Home
| Lifestyle
| Lawn & Garden
| Design Gardens
| How to Design a Kitchen Garden
How to Design a Kitchen Garden
by Maria Tussing
-
Overview
Gardening is becoming more popular with increased environmental awareness and desire for healthy foods. A kitchen garden is traditionally one grown near the kitchen to provide food for the family. It often mixes vegetables, fruits and herbs with ornamental flowers and shrubs for appeal. Today a kitchen garden is any that is grown to produce food. It can be any size and in any location and you can grow anything in it. A kitchen garden should be just what you want in a garden--your own produce department.
A kitchen garden can provide you with months of fresh, healthy, inexpensive produce.
3baff162-6061-3cc2-8453-d12480e98ffe400300
-
-
Step 1
Decide where you want to place your garden. Consider light, protection from wind, drainage, soil quality, access to water and space.
-
Step 2
Measure the space you have available and use the stakes and string to outline the area, placing a stick at each corner and tying the string between the sticks.
-
Step 3
Write the dimensions of the garden plot on paper. If you have graph paper draw it to scale.
-
Step 4
Look through a garden catalog and decide what you want to plant. Choose varieties best suited for your area and season.
-
Step 5
Make a list of things you want to plant, noting how much space (both for the plant size and between rows) and sunlight each requires.
-
Step 6
Draw the plants onto the garden plot on the paper. Keep in mind that the plants require space (tomatoes, for example, will need up to three feet per plant, depending on whether or not you use cages). Also, you need to allow space to move between rows for weeding, watering and picking.
-
Step 7
Keep in mind sunlight requirements when designing a kitchen garden. Corn, for example, will cast a lot of shade by the end of summer. This can work to your advantage, shading plants that need less direct sunlight, or detriment, shading plants that need the sun.
-
Step 8
Order or buy the garden seeds and plants at the time recommended for your climate. If you are ordering plants or seeds allow plenty of time for delivery before you intend to plant them.
- 2
- Paper (graph paper works well)
Pencil
Tape measure
String and stakes
Seed catalogs
- Paper (graph paper works well)
- Pencil
- Tape measure
- String and stakes
- Seed catalogs
- If you intend to start plants indoors yourself, get the seeds in plenty of time (usually 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost) to get them a good start before you want to plant them outside.
- If you intend to start plants indoors yourself, get the seeds in plenty of time (usually 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost) to get them a good start before you want to plant them outside.
- Start small. Don't try to grow too many plants overall or too many different varieties in your first garden.
- Start small. Don't try to grow too many plants overall or too many different varieties in your first garden.
