Kitchen gardens, or fruit and vegetable gardens, are very rewarding. Not only do you benefit from the mindful activity, but you also get to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the growing season. Done right, you can improve your health physically and mentally. Not only that but thanks to the power of grow lights, you can grow almost everything, even if you don’t have a large yard to dedicate to your garden.
Find a Place to Grow
The first step is to decide where your plants will grow. If you have a backyard, you can do this by creating plant beds or alternatively, investing in a full greenhouse, depending on your budget and the aesthetic you are going for. You can easily grow in either option or in a combination option.
For balconies, you’ll want to look at hanging planters and vertical gardens. For indoor gardens, you have a bit more flexibility, but you will at the end of the day be growing your produce in pots, and chances are you will want to invest in a grow light.
Decide on What You Want to Grow
Now that you know where you can grow your kitchen garden, it’s time to figure out what you want to start with. A good place to begin for first-time gardeners is with herbs. They are very useful, can help improve almost every dish, and they tend to be quite hardy (so long as they are kept watered), so they require minimal care.
Of course, there are thousands of varieties of fruit and veg as well, so explore sites like Happy Valley Seeds and start with the foods you enjoy eating the most. If you are excited and find that it is rewarding to eat those cherry tomatoes, for example, you’ll get far more out of your kitchen garden than if you grew a vegetable that you weren’t thrilled with.
Learn How to Naturally Repel Pests
If you are growing outside, you’ll want to invest in natural pest repellent solutions. Keep birds away by putting up a net cover over your produce, keep slugs away with lavender, or even rosemary, and so on. There are a lot of options available to you to keep pests away before you resort to man-made pesticides, so you can keep your garden wonderfully organic.
Start Your Garden
Check the seeds and the plant care guide to figure out when the best time to sow your seeds is. If you have purchased a sprouted plant, then you are already good to go – you just need to figure out its tells to keep it in good health.
How to Harvest
The fact is that how you harvest will depend entirely on the species that you are growing. Some plants, like herbs, can be harvested on a fairly regular basis and will continue to grow at rather fast speeds. Others need to be resown in order for you to get another harvest in. Some still take all season to grow and only have one harvest period. Learn what each plant needs, so you know how to enjoy the fresh produce or herbs throughout the year.
