What is a Kitchen Garden?

Basically it is just about any kind of garden that contains vegetables, herbs and fruits. In reality, all gardens are kitchen gardens, but the concept is generally to plan a beautiful garden as well as a useful one. In most cases, kitchen gardens grow food for immediate use in the kitchen rather than for large-scale production, canning, or putting away for the winter. It can range from a small hanging basket of oregano and lettuce to a full-blown backyard garden with roses, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, edible flowers and herbs. Kitchen gardens have been around for hundreds of years, with some of the original types being the French potager garden ("potage" means soup) and the traditional British cottage garden. Beautiful and Utilitarian Beyond that, it can be whatever you want it to be -- you are only limited by your imagination. Best of all, it takes a bit of a mind set change to realize that edible plants don't have to come only from the orchard or utilitarian vegetable garden. We ...

A kitchen garden has numerous definitions. Also called potagers, the more common French term, these gardens are meant to supply the household with some vegetables, fruits or herbs. They may be highly ornamental, featuring lots of other plants that can make the garden very pretty, or then can be very simple, with just a few plots to grow food a family would enjoy eating. There have been times in history when importance of the kitchen garden has been especially high. During both world wars, Americans and many other world citizens used small home gardens to produce needed food that might not reduce food surplus for military forces, and that might also make it possible to stretch rationed food. Today, creating a kitchen garden may have some similar aims. It may be a means to stretch the budget by growing food at home that then won’t need to be purchased at a grocery store. Usually the most expensive year for the kitchen garden is the first one, when things like soil or compost may need ...  more