand your kitchen garden next year. Leigh Clapp is a professional photographer with over 25 years experience, primarily as a garden specialist photojournalist but also with food and travel. She delights in exploring gardens, discovering the tiny elements to their overall essence and meeting lots of enthusiastic gardeners along the way. At RHS Rosemoor in Devon in South West England, ornamentals and edibles blend in an effervescent profusion in the kitchen garden. They grow the likes of Kale ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Redbor’ next to each other, ‘as the dark green and red foliage of the two varieties contrast so well with one another,’ explains Peter Adams, the Edibles Team Leader.

Pack Time For Treats Syrup – Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon

You may have heard of companion planting already – it’s when you grow plants together that benefit one another. For example, many herbs can help to deter insects such as carrot root fly and onion fly due to their aromatic fragrance. Clay soil types will need breaking crop to kitchen up and takes longer to warm up so is better for later crops. Light, sandy soils are better for early vegetables but will need plenty of compost and manure adding. These bulky materials release nutrients slowly, improve soil condition and to help retain water.

Turn Carrot Scraps Into A Beautiful Houseplant In Three Steps!

Stack them up on an upcycled stepladder for an attractive focal point that makes the most of the vertical space in your plot. The result will be a low-maintenance herb garden with a Mediterranean feel. So when it comes to your kitchen garden ideas, giving your greenhouse ideas pride of place is a good move. That way, your greenhouse will be just where you need it when you’re busy tending to your crops, preventing the need to trudge back and forth across your lawn to get your trays of seeds.

Kitchen garden ideas can be used to elevate a decked space – providing a fresh flourish of greenery to the scene. Just take a look at these planters above – they’re positively brimming with luscious (and very tasty-looking) salad leaves. Positioning your crops near the house and outdoor seating space means they’ll be quick and easy to access for midweek meal cooking. And for something a bit different, we love these woven willow beds – they offer a lovely laid-back vibe. For avid gardeners, a greenhouse takes up an important role in the plot all year round.

Divide into four areas, ideally with paths, with a small, round central bed if you have the space. At a passing glance, this restaurant appears to be a maroon schoolhouse from the 1940s tucked into a bend on Route 199. But blink and you might miss Another Fork in the Road, one of the most modestly wonderful dining rooms around.