Gardening: Creating a kitchen garden

A kitchen garden is a great way of knowing exactly what you're getting onto your plate and can save you money. You don't even have to have too much space to grow one. If you don't have room for a whole bed of veggies, then you could intersperse them with your flowers.

Here's a quick guide on how to get your kitchen garden started:

Choosing your site

Where you decide to put your site depends on what sort of plants you'd like to grow. Mediterranean fruit and veg like sunny and sheltered spots but may do best in a greenhouse if you have one. Root vegetables are considerably sturdier. Once you're seedlings are ready, they'll survive outside without too many problems.

Preparing the soil

  1. If you're going to make up a bed for your veg, prepare the soil you're going to use - digging over soil will loosen up and aerate it which in turn will encourage earthworms to use the soil themselves and help you out. Keeping the soil top-notch will increase your harvest.
  2. Dig in a 10cm layer of well-rotted organic matter if you're preparing the bed in spring. In autumn, you can leave the compost on the top of the soil and leave it to the worms to mix in for you. In spring, if the worms have missed any fertiliser, dig it into the soil.

Time for the seeds

Now you're ready to grow your seedlings. A windowsill with plenty of light and warmth is the best place to grow them, when the chance of frost has passed, plant them outside in your prepared soil. Make sure that you read the packet as there will be detailed instructions on what will suit the seedlings best. It's important to 'thin' the seedlings so that overcrowding doesn't become a problem. If you'd prefer not to plant from scratch, you can get what you need from your garden centre.

Regular watering is a must; water your veg in the evenings during dry spells so that the water doesn't evaporate in the heat.

Once your fruit and veg patch is established, you'll be able to get a harvest year after year with perennial varieties. Most veg is harvested after a year and doesn't grow back the following year.


Source: www.channel4.co.uk