What’s the Difference Between a Kitchen Garden and a Regular Vegetable Garden?

Have you ever wondered exactly what a “kitchen garden” is or how it differs from a regular vegetable garden?

For starters, a kitchen garden or potager (pronounced puh-ta-zhay), is a special kind of edible garden with a rich history tracing back to old English and French culinary gardens. 

Much like a traditional vegetable garden, a kitchen garden is a chef’s delight filled with delicious fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. In short, a kitchen garden is a celebration of fresh ingredients and delicious home cooked meals.

Both kitchen and traditional gardens offer a sense of satisfaction coupled with tangible rewards for a job well done. Beyond these similarities, there are some distinct differences between the two, however.

A Kitchen Garden Has Three Main Characteristics:

Kitchen Garden: Herbs in pots. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Convenience. One of the main characteristics of a kitchen garden is accessibility. It should be easy to grab the items you need to your prepare your daily meals. Therefore, a potager should be located as close to your food preparation area as possible.

Imagine you are in the middle of preparing dinner when you suddenly realize “this marinade could use a little more rosemary.” Rather than trek out to your main vegetable garden while you have pots simmering on the stove, wouldn’t you rather be able to reach right outside your door to snip a couple sprigs?

With a kitchen garden, the easier it is to grab what you need while you are cooking, the better.

2. Size. Kitchen gardens are usually smaller than traditional gardens because they are situated so close to the house. This isn’t always the case, of course, but having a culinary garden close enough to offer easy access while you are cooking may limit the amount of space available.

If you only have limited space available to plant a kitchen garden, here is a good rule of thumb to consider: A regular vegetable garden is about planning for the future, while a kitchen garden is about enjoying today. Therefore, the fruits and vegetables you plan to preserve for future use - or crops, such as corn, that take up a lot of space - are good choices for a traditional vegetable garden where space is at less of a premium. 

Instead, kitchen gardens are normally filled with the items you prepare and eat while fresh. Therefore, containers of fresh herbs, compact cherry tomato plants, or an assortment of leaf lettuce varieties all make great additions to a potager.  If you lack the space for a traditional garden, a small kitchen garden can keep you in fresh, delicious produce all season long.

Kitchen Garden, Attadale Gardens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Beauty. While a standard vegetable garden is all about utility and production, part of the charm of a kitchen garden comes from its ornamental aspect. Due to its proximity to the house, a kitchen garden is harder to tuck out of sight than a traditional garden. Therefore, they are often designed to add a sense of beauty to your home, as well.

Some herbs, such as lemon thyme, can be used to create a beautiful and fragrant border around plants and containers. Edible flowers, such as violas and daylilies, can be incorporated to add a splash of color. Compact blueberry shrubs are also highly ornamental and make a wonderful, yet functional border. 

As you can see, a kitchen garden offers both convenience and beauty in a compact space. The best part is it doesn’t take much to get started. All you need is a couple large pots, some fresh herbs, your favorite compact tomato plant and lettuce varieties and you’ll be on your way!

Materials You Need to Start Composting

Now that you have decided that you want to compost, there are a few items that you will need to get started.  Most of these items are available in your own yard and require a small amount of planning ahead of time.

After you pick a location for your compost bin or pile (ensure it is in an easily accessible location) you may want to start with approximately four inches of leaves as a base.  If you are able to chip the leaves prior it will make things progress and breakdown faster but it is not a requirement.  The quantity of leaves you will need to make a four-inch deep base will vary depending on the size of the bin you have chosen.

Yard waste composting bin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your next layer should be about one inch of high-quality soil.  If you cannot find this in your own garden a small bag of organic soil purchased from your local nursery will work fine. 

Then start layering the food for the microbes to eat.  There are two categories of food you are going to need brown (yard waste or dry items such as straw) and green (food scraps, grass clippings, and other organic waste).  A common ratio is two parts brown for every part of green, but it doesn't have to be terribly exact.

You are going to need a spade or heavy-duty pitch fork to turn or rotate the compost at least once per week.  If there is a dry spell you will need a means of adding water (a hose) to keep the pile moist.

With such simple materials and start-up instructions, anyone can start their own compost pile in under a day.  If you choose to not use a bin, consider buying some wire mesh to contain the pile, it can be wrapped around the base of the pile in a circular shape. You may also create a square or rectangular bin by stacking logs or pieces of wood or bamboo to create the sides - or build a bin from wood planks if you want something more durable and enclosed.

Your compost can be ready to use anywhere from four months up to one year, depending on the climate and weather conditions.

Video: Container Gardening with Succulents

This short video offers some great tips for choosing and planting succulents in containers. From selecting the correct pot based on your climate, to choosing succulents that will grow outdoors or indoors, Tricia shares some helpful ways to have success with your succulent container garden.

The books that she recommends are listed below the video for your convenience.

Growing Succulents
Learn how to grow succulents in containers, indoors or outdoors. More info in our blog post http://groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/make-your-own-s...


Recommended Resources for Growing Succulents:
   

Video: DIY-Build Your Own Compost Tumbler

If you don't want to spend a hundred bucks or so on a compost tumbler, you can build your own with just a few inexpensive materials such as trash barrels and a few other items. A tumbler is a great way to compost because it is easy to aerate the materials without having to dig and turn the pile with a fork or shovel. It's great for someone like me who has occasional back problems - just give it a spin and it will mix the contents for you.

If you're handy and have the time to create your own bin, check this out to find out how for just a few dollars. 

DIY Rotating Compost Bin (Tumbler) for $12
In this video, Clint from http://gardenfrugal.com teaches you how to make a rotating compost bin (Compost Tumbler) for $12. For under $25, he shows you how a...


