By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter
I have a dream not like the dream Martin Luther King had about freedom and equality but instead a dream about a potager (French jardin potager) or kitchen garden.
How wonderful it would be to step out into a stylish, well-designed kitchen garden and pick my groceries for the day along with fresh flowers.
How great does that sound?
If this is your dream too, do not dither and feel it cannot be done. This type of garden while not designed like our American gardens with plants in rows like soldiers going to battle is easier and produces more in variety in the same amount of space.
Kitchen gardens are placed near the kitchen while being away from the residential garden, which includes ornamental plants and lawn. Everything in this garden is chosen for its functionality, color, and form while providing herbs, vegetables, fruits, edible flowers along with permanent perennials or woody plantings underplanted with annuals.
Every space in this type of garden is used. Espaliers are one type of vertical farming that is used in the kitchen garden along with vines and tall specimens. And if designed properly this type of garden will provide food, and cut flowers with very little work.
Starting the Kitchen Garden
The beginning of any garden project is planning. This type of garden requires that you know your garden space very intimately. So take some time and study your surroundings. Take note where the sun hits the garden area during all times of the day and seasons. This is very important since most herbs require at least 8 hours a day of sunlight to grow properly.
Next pick the center location of your kitchen garden. It will be easier to arrange planting around a center point. Mark off this area with stakes and string. Step back and look at the area before the first hole is dug. If changes need to be made it is easier to them at this stage of the planning.
Plan to plant your kitchen garden with herbs you already cook with now but branch out into some exotics too. This will expand your culinary horizons and add personality to your garden. Next the fun begins by laying out the plant material before you plant. This type of garden is designed like a quilt with plants not in rows but in drifts that form contrasting colors and textures. Underplanting is used to expand the planting space but also as a way of controlling weeds. Border the kitchen garden with chives, alpine strawberries, nasturtiums and mini basils.
Every space available in a kitchen garden is used and that includes the vertical space. This area is planted with vines, tall specimens, and espaliers. Seasonal change is brought into the garden by adding pots of borage and marigolds.
So as the cold wind blows, plan a kitchen garden. If you do not have the space or have no land, try a container kitchen garden. The steps are the same but only in miniature. So until we blog again, remember that gardens are a form of autobiography as described in August/September 1995 issue of Horticulture Magazine by Sydney Eddison. So lets all tell our own botanical and culinary story by planting a kitchen garden.
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