The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a Potager (in French) is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden- the ornamental plants and lawn areas. Most vegetable gardens are still miniature versions of old family farm plots, but the kitchen garden is different not only in its history, but also in its design.
A kitchen garden is where herbs and vegetables are grown around the house for household use. Since early times a small plot near to the house has been used for growing a variety of vegetables according to the season. Local varieties such as radish, broad leaf mustard, beans, pumpkins etc. are all grown in the kitchen garden.
Plants are chosen as much for their functionality as for their color and form. 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. Potagers can disguise their function of providing for a home in a wide array of forms-from the carefree style of the cottage garden to the formality of a knot garden.
How to Make a Kitchen Garden?
Because there’s often no tradition of kitchen gardens, many people can’t grow the vegetables they need for a good diet. Or they spend lots of money on vegetables, or their health suffers from lack of vegetables. It may be that you haven’t been able to make a kitchen garden.
There are several reasons why it may be difficult to make kitchen garden, or if you have made one, it is not successful.
For example-
- Pests, diseases or livestock have destroyed the crop.
- No good seed or seedlings.
- Lack of space, water, fertility.
- No spare time
- Lack of right skills.
Things to Pay Attention to
Site selection
If you already have a kitchen garden you may not need to choose a new site, it’s enough to improve the old site. If you are making a new garden, there are many factors to consider.
For ex:-
- How to protect from livestock?
- How can you bring water to the site and distribute it?
- How to manage the fertility of soil?
- How can the area be accessed easily from the house?
When these issues are considered, the best site can be chosen and the work of making the garden will be easier.
Protection
The kitchen garden area needs protection from the very start. It should not be possible for livestock to enter the area. A permanent fence should be made. Thorny plants can be cut and used to make a fence.The crops will also need protection from damage by many types of pests and disease. There are many ways to do this. Mixed cropping, rotations, liquid manure etc. are all ways of Protecting crop.
Water Management
It is important to provide enough moisture for the kitchen garden. There are many ways of conserving and increasing the moisture available.
For ex-
- Mulching: prevents the wind and sun drying the bare soil.
- Green manures: also cover the soil, and so help in conserving water.
- Windbreak: wind will dry out the soil, so stopping the wind helps to conserve soil moisture.
- Provide shade: in the hot season trees can provide shade to the kitchen garden. As well as giving shade, these trees can also provide other benefits, such as firewood, fodder or mulch material.
- Mist collection: mist collects on the leaves of trees around and within the kitchen garden, and drips onto the soil to provide extra moisture.
- Irrigation: collecting and using waste water from the kitchen can be enough to water the garden. 4. Fertility- Without fertility in the soil the crops won’t grow. Fertility can be as limited as water. Our kitchen garden needs to be self-reliant for fertility.
Sources of fertility are given below
- Sweepings pits
- Liquid manure
- Mulching
- Green manure
- Legumes
Seeds and Seedlings
It is very important to save and protect any good seed- this is the farmer’s responsibility. From good seed it is important to be able to raise good, healthy seedlings for transplanting into the kitchen garden. Growing of vegetable seeds
Garden Design
Edge planting,It means growing of support crops, companion plants, in the edges around the garden and its beds. It helps to make maintenance work easy in the kitchen garden.
- These plants support the garden by providing mulch, protection from weeds, windbreaks, and repelling pests.
- Edge plants take nutrients from deep in the soil and cycle them to the surface, where they are used as much, and then returned to the soil Benefits of the Kitchen Garden
- To grow healthy, fresh vegetables yourself.
- To save the cost of buying vegetables and herbs.
- Waste resources such as sweepings, kitchen, scraps and dirty water can be recycled onto the garden.
- Wasteland around the house can be made productive.
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