But if you don't feel like trying to create your own bin, I've had great success with the Envirocycle Tumbler Bin - I've been using mine for about 5 years and it works great, is completely pest-proof, and easy to use. Unfortunately they don't make this model anymore, but the others below are very similar and highly rated by users.

   

Video - DIY High Tunnel Greenhouse Part 1 - Laying the Base

This short video shows the start of building a greenhouse - you can make it more eco-friendly by choosing durable materials which will last and need replacing less often, as well as providing good insulation so that you won't need to add heat. Many greenhouses are quite successful year round even in the coldest parts of the country - floating row cover can be placed over the plants at night if extra protection is needed. This minimizes energy consumption, and still allows you to garden year-round as long as you stick to hardy plants that do well in your region.

This video shows laying the base, and you can find links to the other 3 parts below:

How to feed your family DIY GREENHOUSE PART 1 of 4 Hydroponic Garden
This of building our hydroponic green house. We have just been fed up with the quality of food available and decided ours would be the best. We know what we put into it and how much healthier it is. We will be updating the site as soon as possible. I...


Part 2: PVC Support Hoops
Part 3: Covering the Greenhouse
Part 4: Screening the Sides & Ends

Hydroponics and Indoor Gardening

Image via WikipediaIf you have heard of hydroponics or other methods of growing plants without soil and want to try it out at home, you can. Hydroponics systems are generally pretty easy to care for and set-up at home. There are materials you can buy or some you may even be able to find around the house.

The dirt or soil that you use to grow plants in a traditional method is substituted with a growing medium (full of nutrients the plant needs to grow) in hydroponics gardening. The growing medium is fed directly to the roots by method of a drip-feeder. The system can be automated and the gardener can control how many drips the roots receive in a specified time frame. The more of the growing medium the faster the plants grow.

Since the system can be automated, the amount of time and energy that is required to maintain a hydroponics garden is less than with a traditional garden. As long as enough water is present and growing medium the plants can be left unattended for a longer period of time.

Image via WikipediaA home-based hydroponics garden can grow vegetables year round. The concerns about pests and the composition of the soil are less of an issue with this type of gardening. Another bonus with this type of gardening is how fast you can have mature vegetables indoors (by increasing the amount of growing medium).

The types of plants that are best for hydroponics are ones with thin spider-like roots. Plants that have a bulb root system are still best grown in the traditional soil method inside a pot or outside. When you are ready to begin, germinate the seeds for your plants like you normally would. When the seed has started to sprout and has approximately 2-5 millimeters of growth it is ready to transplant to the hydroponics container and begin growing.

Be sure to check back later this week for more tips on hydroponic growing systems and indoor gardening!

Winter Gardening With Hydroponics

Using hydroponics is an interesting and unique method of gardening. Since it is often done indoors, it works great for winter gardening (if you're not quite brave enough to try the outside kind - more on that coming soon!).

Image via WikipediaHydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means "water" and ponos, which means "labor or water-working". Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil.

Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity. But with hydroponics, no soil is used. Instead a soil substitute holds the roots while nutrients are carried by the water. Indoor hydroponic gardening is not that hard and plants respond well to this method of growing.

This is one of the major considerations in hydroponics gardening since it sustains the plants. One has to make sure that this nutrient solution maintains a pH level of 5 to 6 after dilution. In hydroponics gardening, the plants should be watered more than three times a day. this is usually done using a pump and timer.

If your hydroponics garden is located indoors, the most suitable temperature is between 71 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, this temperature may change depending on the different types of plant you are working on, e.g. tropical plants.

Image via WikipediaPlace your plants somewhere they can receive ample amounts of light. Otherwise artificial light must be used. High pressure Sodium lights or bulbs are a suitable substitute for natural light.

Humidity is good. When the room’s temperature rises, the air will be able to hold the sufficient amount of moisture your plants will need.

A hydroponics system can be fully automated. Since it is water-based, the gardener has no soil to dig or weeds to pull. Also, the water can be re-used to prevent waste.

With hydroponics, an excellent yield of quality plants can be easily achieved. Home hydroponics systems and DIY kits are are readily available in most hardware stores, and online (see below for a few examples).

Hydroponics Gardening Kits:
   

Video - Vertical Gardening

Here is a quick video showing some ways to use vertical gardening to increase your available garden space, by getting some of the bigger plants up and out of the way, saving valuable real-estate on the ground. She shows some of her beautiful plants trained upwards, as well as a quick demo of how she constructed her vertical supports.

Remember you don't have to have a ton of space to grow a sustainable garden! Sustainable gardening is all about being creative, and making the most of what resources you have. Check it out, and get inspired to garden, no matter where you live!

Garden Girl TV: Vertical Gardening One(How to Grow Vertically)
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, shows you techniques to get more out of limited landspace, by growing up. Read the companion article on Vertical Gardening with Cucumbers: www.gardengirltv.com Check out her website at www.gardengirltv.com This video is...



A Few Vertical Gardening Resources:
    

Video - How to Build Your Own Compost Bin

Here is a helpful video on building your own compost bin - practically for free! If you don't have any tools, you may have to pick up a couple things, but they are pretty basic, and other than the staples and twine, if you follow some of his tips for finding materials for your bin, you may spend little or nothing on making this bin.  (He actually shows you a couple of different types of bins, as well as how to start the composting process.)

I particularly like the first bin he demonstrates because, as he mentions, the sides can easily be opened/removed if needed, to remove the finished compost, and it can also be taken apart and moved to a new location.

Check it out, and see how easy it can be to make your own compost bin!

how to build a compost bin
vavrek shows how to build a large compost bin using free materials :: save the scraps, save our world !

More Composting Resources: