The best garden type for you is a...
KITCHEN GARDEN
So what does this mean exactly?
Watch the video below for a brief description of your garden type and read on for some specific steps to help you start taking action.
Here's why a KITCHEN GARDEN the best choice for you?
A kitchen garden will give you steady but manageable harvests of fresh vegetables throughout your growing season. A good kitchen garden is designed to match the flow of fresh vegetables that you need in your kitchen and not overwhelm you with loads of extra that you need to preserve, give away, or throw into the compost pile. Based on your quiz responses, this is the best garden style for you because…
You want to enjoy regular harvests of fresh vegetables from your garden without having to worry about long term storage or preserving.
Your growing space is on the smaller side and you want to get the most value from it in return.
You are committed to being present in your garden consistently and would rather organize your garden work into frequent shorter sessions instead of fewer back breaking efforts.
Not quite right? Take the quiz again.
If that sounds like you, let's get to work!
Since we are on the same page now, I have lined up some specific suggestions to help you start to take the right first steps. Here are three tips for making your KITCHEN GARDEN work for you.
TIP #1
Select the right crops.
To produce a steady flow of food for your kitchen, select more vegetables that offer you a continuous harvest like cucumbers and fewer crops that have a single defined endpoint like winter squash. If you plant a bunch of slow growing crops, you will have little to eat throughout the summer, a whole lot of work waiting for you at the end of the season, and likely a significant amount of extra produce that you aren't prepared to handle or store. Avoid this problem by picking the more crops which give you harvests all summer long. Listed below are five continuously producing crops that would be a great fit for a kitchen garden.
​
Crop Suggestions for the Kitchen Garden
Indeterminate tomatoes are a sub category in the tomato world used to group together tomatoes with stronger vining tendencies. This type of tomato is typically taller and will require some pruning attention and support from stakes or trellis, but it will kindly spread its tomato yield over many weeks.
​
Broccolini is a relatively new arrival in the world of vegetable breeding. It's often called sprouting broccoli as well, which is appropriate as it continues to grow new single stem broccoli shoots throughout the growing season with the added benefit of significant frost tolerance.
​
Pole Beans produce a much more gradual harvest than bush beans. They will need a trellis to perform well, but if you give them this support, they will reward you with a steady flow of fresh pods all season long.
​
Onions are a slow growing crop, but since they can be harvested and enjoyed at any stage of growth, they are a great fit for a kitchen garden even if you don't want to cure a bunch for long term storage.
​
Summer Squash is another crop that keeps on fruiting throughout the summer. Abundant yields are possible with steady pruning to help stimulate more flower production. Do not confuse this one with winter squash.
2. Know your numbers.
TIP #2
Know your numbers.
As a kitchen gardener, you want to keep up with the flow of fresh vegetables from your garden and not be burdened with the need to preserve a ton of extra food. You also want to make sure your garden is producing enough for you and your family to eat regularly. Planting the right amount of food is not a guessing game. With consistent growing methods and careful record keeping you can master the flow rates of the vegetables you grow and determine exactly how much space you should devote to each crop. Some extra time spent with the numbers can save you many hours wasted time in the garden.
TIP #3
Keep planting.
There are likely quite a few crops you'll want to grow that don't just keep producing for you all summer long. Some grow relatively quickly and produce a nice harvest during a narrow window of time. Carrots and lettuce would fall into this category. You can enjoy fresh lettuce from your garden all summer, but you have to keep planting. This technique of using staggered plantings to spread out your harvest is called succession planting and once you realize you can play around with the timing of your plantings, the door is open to other techniques like relay planting and interplanting.
Meet Your Quiz Creator
Jared Regier is an urban farmer and educator from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who is passionate about building a more sustainable future. He loves teaching people how to grow their own food because it is such a powerful vehicle for positive change in individuals and communities.
For 6 years, Jared owned and operated an award winning urban farm, so he's pretty comfortable in the vegetable world today. His first career as a high school teacher helped him develop an ability to simplify and communicate complex ideas. So when the farm started to get noticed and people began to ask if they could learn how to grow vegetables like that in their own backyard, it was only natural for Jared to answer the call. Now, his teaching and farming experience have found perfect harmony here at the Vegetable Academy where he aims to put the knowledge and tools of the vegetable farmer in the hands of the home gardener.
Jared's approach to teaching is organized, logical, and light hearted. He loves to learn and enjoys passing on these lessons to his students so he can watch them experience success too. His practical lessons are always rooted in first hand experience and/or scientific studies because there's no sense in passing on misinformation. Jared delights in helping others take responsibility for growing their own food, and the limitless number of learning opportunities in the vegetable garden are sure to keep this work interesting for years to come.
Before you go, here are your next steps.
We both know that this information won't matter unless you transition from reading to practice, so start by grabbing a copy of your results page. Then join me at my free interactive workshop to discover the 3 major breakthroughs that have enabled us to grow our own year-round supply of vegetables to feed our family with ease.
STEP 1
Get a copy of your results page sent straight to your inbox.
