Designing the kitchen garden

This morning I sat out on my patio and had breakfast with my family while I sketched the design for my kitchen garden. After last year's garden tour, many people ask me how I grow everything perfectly in my kitchen garden. (My kitchen garden was very popular with the visitors at last year's garden tour). The first thing I tell people is that I can't grow everything right and I make plenty of mistakes. There was a time in my gardening experience where I didn't have a plan and would planted things randomly. After this many years of gardening I have learned from my many mistake and now I try to have a plan on a piece of paper before I begin planting. With regard to a kitchen garden, you should plant based on your family needs. I try to grow lots of Indian vegetables. I don't want to use up my valuable real estate in the kitchen garden for cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, because these vegetables are readily available in supermarkets and farmer's markets. Instead I want to grow exotic varieties.

Sketch the design:

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I have a triangular kitchen garden plot on top of a small hill. This kitchen garden has 16 raised beds. This morning I sat with all my seed catalogs, eating my favorite breakfast, avocado toast, and  sketched the design for my kitchen garden. My favorite thing to do in the spring is to sit outside with a cup of coffee and go though the seed catalogs to check for new varieties.

The view from the patio is not bad, either!

Last years kitchen garden

Final sketch is ready for this year based on crop rotation

Preparing the soil:

Now that the design is ready, it is time to prepare the soil. A good garden begins with good soil. I always prepare the soil by mixing it with homemade compost (more on that subject later).Composting is a natural way of recycling. I am a firm believer in composting kitchen and garden waste and it has served me well for the past few years.

Crop rotation:

Think about crop rotation when you are planting the kitchen garden. Crop rotation is very important for an organic vegetable garden to balance soil fertility and to reduce soil-borne diseases. For example, tomatoes deplete a lot of nitrogen and phosphorous from the soil. If you plant tomatoes at the same spot year after year, naturally soil will be lacking nitrogen and phosphorous, making the yield very low. A general rule of thumb in my kitchen garden is that I won't plant the same crop for three years in the spot.That is why keeping the garden journal is important.

Happy gardening! Spring is here, time to stop and smell the roses.

For more memorable centerpieces, tablescapes, and recipes (including vegetarian, gluten free and vegan recipes),please check out my books, Entertaining From an Ethnic Indian Kitchen and Trader Joe's Simply Indian at my website komalinunna.com.

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Garden tour 2: The kitchen garden

My kitchen garden was the most popular spot on the garden tour. It looks like everyone is already there; let's go and join the party.

The kitchen garden is situated on top of the hill. I know it takes a little effort to get to the kitchen garden. Once we get there, we forget about climbing all those steps. Another reason I like it because I am forced to get exercise going up and down multiple times every day. 

When we bought the property almost 20 years ago, we didn't know this area existed. It was only after we fenced the property that we realized we owned a triangular piece of land on top of the hill. We took advantage of that land and created a kitchen garden of our dreams.

There are 16 raised beds to grow almost every possible vegetable, which also gives me opportunity to organize the vegetables and  herbs. I grow over 20 varieties of tomatoes, herbs and salad greens and exotic greens such as moringa, fenugreek, and cuban oregano to name a few.

In between raised beds, there are potted plants filled with herbs and citrus plants to give height and interest to the garden design.

Philippine lemon called calamondin

I grow lots of Indian vegetables, which means they need lots of sunlight and warm weather. The garden tour was on May 4th and by that time, I could get only get plants growing but not the actual vegetables. It is the same case with this bottle gourd plant.

Lots of labels were made with the pictures of the vegetables of what to expect and  explaining their health benefits. I wanted to make this interesting as well as educational experience for the visitors.

 Bitter melon

The famed curry leaf plant

Cuban oregano

Tamarind plants grow up to 80 feet tall in tropical climate. This two feet plant can hang out in the pot for another couple of years and then will be planted in the ground. Tamarind is quintessential ingredient to South Indian cooking. 

 Golden zucchini is almost ready to harvest

Ivy gourd patch

Eight different kinds of eggplants were planted

Tomatoes are going bonkers this year!

Three raised beds are planted with salad greens

 The following bed is filled with swisschard, beets, kale and arugula

This one is with different kinds of lettuce

This is the patch with carrots, fenugreek leaves, spinach and Indian red spinach

Stevia is a zero calorie natural sweetener. I like to sweeten my tea with a leaf or two of stevia.

Different kinds of beans in another bed

Of course, we can't do without a myriad of chilies

Moringa plant

Volunteers, thoroughly did their research about the all Indian greens such as moringa and fenugreek leaves before the assignment. They explained the health benefits of each and every plant in the kitchen garden. When all the guests were done touring the kitchen garden, they had even more questions for me. I love inquisitive visitors.

Outside the kitchen garden, a long line of table grapes are planted

Rumex sorrel. Don't you love those red veins in those leaves?

The view from the kitchen garden overlooking the house, palm trees and mountains

Different kinds herbs can be found all around the kitchen garden

Visitors were very interested to know how the spice turmeric grows. Turmeric is an under ground tuber just like ginger.

Garden from a different angle

After the tour, an another volunteer, Angie stands at the arbor and says good bye to all departing visitors from kitchen garden. 

For now we are done with kitchen garden. We are heading towards the patio. Please join me in my patio in my next post. 

For more memorable centerpieces, tablescapes, and recipes (including vegetarian, gluten free and vegan recipes), please check out my books, Entertaining From an Ethnic Indian Kitchen and Trader Joe's Simply Indian at my website komalinunna.com.

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