Gardening is not only a good hobby. But it is also beneficial for your health and environment. Our health depends upon what we put in our bodies. What can be better than enjoying fresh and organic food from your kitchen garden? The kitchen garden trend is increasing day by day. The kitchen garden depends upon your space, time, and planning. But if you’re a beginner and do not know how to start a kitchen garden? There is no need to worry as in this article we will help you how to start a kitchen garden for beginners.
Let us start.
Table of Contents
Step by Step guide to start a kitchen garden for beginners
1. Criteria for site selection
- Your garden site must have two areas.
- One where there is enough light and the second partly shady area. As some plants grow in shades.
- Must have good soil quality.
- Having a proper drainage system.
- The water source should be near to vegetables.
- Not too windy.
Set a budget for your kitchen garden
After site selection, you must set a budget. Do not be fooled by beautiful gardens on Pinterest boards. Set realistic goals and budget.As lavish gardens need a lot of money for preparation and maintenance.
If you have good money, then go for large gardens. Otherwise, it is good to have a small garden that does not put pressure on your pockets.
Test soil of kitchen garden site
Soil tests for your garden site will save a lot of your time, money, and energy for the future. First, this will help you with what you should put into the soil to make it more nourishing.
Take a soil sample and test it in a nearby lab. The lab test will also indicate ph, fertility, and sandy level of the soil. After the test, smooth all ground, remove any stones and rocks. As they will hinder the growth of roots. Hence plants have weak roots and less productivity. After preparing the ground, go to the nursery for seed selection. Always select high-quality seeds.
Design/layout of the garden
Now after testing your soil, decide the design of your garden. The most preferred design of a garden is a row or squared pattern. These are some good garden design ideas. Plant your crops at the right distance apart. The best distance between plants is four feet. This will help you to weed and harvest the plants easily.
Divide your garden into sections like one section for vegetables, second for herbs, and third for fruits.
Grow on a small scale.
Begin with simple vegetables and fruits, especially those that you and your family love to eat. Don’t be over-excited and grow so many vegetables and fruits. Only grow vegetables and fruits that you like.
If you plant vegetables or fruits that no one likes, then it will go all waste. Start growing on a small scale. It would be best if you started from easy to grow vegetables. For example, mint, basil, parsley, lettuces, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, cucumbers, radishes, Asian greens, and zucchini.
Grow herbs in your kitchen garden as they are expensive in-store. Moreover, these organic and fresh herbs will enhance the taste of food. You should also grow those vegetables that are expensive in your local market.
How to take care of your kitchen garden
Regularly water all plants.
After planting plants, the next step is to take care of your plants.
First, clean all weeds that start to grow with your vegetables. Pests and insects start to eat vegetables, so spray your garden with good quality pesticides.
Fungal diseases are common among vegetables. You can avoid fungal diseases by watering only the soil of vegetables. Do not water their leaves as they get any fungal disease by wet leaves.
If any plant gets a fungal disease, immediately cut it from the garden. Crop rotation is another prevention from fungal diseases.
Conclusion
The kitchen garden does not only provide you with healthy and delicious food. But it also reduces your grocery budget. In this article, we have shared the best way to grow a kitchen garden for beginners. We are sure our valuable knowledge will help you to grow your kitchen garden.
Share your tips for growing a kitchen garden in the comment section.
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