Kitchen garden is a simple and easy way to grow what you like in a place that is convenient and easy to access. As the summer season comes along we bring together some simple kitchen garden tips and ideas to get you started.

Selecting Space

It is important to select the space for the kitchen garden. Make sure the space you have allocated for the kitchen garden receives 6-8 hours of sunlight. Nurture plants of different families. This way all are unlikely to be struck down by the same problem at the same time. Even if you are living in a flat with no access to land you can still grow small amounts in pots. Tomatoes, brinjals, salad leaves, curry leaves, mint and chilies easily grow in pots.

Plants for Kitchen Garden

Fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes, brinjals, capsicums, radish and spring onions work well. Among salad greens, lettuce and cucumber are easier to grow in a kitchen garden. Herbs of all kinds as well as ginger, curry leaf and green chilies do well in a small kitchen garden. Avoid root vegetables like potatoes and onions as they require more space. This is a good time to start on summer vegetables like gourd, onion, tomato, chilies, bitter gourd and so on. Start the winter vegetables like peas, carrots, radish, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage and leafy vegetables in September and October as the winters are just about to start.

Flowers for Kitchen Garden

If you are keen on flowers for kitchen garden then you can have a riot of colors in your garden with bulbs such as gladiolus, begonias or calla lilies. Cosmos, salvia, balsam, zinnia, kochia and cock’s comb too work well.

Add Manure

It’s important to add organic matter such as compost or manure to improve the quality of your soil. This helps release nitrogen, minerals and other healthy nutrients to your plants. Kitchen waste such as vegetable and fruit peels may be used as supplementary manure. In cooler climes, seeds need to be sown in trays indoors with adequate overhead lighting, for optimum germination and growth. Before transplanting them to outdoor beds, put the trays outside for increasingly longer durations to get them used to the temperature. Saplings can be transplanted when they are two inches tall.

Tips for Kitchen Garden

Some important tips for kitchen garden are about maintenance of plants. Dust your plants regularly with manure and sprinkle water to keep insects at bay. If insects or disease strike your plants, opt for safe botanical pesticides.