Your Own Kitchen Garden

When you have little time and you get good sunlight, starting kitchen garden/ rooftop garden for vegetables is an fabulous idea.

With the increasing use of pesticides and chemicals in our vegetables, the need of our own small garden for our kitchen needs has become more significant. We may call it a culinary garden, herb garden, spice or vegetable garden or call it kitchen garden.

There is incomparable pleasure to harvest vegetables for our kitchen requirements. Try once.

To start kitchen garden

Start with some mint, chilies, lemongrass, spinach, coriander leaves can really give us the enthusiasm to upgrade us to cultivate other vegetables. These are simplest as these can be grown without much sunlight and regular care.
Start potting by filling the container with the compost-soil mix about three quarters of the way up. Moisten the soil lightly with water until moist but not wet.

Taking care not to damage the roots, evenly space the herbs in the container and sprinkle enough potting soil to cover to the roots completely.

After this, pat the soil down lightly and water the soil.You may start planting in containers kept in your window sill, balcony or a land at your area. And taking vegetables from vegetable containers, or own land gives immense pleasure altogether.

Lookout for space: land/container

The size of a kitchen garden depends upon the availability of land and number of persons for whom vegetables are to be provided.

You can start kitchen garden even in container which can be placed on your window sill, balcony, the free area outside your door. Be it a small piece of land or containers. A lot of vegetables are easily growable. Start with the easier ones.

If you want to grow herbs in container choose a pot that has ample drainage holes and is big enough. Also consider empty bottles, jars, cans, kettles and other rejected containers.

Look out what to plant

Choose which plant your family would like to eat. Plant a seed, provide organic manure, organic foliar spray, organic nutrition spray, kitchen wastes and water – that is all. No fertilizer, no poisonous insecticide, fungicides, bactericides, or weed killer. Any poison you put on your crop, you have to eat it yourself in the end.

Seeds and Stems: Beans, Capsicum, Cucumber, Lettuce, Peas, Tomato, Spinach

Root crops: Beetroot, Carrot, Onion, Potatoes, Radish.

Greens: Cabbage, Cauliflower, Knol khol

Which seed to choose for kitchen garden:Buy seeds according to the season. The best option would be to choose disease resistant varieties. When you buy seeds, go for pollinated seeds and not the hybrid one.

Land or soil preparation:

You can improve your soil condition by putting in red earth, sand, and lime depending on availability. It is not necessary to kill all the other plants and sterilize the soil in the name of weeding.

For pot or container gardening make the soil by mixing 50% ordinary garden soil with 50% homemade compost. Wet waste from your kitchen (like tea leaves, egg shells, vegetable peels, stalks) etc. When composted these make great mulch for your herbs.

Plant Nutrition

Water alone is not sufficient for plants. They need more than 17 mineral nutrients. Organic manure, animal manure, and kitchen waste all have the food your garden needs. No harm in putting your tea leaves or old battery cells, they work wonders with your roses and citrus plants.

Accessories

A simple trowel, a spade, a shovel (for land), or a garden scissors, only just what you need. You will start alone, but gradually your family will join you.Look for which season is great for which vegetable.

Watering

Once you have completed with the initial process of planting vegetables, all you need to do is water them regularly. Generally, vegetables require at least one inch of water per week. In case, you live in an area that does not receive much rainfall, you need to water the plants yourself.

Early mornings serve as the best time to water the vegetable plants. To control the weeds, tidy your bed regularly and make sure to leave the soil in a loose, friable condition.

Stay aware of Pests, weeds and diseases in kitchen garden.
Air circulation to plants are necessary, so avoid keeping your containers at stuffy area. Clipping & pruning of garden plants are necessary. Pruning is necessary to encourage them to branch out.
Check your plants regularly and prevent insects from breeding. In case there are bugs on the plant, spraying Neem water might help in keeping the insects at bay.